2010 concentric mate

[ctopher]

I noticed recently that when I mate a cylinder to a line or point in an assembly, it wants to automatically mate the edge of the cylinder/circle as coincident. Previous versions would automatically select concentric. Not a big deal because I can select concentric, but don't understand why it changed.
Has others here experienced this?

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MadMango]

I have not seen that behavior, but have seen where I am trying to mate Toolbox parts, and if I select the hardware first I need to select it a second time for the mate to work.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

On my system, if a cylindrical surface and line are selected, a coincident mate is created by default. I don't remember if concentric used to be the default because I almost always use axes (coincident) to mate cylindrical features.

 

[handleman]

I never use the mate interface because I always know which type of mate I want. I just use macros mapped to hotkeys - it's much faster.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[ctopher]

I like the macro/hotkey route. I'll have to use that method more often.
Thanks!

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[steinmini]

Try creating two tubes. These may be the same part file. select the same surface (outer or inner) and see where it gets you. I just did that, because I wasn't paying attention to this.

The result is that when I inserted two identical parts, selected the "Mate", selected "Face1" (inner surface) and the same inner surface on the other part, the automatic/default mate type was concentric.

If you pick something that's not "concentric" by it's nature (as stated: "Line or point") the default in 2010 may be coincident... As I remember, a point has no physical geometry, size or shape. the line is the shortest path between two points, and because of no actual shape, it will probably not treated as the closest mate to a cylindrical shape. But this is my reasoning only, and maybe this is why I found the SW to be a very intuitive program to learn. Unlike the classical AutoCAD which horrified me from the first moment I tried to understand it's "logic"... Again, that's just me.

 

[Updraft]

Is it possible the mate type chosen defaults to the "nearest"? In other words, if the cylinder and line are closer to coincident then they are to concentric then the mate type defaults to coincident. I am not in SWX right now to test this theory.

- - -Updraft

 

[ctopher]

Up until v2010, I could mate a part in an assy that had a circular feature to a line in a sketch and it would automatically select concentric as the default mate. Now in 2010 it selects coincident.
A round feature to a round feature (two tubes) is no issue.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Jwouters]

Sorry for the bit of OT..

handleman, ctopher - could you show me an example of such macro? - Recording doesn't give much result.

 

[handleman]

The ones I use (concentric, coincident, parallel, and distance) are at

http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php?name=UpDownload&req=viewsdownload&sid=1

I guess I shouldn't say that I never use the mate interface, because on rare occasions I need a different type from the above. However, these four address about 98% of the mates I use.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)