Finding mate features that relate to an assembly

Dean_Gardner

Is there a way to easily find those mate features that relate to an assembly.  I would like to click on an assembly and the related mates be highlighted in the mate features tree, bottom left.  The only way i can find those mates is be trawling through all the mates by running my mouse over them to see which is the closest one to the assembly, then inspect further to find the one i'm after.  I could start labelling them more appropriately, but this is a seriously difficult task in onshape at the moment.  It could be much easier, let's hope i'm doing something wrong.

eric_pesty

The "show mate" mode ("h" shortcut) will do pretty much exactly what you are asking for (I think...).
Works on mouse over as well as select. Note that mousing over parts in the graphics area will show the mates specific to that part (including the ones located within sub-assemblies), but mousing over the assembly "tree" will show mates from the top level. only

S1mon

I don't know of a good way to do exactly what you're asking, but you can help identify mates in a couple ways, and then name them:

1. Mouse over mates in the features and it will highlight the parts/assemblies and surfaces involved along with the mate
2. Select a mate in the mate features, and select Isolate (shift-I) and that will isolate the part(s) and/or assemblies involved.

I would also ask that people vote for this improvement request:
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/17722/automatically-name-mates-with-name-of-first-part-selected

I highly recommend naming mates as you go along. It can be more important to do than naming features in your feature tree because mates are harder to reverse engineer. As a general rule, I always tell people if you find yourself searching for something more than once, it's probably a sign that you should rename it, put it in a named folder or otherwise make it more obvious to your future self or coworkers. Another heuristic - if your feature tree/instance list/mate folders are too long to fit in a window without scrolling, it's time to add some top level folders and start organizing things so you can see everything at once.

glen_dewsbury

Right click on assembly instance and select show mates.
Or RMB on part and select show mates.
So long as other ates are hidden thet will stand out.

eric_pesty

The "show mate" mode ("h" shortcut) will do pretty much exactly what you are asking for (I think...).
Works on mouse over as well as select. Note that mousing over parts in the graphics area will show the mates specific to that part (including the ones located within sub-assemblies), but mousing over the assembly "tree" will show mates from the top level. only

S1mon

@glen_dewsbury
I missed that obvious one. Thanks.

Dean_Gardner

Thanks for your help - i'll check this out now.