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mate connectors

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

Best Answer

  • tim_hess427tim_hess427 Member Posts: 648 ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    @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



Answers

  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020
    ... I could use a guide on what how to understand what each symbol means


    Below is an excerpt from the URL above



  • steve_ulrich290steve_ulrich290 Member Posts: 12
    this is close. I need to be able to understand what the color arrow mean , especially when not on the current plane
  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭✭
    @steve_ulrich290

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

  • tim_hess427tim_hess427 Member Posts: 648 ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    @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



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