configuration mates always changing suppress state 4

[macPT]

Hi all
I have an assembly, with 16 configurations.
When I change mates in one configuration, there are mates that are being suppressed in other configurations, without apparent reason or warnings.
So, when I return to a configuration already finished, a lot of components are at the wrong positions, caused by the suppressed mates.
After correcting this last configurantion, unsuppressing the needed mates, I will find the first one with suppressed mates!
What the hell is going on?

Thaks in advance for yor help.

 

[macPT]

to clarify:
SW 2012 SP5.0
Win 7 Pro SP1 64bits

 

[TheTick]

Using a design table can bring this under control.

 

[Jboggs]

Sixteen configurations? Be very, very careful.
I feel your pain. During a rebuild if SW can't figure out all the mates rather easily it will fault out and either suppress some or just ignore them.

Some tips that have helped me: (Are these mating tips? Ooo boy!) First, depending on what your settings are, when you establish a new mate, SW will assume that mate is suppressed in all other configurations.

Learn to use the "Configure Component" or "Configure Feature" tool. Pick an item in your feature tree, right click, and select "Configure Component". You will see a spreadsheet style dialog box that allows you to select which configurations that feature is suppressed in. You can even do some spreadsheet style commands in there, like Copy and Paste, etc. Do this for every new mate or feature as you create them and it can help.

Minimize the number of mates. Less mates = less confusion. If I use a parallel mate to orient a part and then later set a distance mate, the parallel mate becomes pointless and just causes SW to have to calculate that much more. Another chance to blow up. Delete unnecessary mates.

If I'm mating a part to a bolt pattern I will only use the concentric mate ONE time. A part should not need more than three mates to fully define its position.

Avoid advanced mates if at all possible. They're nice but they're trouble. We fell in love with the Width mate that allows you to center one part on another. But my my experience since then has taught me to avoid it if possible.

I have recently started to see the wonderful advantages of using Planes, Temporary Axes, and sketch elements as mate elements. Example: two parts will always be centered on each other as their sizes change. Don't use the Width mate. Build the parts correctly (using Mid-plane Extrusions a lot) so that the the critical planes remain at the critical operational points. Then you just mate the center plane of one part coincident with the center plane of the other part, and set it to unsuppressed in all configurations. A simple coincident mate is less likely to blow up on you than a complicated Width mate.

Another example: you want the axis of a cylindrical surface to be parallel to a flat surface. Turn on Temporary Axes, and set the parallel mate. Its simple and reliable.

 

[Updraft]

A few other tips to add to Jboggs great list:

1. Name important mates just as you would name features. This will make it much easier to find and understand them, especially in a Design Table.

2. Make extensive use of subassemblies. This will let SWX solve those part mates and make the top-level assembly so very much easier to deal with. Besides, it is much, much easier to debug a set of mates in the subassys.

You can even allow degrees of freedom of these subassys in the top-level assy by hitting the RMB on the subassy -> Component Properties and in the lower right select Solve As Flexible.

You can also have different configurations of a single subassy in a top-level assy. We have several standard cylinders in our system and they each have three configurations: Retracted, Extended, and Stroke Limited. The Retracted and Extended configs have named mates that are appropriately suppressed/unsuppressed to fix the cylinder in those positions. The Stroke Limited configuration has the Retracted and Extended mates suppressed and has a limit mate active. We'll bring this cylinder into our assembly in as many different locations as we need and then select the appropriate configuration for each instance.

3. Use patterns everywhere possible, especially feature-driven patterns. For instance, you have a bolt/washers/nut properly mated (but allowed to rotate) to a hole in a part. Instead of repeating the mates for the other holes use Feature Driven Component Pattern with the hole series as the component pattern. If the holes change in spacing or quantity the assy will adjust your fasteners accordingly. A regular pattern only has direction, spacing and number of occurrence parameters and these are much easier to set than surfaces to mate.

- - -Updraft

 

[Nella95]

'During a rebuild if SW can't figure out all the mates rather easily it will fault out and either suppress some or just ignore them.' - from JBoggs thread - it took me forever to figure that one out.

SW Premium 2012
64 bit SP1.0
Intel Xeon X5650 E5-1603 0 @ 2.80 GHz
8.0 GB of RAM

 

[macPT]

Thank you all for your inputs.
After running some tests, based on your comments, it seems the best way to deal with this problem (at least for my organization) will be:
- keep the configs to the lowest number possible;
- use reference geometry for mates and avoid mates like tangent and widt;
- standardize the mating sequence for similar components;
- use as many subassemblies as possible;
- manage configs using "configure component" and "configure feature".

Best Regards