Mate Folders

When you create an assembly, an empty Mates folder is automatically included in the FeatureManager design tree.

Each mating relationship that you create is added to this Mates folder and to a Mate in assembly folder under the subassembly or component. In the Mates folder, the entry for each mating relationship includes the names of the components involved.
You can rename mates.

All the mates within a Mates folder are solved together; the order in which they appear in the folder does not matter.

You can perform operations such as Replace Mate Entities on all the mates in a Mates folder by selecting the Mates folder in the FeatureManager design tree. See Mated Entities PropertyManager.

To organize mates, you can create folders within the Mates folder or use Group Mates.

To create folders, right-click the mates and click Add to New Folder or drag the mates into an existing folder. You can add mates to a new folder while you create the mates by selecting the Add to new folder check box under Options in the Mate PropertyManager.

Add to New Folder is not available if you select By Status or Separate Fasteners under Group Mates.

Grouping Mates and Separating Fasteners

You can group mates by status and separate fasteners into folders.

By Status groups mates by the following statuses:
Folder Name Description
Solved Mates that are solved without errors.
Errors Mates with mate errors.
Over Defined Mates with over defined warnings.
Suppressed Mates that you suppressed.
Suppressed (Missing) Suppressed mates that reference missing components.
Inactive (Fixed) Inactive mates that reference fixed components.

The status folders appear in the Mates folder.

Separate Fasteners separates mates that reference a Toolbox component into a Fasteners folder. The Fasteners folder includes suppressed mates that reference a Toolbox component. If you edit a mate to include a Toolbox component, the mate moves to the Fasteners folder after you save the changes.

If you select By Status and Separate Fasteners, the Fasteners folders are nested under the status folders.

The status and fastener folders automatically update when you change the assembly. The number of mates contained in each folder displays to the right of the folder name. If you select both grouping options, the number for the status folder includes the number for the Fasteners subfolder.

Grouping mates does not modify the solve order for mates. You cannot move mates to different status or fastener folders.

Add to New Folder is not available for mates in the status or fastener folders. To create a folder, you must clear By Status and Separate Fasteners. For mates in user-created mate folders, the mates move to the appropriate grouping folder when you group by status or separate fasteners. When you clear these grouping options, the mates return to their original mate folders. If you delete a user-created mate folder while a grouping option is selected, the mates from the deleted mate folder move to a folder that is up one level.

To group mates and separate fasteners:

  1. In the FeatureManager design tree of an assembly, right-click Mates and click Group Mates.
  2. Click By Status to sort mates by status.
  3. Click Separate Fasteners to show fasteners in separate folders.