Is there a way to disable or change what the default mate is?

[suelflow]

I’m inserting several hundred parts and one of the mates I’m using is a distance mate. The problem is the default mate is coincident and it cannot be resolved. Each time I select my 2 points S/W tries to apply the coincident for about a minute before I can apply the distance one. No big deal once, but several hundred is several hours. Any thoughts?

 

[dgowans]

Look for some of the mate macros at:

http://www.lennyworks.com/

You can then assign the distance mate to a hotkey (I use Alt-C for coincident mates and Alt-X for concentric). Then you can select the two entities you want to mate and hit your hotkey (dare I suggest Alt-D?).

You'll need to make sure that the macro resides in a directory where Solidworks knows to look, but other than that this should work for you.

 

[suelflow]

I looked there and did not see the one you spoke of.
Do you have a name?

 

[crjones]

Turn off the mate preview. This waits then until you have everything set up before trying to resolve.

 

[Standing]

suelflow,
Several hundred parts with one being a mate, leads me to believe they are the same part at a distance. Is this true?
If this is true then maybe you might look into pattern. If this is not true forget about patterns.


Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[suelflow]

This is a pedestrian bridge and I am adding the handrail supports that are 4’-0” on center (the distance mate). On the flat and straight areas I have used patterns but most of it is helically shaped. I like the idea of the hot key macro but did not find it. Turning off the preview works, but I need it on for the other 2 mates needed to attach it, so I’ll have to see if it saves me time taking the other steps needed to turn it on and off between mates…

 

[suelflow]

I have found that if I select the distance mate button and value prior to selecting the points it does not have to think about the coincident mate. Thanks for the input.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried applying Smart Mates to the component.

 

[fcsuper]

handleman and lombard had some mating macros. Try these locations out:

http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php?name=UpDownload&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=52

and

http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[suelflow]

Thanks.
A little slow but they work fine.
Do you know if you can change the default value for the distance mate?
Mine goes back to 1” every time.

 

[AnnaWood]

suelflow,

What version and service pack of SolidWorks are you using?

The distance mate reverting to 1" all the time was a problem in an early SP of 2007, and is resolved in later service packs. I would suggest upgrading to the latest SP of SolidWorks 2007.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[suelflow]

Anna,

I am using SW07/SP4.0

Dave

 

[AnnaWood]

Hmmm.... I probably mis-interpreted what you wrote.

The distance mate reverting to 1", is this with a special macro or with the stock SW distance mates not invoked by a macro?

I am thinking now that you were talking about the macro.

Cheers,



Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[handleman]

Sorry, should have chimed in sooner. If you're not done yet, try changing the number 0.0254 in Matt Lombard's macro to 1.2912. That will get you 4'.

 

[suelflow]

Sorry for the delay, I was out of town on business…

Anna,

No it reverts to 1” regardless of how it is applied.

Handleman,

Thanks, I have not written/edited macros as of yet but I’ll tinker with it and see how it goes.

Dave