Settling a Sphere into a Hole

duncan_orr

I have a 0.5" sphere and a 0.45" hole. I'd like to mate the two so that sphere rests in the hole as far as it can, with the edge of the hole tangent to the sphere. My fumbling with the different kinds of mates has allowed me to keep them concentric, but not to place the sphere along the edge of the hole. Which mate should I use and how should I apply it to get the desired result?

bradley_sauln

Hey @duncan_orr take a look at my approach here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4246be8f14c34ccb19d3926b/w/6f008f2afecf9069538c780d/e/51a51d0b482ace04f04b982e

Essentially I designed both parts in the same part studio to get this done. If for some reason the parts are separate, you can always use an in context edit to use this same method to get a result.

When designing the sphere I created the outer diameter that I applied a pierce constraint to on the edge of the hole to show me how the sphere would seat into the hole. I then projected the edge of the hole as a construction line onto the sketch plane so I could use it to place a mate connector (this also now has design intent if I change the hole or sphere sizes).

peter_silie095

I found a neater way.
You can use a combination of a tangent and cylindrical mate to lock it into place.