replace item in assembly orphans the mate connectors

kees_bijker

When you replace a fastener in an assembly, it orphans the old mate connectors this fastener was fixed with. When you then replicate the new replaced fastener, it always chooses the orphaned, now defunct, old mate connector.

This means you always need to go back and find the mate connectors that are orphaned, delete them one by one, before you can do a new replicate.

Would it not be more logical to delete the old mate connectors with the replaced item completely? You will always have to make a new mate connector anyway but in this instance it always finds the older broken mate connector from the deleted item.

Maybe I am doing it wrong, please enlighten me if this is the case.

S1mon

Do you mean implicit or explicit mate connectors?

kees_bijker

S1mon said:

Do you mean implicit or explicit mate connectors?

sorry I forgot to mention it is implicit mate connectors you define during assembly.

S1mon

I haven't noticed this issue before. I would have to experiment, but this almost sounds like a bug. Have you raised the issue with support?

kees_bijker

S1mon said:

I haven't noticed this issue before. I would have to experiment, but this almost sounds like a bug. Have you raised the issue with support?

No I haven't yet and I would like to wait till you have some of your own feedback before I do so.

Please experiment.

Basically what I did is I assemble parts with fixed and I insert a bolt. I fix the bolt as well and then I replicate.

I then find the bolt is too short for some reason so I replace the original I used to replicate. This results in a bolt that is not fixed anymore because the mate has disappeared. So I fix the replaced version again and when I then replicate again the feature finds only the old broken mate connector.

That means you then need to search for it in your instances list and delete it manually before you can do the replicate.

Not fatal but very annoying and if you do this a lot it is a lot of work.

I feel the old mate should also disappear automatically and not remain orphaned in my list.

Please experiment and see if you can get the same results.

kees_bijker

Ok I must have experienced something weird in my other document, because I created a very simple new part in a fresh document and all works fine as expected.

Difference is only the complexity of design, number of documents and inserted parts from other documents as well.

Practical difference now is that the bolts get fixed with either their own mate or a mate I chose on the bolt head, and fix it to the hole in the plate. In both cases the replace replaces all other items and repairs the mate connector with the new item. This happens on both the original and the replicated bolt in both cases.

So until I experience it again in my very much larger document, I will consider this as solved.

Thank you for your time, as always.

Document link: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/33bd56eb14da7bd2bb016283/w/77e83c96a8c787b6bd71fdd8/e/981f600913b62e2e2494987f