Driving and Driven Fittings

Almost all end fittings in an electrical route are driving. However, end fittings for pipe or tube routes, can be either driving and driven.

When you add a new fitting to a route, its drive state is set automatically. The states are:
  • If you drop a fitting to start the route, the state is a driving.
  • If you drop a fitting in the graphics area or to the end of a pipe line while editing a route, the state is driven.
  • If you drop a fitting that is mated to other geometry, using SmartMates or mate references, the state is driving.

A driving fitting is controlled by the assembly. You can use mates and other commands to move, rotate, and orient the component. The sketch geometry and route, that are connected to the driving fitting, automatically adjust to the component.

A driven fitting is controlled by the route sketch. It is attached to the geometry in the sketch. To move the component, you must edit the sketch geometry.

Changing Drive State

You can change an end fitting's state from driven to driving, if you need to add mates to it. The drive state applies to end fittings such as flanges, tees, reducers, in-line valves. Elbows can be treated as fittings if you use drag/drop to add them to a route.

To change the drive state of an end fitting:

  1. Edit the route assembly but not in Edit Route mode. Exit the route, if in Edit Route mode.
  2. Right-click the end fitting and select Constrain sketch to fitting.
    The state changes from driven to driving. You can use Assembly commands with this component or add mates to it.
If the Constrain sketch to fitting or Constrain fitting to sketch commands are not available, you cannot change the drive state for the following reasons:
  • The fitting already has mates.
  • The fitting does not allow the drive state to be changed.
  • Typically, you can only change the drive state of flanges that start or end a pipeline.

Where you need to constrain the pipe but cannot change the state or use mates, you can add sketch constraints to the pipe sketch geometry. For example, adding collinear constraint to the pipeline can achieve the same result as adding a collinear mate to a tee.