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Mate issues in 2015 - naturally

Question asked by Peter Stenabaugh on Apr 6, 2015
Latest reply on Apr 8, 2015 by Jeff Mirisola

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In 2015 if you try to create a mate, that for any reason wont work, SW gives you an error saying that this mate cannot be solved, and then it gives you an option to force it. Even if you select NO to this, SW still puts in the mate and your whole damn assembly turns red, yellow and everyother jaundice colour there is. Why when you SAY NO, doesnt this get recognized?

SW never used to do this in previous versions - this is a pain in the ass to have to constantly delete the offending constraints. they are easy to see, but it shouldn't be necessary.

The SW programmer that changed this feature - needs a new job - give him a broom, something that he can handle.....

Jeff Mirisola Apr 7, 2015 11:39 AM

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Jody,

If the mate can't be successfully added, and you select 'No', it shouldn't be added. Period. End of story. Blowing up an assembly is never a solution, yet either option, currently, does that. How does this even make sense?

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Jody Stiles Apr 7, 2015 10:12 AM
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Hi Peter,

Are you seeing the following message and answering No to it?
If so, I understand your frustration. This is a poorly worded and designed dialog. The following is what the Yes and No responses do:
Yes - Will force the newly created mate to solve and will cause other conflicting mates to break (turn red). The newly created mate will turn yellow indicating there is an issue but it is working
No - Will maintain the existing mates and will create the new mate but break it (turning it red). The existing mates will turn yellow indicating that there is an issue.

Perhaps a more clear dialog is in order, something like the following:

Jody
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- Andy Sanders @ Jody Stiles on Apr 7, 2015 11:15 AM
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  I would add an option to "Do not create mate and escape this command" so you can go back and try again without all the hassle.
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  - Chris Michalski @ Andy Sanders on Apr 7, 2015 11:19 AM
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    The red X in the upper corner should cancel out of the command without changing the existing mates.
    But as Jody said, the wording in that box needs some work to clarify.
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- Jeff Mirisola @ Jody Stiles on Apr 7, 2015 11:39 AM
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  Jody,
  If the mate can't be successfully added, and you select 'No', it shouldn't be added. Period. End of story. Blowing up an assembly is never a solution, yet either option, currently, does that. How does this even make sense?
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  - Peter Stenabaugh @ Jeff Mirisola on Apr 7, 2015 12:08 PM
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    Hi Jody, yes that is the error that I get, many times a day. the problem is that there is no way out of this dilemma. Even if you click the red X, you still get broken mates and your assembly turns all yellow and red.
    
    Jeff and Andy are both correct that there needs to be a way to back out without screwing up your assembly and then spending useless time trying to fix what shouldn't be there to begin with. Even better would be for SW to actually show us where the issue is instead of turning 100 or more mates yellow and red. From experience I usually know where to look, but a new user will be really screwed up. Usually your main issue will be the most recent mate you have added that is also turned RED, but not always.
    
    I have even tried the 'Mate Expert' feature to see if that would help - what a useless waste of time that is - all is does is give you a huge list of what is already highlighted in red and yellow - still with NO indication of where the mate problem is.
    
    There is still the unknown question - why did SW screw this up to begin with? Why cant they just leave things alone? If it ain't broke, then don't break it in an effort to try to fix something that already works. Spend our money on something more worthwhile.
    
    Another point to watch out for is that as you build an assembly - especially if it is going to be a LARGE assembly.... what works at the outset, may in fact end up to a contributor to having over constrained parts later on. This can be really difficult to sort out when you have a big assembly with 300 - 500 mates, you are almost guaranteed to have some problems, so if you have this issue, sometimes it is worthwhile looking back at some of the earlier things you constrained for the location of an over constrained part. As you build your assembly keep an eye out for the '+' mark beside the item in the Feature Manager which indicates an over constrained part - if you get these '+' marks, go back there and fix it as soon as you can as this may help with issues at some later time. the '-' marks are ok as this shows under constrained - never an issue.
    
    Pete
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    - Jody Stiles @ Peter Stenabaugh on Apr 7, 2015 3:22 PM
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      Peter Stenabaugh wrote:
      
      Hi Jody, <snip>
      
      There is still the unknown question - why did SW screw this up to begin with? Why cant they just leave things alone? If it ain't broke, then don't break it in an effort to try to fix something that already works. Spend our money on something more worthwhile.
      
      <snip>
      
      Pete
      Unfortunately, the dialog has been this way for a long time (I checked back to 2011) so it's not anything that changed recently.
      
      Jody
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  - James Harvey @ Jeff Mirisola on Apr 8, 2015 4:50 PM
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    Agreed,
    
    The offending mate shouldn't be added. Being a more experienced user now, it's generally easy to know where to look to repair it but it's still a nuisance.
    
    Not to hijack the thread but another one that still occasionally almost gets me sometimes is when I create a legitimate mate and the design tree blows up. A simple click of the rebuild icon solves the issue. Does anyone else experience this?
    
    Back in the newby days I would fricken disassemble and edit myself into a downward death spiral on this one...
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    - Jeff Mirisola @ James Harvey on Apr 8, 2015 5:41 PM
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      Yup, happens to me. Completely aggravating.
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Brian McEwen Apr 7, 2015 12:26 PM
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Actually 2014 does this too. At least on the later service packs. Once I got used to I just kill the most recent mate, but it would be nice to have an option to cancel the mate creation.

I do like the Force solve of the new mate command, can be very useful for some situations.
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Mate issues in 2015 - naturally

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