Struggling with mate connectors on imported parts

dave_franchino

Hey folks, reasonably new to Onshape after years of running Solidworks and really struggling with mate connectors. Right now I'm trying to assemble a simple worm gear set using some STL imports from a web site. When I import the parts to Onshape it creates a part studio with the part named Part(1). I renamed the part to be M1x40 Spur Gear.  But when I assemble this into an assembly the part is STILL coming in named as Part(1) and there isn't any option to update it.  

Beyond that because the part is an STL, I can't seem to add a mate connector in the assembly model to the Part in the center of the hub. I went out into Part Studio and created a mate connector on the part - but that mate connector doesn't appear in the Assembly.  

Yikes!  Am I the only one who things Onshape got a little too cute with mate connectors?  I miss access to the model tree in Assembly mode and access to planes and axis!

Thanks for any advice!!!

S1mon

Proper use of Mate connectors are definitely one of the harder things to wrap your head around coming from other systems, but for the most part I now find them to be much better. One mate instead of 3 in most cases is a huge improvement.

The update icons are not always in sync (pretty rare, but it does happen), but most likely you didn't create a new version of the gear. Onshape definitely won't show an update possibility if there's no new version.

Also, there are some good gear featurescripts out there which will create proper NURBS gears with involutes etc. A low poly STL is not great for gearing. 
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5742c8cde4b06c68b362d748/w/b493e0cb681bbf9497d9f4b3/e/c72760543a0d4412e72f6d38
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/db73276df7574c7e29b36a0a/w/677116fcd7a1ac2e1fe6dcb3/e/9cdd845cb072bf9378d4151d
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/40b9e96edd52fde471ec70d9/w/9b35f4b19dbee3ea7ffb897b/e/0756c153ad1294d7b34586f8

GregBrown

Check the "Owner part" of the mate connector you created in your Part Studio. Make sure it is the "M1x40 Spur Gear" part and not something else.... The Mate connector will then show up in the assembly (and be visible in the tree)