mate connectors

steve_ulrich290

I am creating a small home building structure with ONSHAPE... and moving along very well.  I do get confused at times on how to interpret the planes and symbols of how the connectors appear and the results on my assembly.  Often times the boards appear not in the right plane. I could use a guide on what how to understand what each symbol means

tim_hess427

@steve_ulrich290 - are you referring to the blue, green, and red axes on the mate connectors (as shown below)? 

If so, think of those little lines as tiny coordinate system (X,Y,Z axes) attached to your part. Generally, when you are mating to things, you are creating a mate connector on each part, and these define how the parts will be aligned. 

If you're using a "Fixed" mate, for example, onshape will place the two components so that the three axes are all aligned with each other. If this doesn't give you the positioning you want, the buttons in the mate dialog box allow you to re-align the mate connectors as needed.

For mates that allow motion, the axes also dictate the motion. A revolve mate will allow a component to spin around the blue (Z axis), for example. 

More detailed info in the help page here: https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/mateconnector_a.htm

steve_shubin

@steve_ulrich290 said:

... I could use a guide on what how to understand what each symbol means

https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/mate.htm

Below is an excerpt from the URL above

steve_ulrich290

this is close. I need to be able to understand what the color arrow mean , especially when not on the current plane

steve_shubin

@steve_ulrich290

Can you post a screen capture of what it is that you’re looking for clarification on

tim_hess427

@steve_ulrich290 - are you referring to the blue, green, and red axes on the mate connectors (as shown below)? 

If so, think of those little lines as tiny coordinate system (X,Y,Z axes) attached to your part. Generally, when you are mating to things, you are creating a mate connector on each part, and these define how the parts will be aligned. 

If you're using a "Fixed" mate, for example, onshape will place the two components so that the three axes are all aligned with each other. If this doesn't give you the positioning you want, the buttons in the mate dialog box allow you to re-align the mate connectors as needed.

For mates that allow motion, the axes also dictate the motion. A revolve mate will allow a component to spin around the blue (Z axis), for example. 

More detailed info in the help page here: https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/mateconnector_a.htm