Adding Mates

Mates create geometric relationships between assembly components. As you add mates, you define the allowable directions of linear or rotational motion of the components. You can move a component within its degrees of freedom, visualizing the assembly's behavior.

To add a mate:

  1. Click Mate (Assembly toolbar), or click Insert > Mate.
  2. In the PropertyManager, under Mate Selections, select the entities that you want to mate together for Entities to Mate .
    You can temporarily hide faces to select an obscured face by hovering over a face and pressing Alt.
    The Mate pop-up toolbar appears with a default mate selected, and the components move into place to preview the mate.
    The preceding occurs if you select Show pop-up toolbar and Show preview under Options in the PropertyManager.
  3. Click to close the PropertyManager, or click before you click to create a new mate.
    If the new mate conflicts with an existing mate, the software asks if you want to force the new mate to solve. Click:
    • Yes. The new mate is solved and a conflicting mate breaks and is shown with a red error.
    • No. The new mate is created but not solved, and is shown with a red error.
    You can use mate callouts, View Mate Errors, and MateXpert to help resolve mating problems.