Datum Plane created in Parts Studio does not show up in Assembly. Create a Datum Plane in Assembly?!

christopher_owens

Hello! I wanted to create a Datum Plane as an assembly reference on a solids face. This way I wouldn't have to "flip" the model over and over to mate surfaces together. But a Datum Plane (Offset = 0) created in Parts Studio doesn't show up in an Assembly. (Merge Datum Plane to Part?) There is no where to create a Datum Plane in an Assembly. Again I must unlearn what I have learned and come to the Onshape side! Use the Mate Connector young @christopher_owens !

christopher_owens

Hmm... Once I do Use a Mate Connector for a Planer Mate, I no longer get the Triad to rotate the part.

lougallo

Yes Mate connectors are the way to go.  Have you placed a mate connector to the assembly origin?

christopher_owens

No. I just did a Planer Mate picking the two surfaces (old habit). I need to get use to using the Mate Connectors. I noticed the difference between a Planer Mate and a Fastened Mate! I mated two solids (simple boxes) with a Planer Mate and when I moved one the other didn't "go with it". But with a Fastened Mate when I moved the first part the second one "went with it" (after hitting Final) when adding another assembly constraint. I was so use to doing assemblies in ProE/ProCabling where I used nothing but Coordinate Systems to assemble.

christopher_owens

AH! If I click-n-hold on a part (to drag it around) I do not get the Triad. But if I Click-n-release I do get the Triad! Which I now see is the first instruction in the Triad Manipulator Help!

Once an instance is inserted into an Assembly, you can position it in two ways:

Use the mouse to click and drag it (referred to as free drag).

Click on it to activate a triad manipulator (referred to as manipulator drag).

christopher_owens

I see the Triad has an "Align With Z" & "Anti-Align With Z". Now that I played with moving my part around, now I need an "Align With X"! (Or Enter Cardinal Angle).

christopher_owens

AH!! All the Triad arrows have an "Align With Z"!!! I can play with that and get my part back in align with the X axis!!

christopher_owens

I had to Suppress the Planer Mate first.

shashank_aarya

Suppose, it is required to constrain any part at some distance from other part and at inclined position, Onshape makes it very easy with the help of mate connector.Just one click to mate connector button and modification in the table as per required positions is sufficient. See the below picture. 

User can constrain the part at mate connector highlighted in circle. So, this probably saves the datum plane creation in the assembly in such case.

In other tools such as Creo, Inventor it needs angular plane at offset position. To create angular plane it again require additional datum axis or line curve. So this task is somewhat inconvenient comparing to mate connector creation

So, I feel that for above condition Onshape is definitely excellent.