Hi all I am now assembling some components and I have added mates to a two components but there not in the position I want them in.
I know I could grab them and rotate them till they are (ball joint assembly BTW) but this is picky.
Is there a way to select the part and a face and align the part with out adding a mate
So basicllay it works like a mate that it moves the part and aligns it rotates it etc but it does not add an actual mate?.
Thanks
Hi Steve,
You can tick the "for positioning only" box at the bottom of Mates if you don't want them to be permanent.
Thanks for the fast reply.
I cant use that as its says it over defines the assembly
I know the part can move in the position I want it to as I can move it with the trad etc but I want it to be aligned to a face just to keep things tidy thats all.
Using for postion only still adds a mate if it did not it would not say it over defines the part?.
Try suppressing the other mates first, move the parts to where you want them then turn the mates back on.
You may need to flip the relationships to get what you need.
Adrian
Yeah suspending them work thanks very much.
Not sure it this is the place to put this but
What would be usfull is a separate function to align parts and rotate to faces etc etc?.
Thanks very much
Steve, I think what you want is a mate. You probably need to decide (or let us know exactly what you wish to achieve) what you want this part to do. I'm guessing you're creating a sub-assembly type part you'll eventually want to have moving in a main assembly? Concider adding reference geometry which will allow you to mate the object and restrict is movement. Advanced mates are good for this.
I could however be entirely wrong. If you could attach the files .prt and .asm that would allow for more constructive feedback.
Ok here is what I have
its a ball joint assembly I have made a mate ref as seen and it works and rotates as a ball joint should
http://i47.tinypic.com/11kj9ty.png
All I want to do now is align the parts in blue so the ball joint is level to the bottom hub face I dont want to move the ball joint to the bottom hub face because this of course will over define the mate I have all I want to do is make the top ball joint level to the bottom blue face.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2jeqzo4.png
I could do it via triad but its very messy.
A parallel mate should do this for you without overdefiining tthe assembly unless the socket spigot is mated, or aligned, to something else.
Adrian is right. A parallel mate wil sort that out.
In regards to positioning a part within an assembly, mates are all you need, how you decide to use them is up to you. There is no need for any other functions once you master the ones that are available.
Use a parrallel mate with 'use for positioning only' checked.
Thanks It worked I was sure I had parrallel selected I think this was what was throwing me.
A bit late I know, but this post helped me.
In CATIA there is a 'Snap' function which does this job of aligning parts or features without creating a permanent association.
I was looking for an equivalent in Solidworks.. And it seems selecting 'Mate' but ticking the 'For position only' box as suggested above did the trick for me.
Cheers for the help.
Yeah suspending them work thanks very much.
Not sure it this is the place to put this but
What would be usfull is a separate function to align parts and rotate to faces etc etc?.
Thanks very much