Where's smartmates

[speedy12]

I have been using Solidworks for several years and a couple of versions back they introduced "Smart Mates". We were told by our VAR how much easier hardware mating was using it. Well,,I didnt like it at first and grumbled for a while about it. Then eventually, I got to the point where I was using it most of the time for simple hardware mating. Now we are using SW2004 SP1.0 and I cant seem to find smart mates anywhere.. I have seen the new thing that pops up allowing you to select the type of mate in the model window but it is not the same. Has anyone seen smartmates in SW2004 or is it simply gone?

 

[SBaugh]

Look in the What's New. It tells you there what happened to the Smart mates. Look at (Chapter-page) 7-9

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[rockguy]

To use smart mates try this. Pick the part you would like to mate on the entity you want to apply the mate to. Hold down the alt key and drag the part over the geometry would like to mate it to (ie. grab a bolt by the shaft and drag it over the hole face you would like to mate it to). Hold the part over the geometry momentarily. The cursor will change to show the mating relationship. The ALT key is the key.

 

[speedy12]

cool, thanks you guys, the control key works wonders.

 

[speedy12]

DOH, sorry about that. I just realized that I put control instead of "ALT"

 

[pgrandamgt]

Also, just to let you know speedy12, if you go to "Move or Rotate Component", the smartmates icon is available in the property page.

 

[speedy12]

pgrandamgt,
I never noticed that icon there b4, I went back to SW2003 and found that it is there also. Does anyone know how I can assign a keyboard shortcut for smartmates either under customize or with the use of a simple macro? I havent been able to find smartmates under customize/keyboard.