Is there a way of using planes for assembly constraints?

Justin_Zummo_GBS

I'd like to constrain cylindrical items like cans next to each other in the X, Y and Z directions.  Without being able to access planes, I'm not sure how to go about doing that.

matthew_stacy

@justin_zummo, mating to planes is a seminal method in SolidWorks, and probably other CAD packages as well.  But Onshape is an entirely different animal.  Everything is based on Mate Connectors.  Rather than specifying three or more mates to constrain the desired degrees of freedom from a part, you just pick a node and then specify the degrees of freedom to constrain in a single mate.  It's a really neat workflow, but may take some time to get used to.

The Onshape Learning Center is the best place to start:

• https://learn.onshape.com/catalog?labels=["Self-Paced Courses"]&values=["Assemblies"]

Here is a simply example that arranges multiple parts in an assembly, offset from the origin (public document that you should be able to copy).  But this really won't make much sense to you until you go through the training videos. 

• https://cad.onshape.com/documents/09695d1efd25a2e866220d2c/w/d3a017f525658cc97db0a6fe/e/f269247f008ab0763b869ace