purpose of setting the origin or chosing a new defined mate in a context design?

kees_bijker

So I use "in context design" a lot and it is a very powerful way to design something that works together with other parts.

I have noticed that nothing much changes when you choose the origin or when you make a self defined mate as origin for your in context design. I followed the "in context design" course till about 50% now, and I still am no wiser as to why you have to chose the origin opposed to it simply being the origin of the assembly?

I tried both and I cannot find any advantage of chosing your own mate, so please let somebody explain to me what is the difference and for what is it used normally?

I am sure I am missing something which could be really useful, so I want to add that to my tool box if I can.

Thanks in advance.

eric_pesty

The main reason why you would want to use a specific mate connector is that the origin of the in context part will follow that mate connector, and the front/right/top orientation of the in-context part can be set that way instead of following the assembly origin and orientation.

MichaelPascoe

The advantage of selecting a mate connector would be when you want the part studio's planes and origin to align with the center of a specific part. For example, maybe your creating a robotic arm and you have a cylinder that isn't at the assemblies origin. If you use a mate connector as the origin reference, your part studio can start with it's planes and origin correctly placed on that cylinders axis. This way you can immediately start using those planes to create sketches, instead of having to create another mate connector to reference the cylinder again.

eric_pesty

The main reason why you would want to use a specific mate connector is that the origin of the in context part will follow that mate connector, and the front/right/top orientation of the in-context part can be set that way instead of following the assembly origin and orientation.

MichaelPascoe

The advantage of selecting a mate connector would be when you want the part studio's planes and origin to align with the center of a specific part. For example, maybe your creating a robotic arm and you have a cylinder that isn't at the assemblies origin. If you use a mate connector as the origin reference, your part studio can start with it's planes and origin correctly placed on that cylinders axis. This way you can immediately start using those planes to create sketches, instead of having to create another mate connector to reference the cylinder again.

kees_bijker

Thank you eric_pesty and MichaelPascoe, Very clear and to the point.

I will have to try it from this point of view once and see what I can get done better and faster this way.

Kind regards,

Kees