Why oh why are we still chasing errant reorientation of assembly mates here in 2012 sp2? For the amount of mouse clicks it takes to get every screw, washer and bolt placed, I could do 2 more if I didn't have flip and reflip every mate.
Why oh why are we still chasing errant reorientation of assembly mates here in 2012 sp2? For the amount of mouse clicks it takes to get every screw, washer and bolt placed, I could do 2 more if I didn't have flip and reflip every mate.
My complaint stems from the fact that if a particular object, not just hardware, but more often anything cylindrical, we be reoriented at some point during the mating process. Even if it's already oriented properly. 99% of the time Solidworks determines orientation exactly opposite of what is logical. It's as if the software is programmed to animate a mate with as much motion as possible rather than a minimum move to satisfy the mate. It's particularly annoying when replacing one part with another. Existing orientation of similar parts gets inverted.
Good afternoon Cliff,
The parts get added in the view they are created, create a part in the front view it will be in the wrong orientation if you want to insert it in the right plane, another thing that may help is to add mate references.
Using mate references with cylindrical components actually can make everything a breeze.
Later,
John
I'm not sure if I know the depths of your issues here, but if you right-click (and hold) a part in an assembly, you can then rotate it to the correct direction before adding your mates. This will prevent screws facing upside down while alligned with the mating hole. Also, if you are not using multi mates, check into them. Hotkey the mate command too!