Mates not working?

david_brophy

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8f0954f1b8a65fd03a687561/w/64562aa8380d236944416059/e/11948747ade57795a27eb756?renderMode=0&uiState=63be53458759634f4c074458

I this document I've created an assembly ("Windows"), inserted several objects and locked them in place with mates. If you try to drag them, they don't move. This is all expected.

Then I create a new assembly ("Assembly 1"), and insert the other assembly. The objects are now free-floating and can be dragged around. This is unexpected. I would expect the whole assembly to move when dragging one object.

Am I misunderstanding how mates / assemblies work?

NeilCooke

Fix is not a mate - either Group or Fasten.

david_brophy

Sorry, I don't understand. In the "Windows" assembly, each object is held in place with a fastened mate:

NeilCooke

But if you open the "Window" subassembly are the parts fastened or grouped to each other? Fix only works in the current assembly and should only be applied to one part max (to stop it floating around).

david_brophy

In the "Windows" assembly the parts are fastened to a sketch. But in "Assembly 1" when you drag the objects around, the sketch doesn't move, just the object you're dragging...

I've made a simpler version of this setup which doesn't show this problem so I'll keep adding complexities until it's breaks and we'll see what the problem is.

david_brophy

Oh wait sorry you mean in "Window"... In the window assembly there's three composite parts that are grouped together...




Hmmm... perhaps the problem is the mate? The default attachment point for the window assembly is the origin... Once you've inserted it into another assembly, you can't select the origin as a mate connector, so I've added a mate named "Main" in the Window assembly attached to the origin... Perhaps when the window assembly is inserted into another assembly, the fix is disabled letting it move away from it's origin... I'll investigate.

david_brophy

Aah OK I've found the problem. "Windows" was using V8 of "Window" but there had been changes to "Window" after V8 which hadn't been saved as a version. After saving V9 of "Window" and updating in "Windows", the assembly works as expected. 

I thought that Onshape gave a warning that there were changes in any imported documents... but it seems not. I'm going to have to be more careful in future!

Is there a way to get Onshape to save a version on every change? I'm the only editor of this project, so having all these amazing collaboration tools really just introduces friction... I can see they'd be essential if I was working in a team... but I'm pretty sure I'd prefer versioning to just be disabled... At least for now while I'm iterating rapidly... Perhaps when I get to the fabrication stage I'll need a bit more control... 🤔

eric_pesty

If you want to quickly iterate without having to create versions, you can make sure you are working within just one document. You can always use "move to" at a later stage if you need some parts of your design to be in separate documents.

NeilCooke

Glad you are sorted. Looks like it's only a small assembly - keep them all in the same document and then everything will update live.

david_brophy

Yeah I considered that: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/19536/one-document-or-many

Due to the size of the project, I think bundling everything into the same document would be a mistake.

david_brophy

> Looks like it's only a small assembly

That assembly is small but the overall project is pretty big. This is what I have in Fusion 360 that I'm remodelling in Onshape... and it's going to get a lot more complex as I convert all the furniture frames from placeholders into something a bit more manufacturable: