Mating inside sub-assembly not respected in higher level assembly

jaschaaa

It seems that mating conditions in assemblies are gone when the assembly is loaded into a higher level assembly in the same document. As a consequence I have to go through the whole mating process again. In my opinion this is not very user-friendly. 

Can I expect improvements on this? Or should I improve my way of working?

jaschaaa

I should take this back:
I think it only happens to "fixes". Relative mates seem to be taken over. And than it starts to make more sense. 

Jason_S

"Fix" is not a mate and is only relative to the current workspace. You can get the results you would like by using the "Fastened" mate instead of "Fix"

viru

jaschaaa , Fixing a part is different from applying a mate. Fix (found in the context menu for a part) is specific to the assembly in which it is applied; it does not carry over to any other assembly that part is inserted into.Therefore I generally make practice before inserting any sub-assembly into assembly I give mate constrains to all part as per my requirement.

jaschaaa

Thanks for your comments! I now understand that fix is not really a mate. I started using the fasten mate as Jason suggested. 

One things that would really help here is an ability to fasten several parts in one go. In my specific case I have many of the same parts connected to one other part. I now have to make a mate for each and every part. 

viru

@jaschaaa, you can use Replicate which is automated mate utility in Onshape Assemblies to copy and populate components. kindly refer below video which will be helpful to you.
https://youtu.be/SFPQ3Whso50

jaschaaa

@viru, it seems that Replicate does not work for me. I need to create a circular array of parts on a cylindrical surface. The surface has no features that can be recognized as positions for replicated parts. See pic below. 

viru

@jaschaaa, Use Group to fix selected instances relative to one another. It is very convenient when the instances were all modeled in the same Part Studio in the correct locations relative to one another. Group enables you to keep that relative positioning without having to create Mates.

Steps:-

1. Click the Group tool
   
2. Select the parts to include in the group; pre-select is available.

   You can click the Part name in the Feature list, click the part in the graphics area, or click and drag a selection box around parts in the graphics area.

3. Accept .

Notice that a Group feature is added to the Mate Features list in the Feature list box.

jaschaaa

@viru, thanks again! Problem solved.