Completely constraining cylindrical parts

[VELCROW]

I'm switching from Pro/E, and if you are assembling a cylindrical part in Pro/E, and don't care about the orientation about the axis, it has the option to assume an orientation so it shows as completely constrained.

Is there anything like that in Solidworks? Right now I have a whole bunch of underconstrained components. I don't care about the rotational constraint, but there is no way to easily tell if that is the only constraint missing. I'd prefer not to do a parallel mate every time just to verify full constraint on the feature tree.

Thanks

 

[MattBD]

Once you have two of the mates in place, you could fix the part in space.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Just try dragging the part. It will only move in the DOF which exists.

 

[VELCROW]

I'm just lazy - I want to look at the feature tree and see that everything is fully constrained without probing each component. MattBD's idea ought to work, as long as the cylinder continues to move with the mating part even though it is fixed.

 

[MadMango]

You could also look into the use of Mate References in the part files so they are automatically added when brought into the Assembly.

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

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

 

[MattBD]

In that case, you can use a "lock" mate to lock one component to another. I haven't used it yet myself, (new to 2008?) but that sounds like it will do what you want.

-Matt

 

[VELCROW]

I'm still on 2007, but that is something to look forward to.

 

[ShaggyPE]

If the lock mate removes the "-" from the assembly tree, that seems like a good solution.

I agree with VELCROW about the fully constrained desire and "laziness". I love to be able to quickly scroll through the assembly tree to verify that nothing is loose. For that reason I clock all my hardware. Unfortunately, this does add mates to the assy. Maybe the "lock" mate is the solution.

The other alternative is to put all of your hardware in a folder. You can collapse the hardware folder so you don't see the "loose" hardware and just know that it is only "loose" because it has 2 mates instead of 3.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional