mates between parts in two sub-assemblies

tstanley,

I'm presently building a very large final Assembly that consists of nothing but sub-assemblies, and I'm not having a bit of trouble mating one part of a sub-assembly to another part in another sub-assembly.

So my question to you is which SW are you using? If your running an older version, this may only be a bug that has been fixed in a future SP release.

Let me know and I'll help you further, ;-) Scott Baugh, CSWP
George Koch Sons,LLC
Evansville, IN 47714
sjb@kochllc.com

I am using Solidworks 2001. One additional piece of information - the actual feature that I was trying to use on one of the parts was a sketch line from a 2d DXF file that was imported into the part.

Thanks for your reply, Scott, it is helpful to know that it can be done, just that I am doing something wrong.

Instead of using geometry, although, is a good idea, you might consider using it's planes to mate up 2 of the 3 minumum required mates and for the last use a face for its final position.
If this doesn't work for you, you might consider applying a reference axis to the sub-assemblies that you want to mate.
As you can see, there are numerous ways to accomplish what you want to do. You just need to find the right combination for your given situitation.

tstanley,

I made a sketch line in one of the parts in my sub-assembly. I mated it to a face of another part in a different sub-assembly. So I'm willing to bet your problem lies in that sketch that was imported in.

Why don't you start a new sketch and copy that line using a true SW sketch enitity? There may be an error in the line from either when it was in the the other CAD program or when it was exported to DXF.

That's my best guess right now, without seeing the files for myself.

Hope that helps,
Cheers, Scott Baugh, CSWP
George Koch Sons,LLC
Evansville, IN 47714
sjb@kochllc.com

You might also double check to make sure you are not over constraining your assembly. "Happy the Hare at morning for she is ignorant to the Hunter's waking thoughts."

Also check that the subassemblies are flexible if they have to change shape to make the new mates (as in linkages). Right-click the subassembly in the Feature Manager and select Component Properties, then check "flexible". Note that you have to have different configurations of any multiply-used subassembly if you want any of the instances to be flexible.

Good Luck

Thanks everyone. I am beginning to understand now. I was getting the overdefined message when I was trying to set the mate outside the sub-ass'y and a message telling me that I couldn't set the mate if I was working inside the sub-ass'y. I tried putting planes in the sub-ass'y that were determined by the sketch line, but that still gave me the overdefining message. When I made the sub-ass'y flexible it told me that it couldn't be added because the geometry had dependent features, but if I made both sub-assemblies flexible, then it worked OK.

The rigid and flexible buttons are new to me, but in future, with good planning, everything should go together OK.

Thanks again.

tstanley