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Mates are flipping on their own!?!?

Question asked by Jeremy Jacobs on Apr 20, 2020
Latest reply on Apr 20, 2020 by John Stoltzfus

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I can't keep my mates from flipping so I can't get the drawing finished. Everything will be locked down, no errors for a day or 2 and bam... mates flip. Re-do everything, shut the computer down, etc etc etc. Works for 10 min.. then they flip again.

I've re built the assy 3 times already. Mating plane to plane, trying different mates... I get it locked down with no errors. Then 10 minutes later they flip. I can't figure it out. Never had this problem before. Error literally says '... planes are parallel but the alignment is reversed.' How did they get reversed? What am I over looking??

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Tom Gagnon Apr 20, 2020 12:49 PM
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What mates? How?
Are you using angle mates? I have abandoned these for this reason. To make an angle mate, I create a reference plane and use parallel mate instead.

How many users are monkeying with your library? Is anyone editing reference entities?

Yes, this is an issue. We'd need something more to go on to help you.
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- Jeremy Jacobs @ Tom Gagnon on Apr 20, 2020 1:01 PM
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  I saw angle mates were an issue, luckily I'm not using them. They are columns set on a skeleton sketch. Column axis was coincident to the grid points. Then the column's front plane is parallel to the front plane of the assy. The right plane is coincident to the east / west lines of the grid. Easy right? Somehow the columns manage to rotate 90 degrees. which causes brackets and other supporting elements to go awol.
  
  I was thinking it had to do with the plane to grid line mate because that alone can cause rotation. So I eliminated everything attached to the skeleton sketch. Then started mating plane to plane either coincident or via distance. Everything tied from the part plane back to the plane of the assy. Model still flipped after 20 minutes.
  
  There is only me and 1 other guy but it would only be fasteners, nuts, and such where we would share a part. Everything else is specific to the model.
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Jim Sculley Apr 20, 2020 12:52 PM
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2020 SOLIDWORKS Help - Reference Entity for Angle Mates
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John Stoltzfus Apr 20, 2020 1:05 PM
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Are the parts a virtual part?

Is it a specific part or a random selection of parts?
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- Jeremy Jacobs @ John Stoltzfus on Apr 20, 2020 1:13 PM
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  There are no virtual parts. It's a simple structure (although rather large). The columns seem to be the culprit or what they are mated to. I have few mates to repeating patterns but that's down the design tree after the fact.
  
  Short of chalking this up to a corrupted file and start a brand new file I don't know what to do. Although this will possible break a lot of my links the the drawing.
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  - John Stoltzfus @ Jeremy Jacobs on Apr 20, 2020 1:22 PM
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    Jeremy Jacobs - Not sure if I can explain it right or not, but I've seen issues with a part being deleted in an assembly and the delete included in deleting the part in the folder as well, then when you insert another item with the same name, somewhere in the depths of the insides of SW there are relations that were initially in the original component, in other words if the column would have had a name change or something like that or a replacement part etc, it could have retained the direction of the planes of the original component and if the original column extrude would have been reversed. etc...... Any who, I've seen the hidden relations really screw up a part..
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    - Jeremy Jacobs @ John Stoltzfus on Apr 20, 2020 1:34 PM
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      Might be onto something there. The columns were all the same part. Then we learned each row of columns had a different length due to the slope of the slab. So I created 3 new columns with different lengths based off the original column (save as a copy). I had to keep bolt holes in the same location but change the length.
      
      Some might say way not just add a config to the original column. That has bit us in the butt in the past for various reasons. Makes it easier to to compare drawings to parts and bounce back and forth between them. Pros and cons.
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      - John Stoltzfus @ Jeremy Jacobs on Apr 20, 2020 1:59 PM
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        Jeremy Jacobs - That should be your answer.. I noticed this a few years ago and kept experimenting through trial and error, again I am convinced that if you delete a part and replace it with a same named part, you will retain some of the relations/references or whatever, it's like certain things are branded into the SW Brain..
        
        What I do now is run a macro that Rob Edwards uploaded to the forum and that macro inserts "New Virtual Parts", then I model the component and then you can right click the part and save to a file and if we would follow that process the flippin mates wouldn't know what to do
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        Insert n-Virtual Parts.swp.zip17.4 KB
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Matt Lombard Apr 20, 2020 1:06 PM
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Yes, I made a motor for demonstration, with all the cams and lifters and whatever. The cams especially are constantly flipping. But then again, stuff flipping in SolidWorks is nothing new.
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Scott Perman Apr 20, 2020 1:25 PM
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What version are you on? I had an assembly that i could consistently get to flip a parallel mate (built in 2019.) I went to clean it up and post it as an example in this thread, and in 2020, it behaves. (Once I fixed the flipped mate.)
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- Jeremy Jacobs @ Scott Perman on Apr 20, 2020 1:37 PM
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  SW 2020 SP 2.0
  
  The entire model was built with this version... I think anyway. I started it right around the time the release came out for SP2.0
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Mates are flipping on their own!?!?

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