Using fix rather than mates

les_green

Hi all, there are some assemblies I make that have parts that once the mates have set the position, are no longer required to move again, and indeed are best immovable. I am using the 'fix' function to do this (still in the 'trying things out' phase) and apart from seeing the little warning triangles, and the notifications on the mates (all of which I subsequently delete) i am not seeing any issues. I am trying to use this on small subassemblies to simplify, but is there any significant problem caused by using this method?

The main motivation for using this is to prevent the knock on mates disruption that sometimes occurs when you add a mate that then affects prior ones

Cheers

Les

S1mon

Fix is very confusing because it only applies at the level that you're using it. I typically use it on a single part, or I mate a part to the origin of the assembly. This keeps the assembly from floating around in space. 

At the next level, fix does nothing. What might be more helpful for you is to get things into the position you want, and then use a group mate. You can suppress the functional mates that are no longer needed, and only unsupress them when you want to tweak things.

les_green

Thanks, I tested out what you said about subassemblies and did indeed find that the fixed parts no longer were. I will try your suggestion regarding group mates

Cheers

Les