Cannot Resolve Mates in Assembly

larry_hawes

Hopefully the video is clear enough but am completely stymied trying to set up the action I want. I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding of mates and their function but that's been true ever since I tried mates for the first time. Watched videos and did a LOT of experimenting and any help greatly appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQhJJIc3B8

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/7ae1d348c26faa0c0e282293/w/b1b07fc72abe74240e7c48a6/e/914e67c6666c98a58f62ebac

NeilCooke

Something in that assembly would need to be fixed - fixing just the center pin would not be enough. It would not be possible to have everything free to move. I'll take a look anyway.

TimRice

As Neil mentions, the blue pivot needs to be fixed and then the rest of the mates will solve as expected:



Document: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e7aeb1bfd46c57ff181f3a56/w/7580bced4d792045b6958dda/e/2dcb06d8b1b4ea5793b73058 

NeilCooke

Something in that assembly would need to be fixed - fixing just the center pin would not be enough. It would not be possible to have everything free to move. I'll take a look anyway.

TimRice

Working on a full solution but part of the problem is the Pin and slot needs to move along the x axis. If you create a mate connector you need to realign the secondary axis:



And another tip is to add a sketch across the diagonal to constrain both ends of the piston parts:

TimRice

As Neil mentions, the blue pivot needs to be fixed and then the rest of the mates will solve as expected:



Document: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e7aeb1bfd46c57ff181f3a56/w/7580bced4d792045b6958dda/e/2dcb06d8b1b4ea5793b73058 

NeilCooke

Here's mine, I'm sure it's the same as @TimRice 's - there are still too many degrees of freedom.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2c658a528b584a74f58c730a/w/5ba6c45ebf8b1733fdf65a0e/e/c5fa952a4c57cc199ea72d60

larry_hawes

Brilliant help as always but still a bit mystified. I can see the mates, particularly the pin mate but literally worked for an hour last night trying to get that mate to occur and align its 'X' axis as instructed. Still have no idea how it occurs or how to reproduce...Thank you as always.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTot4esLG9E

larry_hawes

Ah I see where the mate connector was created earlier in the feature list and it seems to align the 'X' axis kinda sorta automatically.

TimRice

Yes, I aligned the Secondary axis in the mate connector dialog. Please see my post above to view the dialog.

larry_hawes

NeilCooke said:

Here's mine, I'm sure it's the same as @TimRice 's - there are still too many degrees of freedom.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2c658a528b584a74f58c730a/w/5ba6c45ebf8b1733fdf65a0e/e/c5fa952a4c57cc199ea72d60

THANK YOU NEIL - Really like the Group feature and can see there are some very intricate, and powerful, mate locations and functions. Will remain mysterious for now but thanks so much for the help...

larry_hawes

TimRice said:

Yes, I aligned the Secondary axis in the mate connector dialog. Please see my post above to view the dialog.

Thank you, missed the realign function as you illustrated. So very helpful, greatly appreciated.

larry_hawes

REALLY appreciate all the help. Will pretend the question is answered and to understand in order to move the forum along but cannot duplicate any mate feature on my own. Will explore further. Thanks again...