Is there a perpendicular mate?
How would you do the equivalent of a SW slot mate?
How do or can I access individual part Base Reference Planes (from the feature tree)?
I have imported the parts from SW. They are all Meccano parts, so loads of slotted holes. I haven't re-added dimensions to most of them.
Go to the built-in SWX tutorials and look for Assembly Mates. It is short and very informative and should answer ALL of your mate questions.
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.
- - -Randy Pausch
I am trying to do this in SE not SW. I know exactly how to do all this in SW. Am using this project as a great way to learn SE. I do read the help. Sometimes I admit I miss things. Then I ask questions.
Ronan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 7:32 am
I am trying to do this in SE not SW. I know exactly how to do all this in SW. Am using this project as a great way to learn SE. I do read the help. Sometimes I admit I miss things. Then I ask questions.
Sorry, you did not indicate you were using SE in your OP.
There is a perpendicular mate in SE and probably everything else you are accustomed to, but I am not a SE user so cannot help beyond that.
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.
- - -Randy Pausch
@Ronan1961 To answer your questions...
There is not a Perpendicular relationship but instead look for the Angle relationship which can be at any angle including 90°.
Slots if created as Slot features will have an axis in the middle, so an Axial Align or Connect can be used to say place a bolt in the center of the slot. If the geometry just looks like a slot because it was imported or created with the standard Extrude command, then that axis will not exist, and you will have to use another method. You can place a Sketch in the part and draw a point in the center of the pseudo slot and it will replicate an axis as a workaround.
To access Csys of components in the PathFinder tree, right mouse click on the selected component and select Show/Hide Component... and in the resulting form put a checkmark in the Show column for the Csys line. If no component is selected, then the alternative Show/Hide All Components... will allow turning them all on/off for every component. You can also do this graphically.
When placing a relationship, you will see a Construction Display button on the Command Bar become active for some relationships and this can also be used to turn them on/off during the command. Works best if the relationship option "Use Reduced Steps" is unchecked though.
DennisD wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:14 am
Sorry, you did not indicate you were using SE in your OP.
He did post it in the SE forum though.
While the Angle relationship can be used and set to 90 that would not be my goto method of placing components. The angle relationship can be a bastard in my experience. When and why is a longer story. Just thinking about design intent, it's not too often that two parts are magically normal to each other, typically there's some other geometry accomplishing it that and would be positioned using the Mate relationship. Do you have an example of where a normal relationship would really be ideal? Usually selecting a different geometry and using Mate, Planar Align or Parallel works well and still captures design intent.
bnemec wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:36 pm
He did post it in the SE forum though.
While the Angle relationship can be used and set to 90 that would not be my goto method of placing components. The angle relationship can be a bastard in my experience. When and why is a longer story. Just thinking about design intent, it's not too often that two parts are magically normal to each other, typically there's some other geometry accomplishing it that and would be positioned using the Mate relationship. Do you have an example of where a normal relationship would really be ideal? Usually selecting a different geometry and using Mate, Planar Align or Parallel works well and still captures design intent.
I was stuck on the idea of a slot mate. I also was thinking of making the axis of a transverse hole in a cylinder perpendicular to a surface.
KennyG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 11:50 am
@Ronan1961 To answer your questions...
There is not a Perpendicular relationship but instead look for the Angle relationship which can be at any angle including 90°.
Slots if created as Slot features will have an axis in the middle, so an Axial Align or Connect can be used to say place a bolt in the center of the slot. If the geometry just looks like a slot because it was imported or created with the standard Extrude command, then that axis will not exist, and you will have to use another method. You can place a Sketch in the part and draw a point in the center of the pseudo slot and it will replicate an axis as a workaround.
To access Csys of components in the PathFinder tree, right mouse click on the selected component and select Show/Hide Component... and in the resulting form put a checkmark in the Show column for the Csys line. If no component is selected, then the alternative Show/Hide All Components... will allow turning them all on/off for every component. You can also do this graphically.
When placing a relationship, you will see a Construction Display button on the Command Bar become active for some relationships and this can also be used to turn them on/off during the command. Works best if the relationship option "Use Reduced Steps" is unchecked though.
On the slot mate. Is it possible to offset the axes of the hole and one of the slot's radii? Then I could use a range value equal to the length of the slot side. Coupled with a tangent mate this would give me the equivalent of an SW slot mate.
Could you post a screen shot of this "Construction Display button on the Command Bar become active for some relationships"?
Ronan wrote: ↑Wed Apr 26, 2023 6:41 am
On the slot mate. Is it possible to offset the axes of the hole and one of the slot's radii? Then I could use a range value equal to the length of the slot side. Coupled with a tangent mate this would give me the equivalent of an SW slot mate.
Could you post a screen shot of this "Construction Display button on the Command Bar become active for some relationships"?
On the slot, yes you can offset the axis, but you will need to use the Parallel relationship for that.
Here is the screen shot using the Axial Align relationship with "Use reduced steps" OFF showing the active Construction Display button:
