How can I align parts in an assembly?

francois_leclerc

I am learning about assemblies but I can't figure out from the interface how to align parts in an assembly.
I am essentially joining extruded triangles with rounded corners. I have three triangles on one side and four facing triangles on the other side. The "points" of the triangles of one side are facing the points on the other side. As they have rounded corners, the junction point between two adjacent triangles is not where the extended lines of the two sides would meet. The graphic below shows the desired distribution.

I can't use a fastened mate to create that distribution since the faces have to be touching each other on the entire surface of both faces (since they are the same size). If I use a planar connector, I can align them to have the sides touching one another while respecting the distribution shown above. But when I use the planar connectors, the height of the two sides can be different.

How can I align the top of the parts from the two sides to be the same?

nick_papageorge_dayjob

it helps us help you to include a public link in your posts…

You can use multiple mates. Add another planar mate to keep the heights the same.

On this particular design, however, it might be a better idea to make a master sketch in the studio of 3 of the triangles, along with their radii. Put a point in the center of each triangle. Use this sketch to extrude the actual triangle (only 1 is needed). Add a MC to the end of the triangle on that earlier sketch point.

Now insert the sketch into your assembly and mate 2 of the triangles to 2 points using the MC. (One pointing up, one down). Pattern the rest. Get the pattern distance from the sketch point to point distance.

jelte_steur814

There are two ways:

1. not very parametric or sophisticated, but you could do some math or measurements to figure out the offset of the faces and add an offset to a fastened mate.
2. Better: in the part studio where you create this triangle, add a mate connector to the part, floating at the position where the tip of the triangle would be if they were not rounded. then use that mate connector in the assembly to create a fastened mate to the fillet-tangent-line where the two upward facing triangles are meeting.

If I zoom in deeply into your first picture, it seems there may be an interference between the rounded ends of the triangles. also there an added mate connector can help.

Obviously use a linear pattern for the other instances other than the first 2. The spacing would need to be done through a measurement. The only way to make this parametric I believe is to add a 'variable studio' that you use to determine the width of the triangle and the linear pattern.

I wish there was a way to attach a variable to a part (like the width in this case) so that it can be used in an assembly so one could parametrically set the pattern distance…

here's an example with the mate connectors solution.

In this case I copy-pasted a measurement into the pattern distance