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Why do we do this to ourselves?

Question asked by 1-RDNJAO on Sep 17, 2010
Latest reply on Sep 22, 2010 by Steve Calvert

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All morning I've been chasing mates in an assembly that was just fine yesterday. I've been crashing and rebooting, deleting and redoing mates then some more cherries would popup out of nowhere. While suffering through all this I noticed something on one of my parts I wasn't happy with so I opened the part and edited it and closed it then all my cherries were gone. What I did had absolutly nothing to do with the mate issues I was having but somehow it's Ok now. I have no idea what Monday will bring but I can imagine. I'm convinced if SolidWorks was a human I know what gender it would be however, I won't say here. Sorry to complain but...........I had to say it to someone who would understand. Have a great weekend!

Steve

Pat Chewning Sep 17, 2010 2:10 PM

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I have a suggestion: Mate with the 3 planes that start off in your part. Rename them to something good for mating with. If you need other features to mate to, make them as early and as simple as possible in the part. In fact, make these early mating features something non-solid like another plane, an axis, or a point. The more you can use "datum features" like planes, axes, points the better off you will be to reduce the missing faces, missing edges, missing holes that cause these mates to fail.

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Pat Chewning Sep 17, 2010 2:10 PM

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Anthony Figlioli Sep 17, 2010 2:11 PM

I feel your pain Steve...

I have found (more often with 2010) that if I suddenly get multiple meatballs and dorito's pop up where there had been none before that sometimes a simple "control Q" will fix it.

Sadly though this does not always work.

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Glenn Schroeder Sep 17, 2010 2:25 PM

You're right. I have had issues with mates becoming unstable for as long as I have worked with SW. I just opened up an Assembly this morning that hadn't been looked at for a while and one of the mates had switched to a plane that was perpendicular to the one originally used. All kinds of ugly things were going on until I got that fixed.

The posts above offer good advice. I have also set up my Assembly templates with a 3d sketch consisting of 3 construction lines at the intersections of the 3 main planes. I use these to linear pattern along instead of the edge of a part whenever possible. That's helped with some of the instability.

It also seems to help if my main assembly consists of several sub-assemblies instead of a bunch of parts.

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1-RDNJAO Sep 17, 2010 4:41 PM

Thanks guys. You all had the correct answer. Sometimes there is no answer and sometimes there are many. SolidWorks seems to have a mind of its own somedays. I've been at it since 2001 and it's a new and different challenge each day.

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Steve Ritter @ 1-RDNJAO on Sep 22, 2010 9:06 AM

It may be a challenge some days but I can certainly say I've used programs that could never compare to SW.

Something else that I've found works well for placing parts in an assembly (and I think this is what Pat was talking about) is after you place your first component, immediately float it and mate the three original planes of the assembly to the three from the part (front to front, right to right, and top to top). It will help you maintain the correct orientation while designing your individual parts especially if you design your assemblies on the fly.

Steve

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Glenn Schroeder @ Steve Ritter on Sep 22, 2010 9:25 AM

Steve,

I used to do that also, but I recently learned that when inserting a part using the Insert Part function if you click the green check mark without dropping your part or sub-assembly on the work space it will automatically align the planes.

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Steve Ritter @ Glenn Schroeder on Sep 22, 2010 9:36 AM

I thought it did but I wasn't sure. I don't always trust SW's automatic functions though. Sometimes I get in a rush and let the computer think for me but it usually ends in tears...

Steve

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Steve Calvert @ 1-RDNJAO on Sep 22, 2010 2:08 PM

I had to chime in here because there wasn't enough Steve's...

I get the mate problems from time to time but I usually find it to be a face or edge of a component that has changed and when fixed all is well.

Steve

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8 Replies

Pat Chewning Sep 17, 2010 2:10 PM
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Correct Answer
I have a suggestion: Mate with the 3 planes that start off in your part. Rename them to something good for mating with. If you need other features to mate to, make them as early and as simple as possible in the part. In fact, make these early mating features something non-solid like another plane, an axis, or a point. The more you can use "datum features" like planes, axes, points the better off you will be to reduce the missing faces, missing edges, missing holes that cause these mates to fail.
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Anthony Figlioli Sep 17, 2010 2:11 PM
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I feel your pain Steve...

I have found (more often with 2010) that if I suddenly get multiple meatballs and dorito's pop up where there had been none before that sometimes a simple "control Q" will fix it.

Sadly though this does not always work.
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Glenn Schroeder Sep 17, 2010 2:25 PM
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You're right. I have had issues with mates becoming unstable for as long as I have worked with SW. I just opened up an Assembly this morning that hadn't been looked at for a while and one of the mates had switched to a plane that was perpendicular to the one originally used. All kinds of ugly things were going on until I got that fixed.

The posts above offer good advice. I have also set up my Assembly templates with a 3d sketch consisting of 3 construction lines at the intersections of the 3 main planes. I use these to linear pattern along instead of the edge of a part whenever possible. That's helped with some of the instability.

It also seems to help if my main assembly consists of several sub-assemblies instead of a bunch of parts.
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1-RDNJAO Sep 17, 2010 4:41 PM
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Thanks guys. You all had the correct answer. Sometimes there is no answer and sometimes there are many. SolidWorks seems to have a mind of its own somedays. I've been at it since 2001 and it's a new and different challenge each day.
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- Steve Ritter @ 1-RDNJAO on Sep 22, 2010 9:06 AM
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  It may be a challenge some days but I can certainly say I've used programs that could never compare to SW.
  
  Something else that I've found works well for placing parts in an assembly (and I think this is what Pat was talking about) is after you place your first component, immediately float it and mate the three original planes of the assembly to the three from the part (front to front, right to right, and top to top). It will help you maintain the correct orientation while designing your individual parts especially if you design your assemblies on the fly.
  
  Steve
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  - Glenn Schroeder @ Steve Ritter on Sep 22, 2010 9:25 AM
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    Steve,
    
    I used to do that also, but I recently learned that when inserting a part using the Insert Part function if you click the green check mark without dropping your part or sub-assembly on the work space it will automatically align the planes.
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    - Steve Ritter @ Glenn Schroeder on Sep 22, 2010 9:36 AM
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      I thought it did but I wasn't sure. I don't always trust SW's automatic functions though. Sometimes I get in a rush and let the computer think for me but it usually ends in tears...
      
      Steve
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- Steve Calvert @ 1-RDNJAO on Sep 22, 2010 2:08 PM
  Mark Correct
  Correct Answer
  I had to chime in here because there wasn't enough Steve's...
  
  I get the mate problems from time to time but I usually find it to be a face or edge of a component that has changed and when fixed all is well.
  
  Steve
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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