Mates: Arrrgggghhhh!!!!! 1

[MikeHalloran]

"The components cannot be moved to a position which satisfies this mate. Cylinders are not concentric. Distance between centers is .00011022in."

Note the magnitude of the number. The mating parts are a sheet metal tube and a 5" diameter soft rubber elbow, for crying out loud.


Sorry, just had to vent.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I thought you were practicing for Talk Like A Pirate Day.

In some industries, .00011022in is considered huge.

 

[NomLaser]

Program is working as intended....so what's your problem?

 

[gwubs]

Use an alternate mate scheme, suitable to the "design intent" (flex and variablity) of the parts involved. We wouldn't really respect an engineering bit of software that allowed things to be concentric and at the same time not concentric would we?
Gerald

 

[gwubs]

Use an alternate mate scheme, suitable to the "design intent" (flex and variablity) of the parts involved. We wouldn't really respect an engineering bit of software that allowed things to concentric and at the same time not concentric would we?
Gerald

 

[gwubs]

Sorry for double post.

 

[SincoTC]

To our human logic, that value does seem ridiculous (it is a soft rubber elbow after all), but to the software it's just a problem in 3D geometry and absolute logic, so it can't turn a blind eye to some conflicting mate! It is doing its job and I guess it wouldn't work if its mathematical model wasn't perfect, but it is a real PITA at times!

Perhaps, as it's the weekend and it is a very small amount in the context of what it is (a rubber elbow), it could have tried to offer a message that was a little more "humerous"!

Sorry, but it's been a bad day, the guy (and friend) I share an office with has been feeling unwell and argumentative so even more conflicting Mates than usual Arrrgghh)!

 

[MikeHalloran]

Yeah, I know it's some other mate conflicting; but I can't figure out which one.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ArtemTat]

Try to suppress all the mates within the conflict component. Add the concentric mate. And unsuppress remain mates one-by-one to identify the conflict mate.

Artem Taturevich, CSWP
Software and Design Engineer
AMCBridge LLC

http://www.amcbridge.com

 

[mjcole]

Make sure you don't have any conflicting in-context features or In Place mates which many times cause the conflicting distance error.

Michael

 

[MikeHalloran]

You'd think that, for the price of a decent pickup truck, the software would be able to tell you exactly what it doesn't like, which it did, sort of, and why, which it did, sort of, in programmer- speak, but not in engineer- speak.

I keep thinking about the old jokes where the punch line starts with "Now I know I'm in Redmond, Washington, USA because... ".



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[NomLaser]

Well if you think about it, it's not that hard of a concept to figure out. You have a mate (or multiple mates) that are defining the object in space and isn't allowing the object to move to where you want it to. It doesn't know what mates need to move, just that you have already constrained the two degrees of freedom that it's trying to move against.

That's where the gray matter in front of the monitor comes in handy. I know that if you spend as much time in front of your monitor as do I, then your brain is probably already fried but sometimes you just have to do through each mate and find out why it isn't letting you move them. Suppress and unsupressing mates is a good idea before you delete mates. At least this way if you didn't fix it, you won't have to redo a bunch of mates.

Then there are times where I just can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it and I just delete all mates and start over. Sometimes that's the easist and quickest way to fix mate issues.

 

[MikeHalloran]

BTDT.
I'm at the point where I can usually figure out which few mates to change/repair first after some minor change has blown the assembly to smithereens and/or the tree is mostly tagged with red symbols.
Usually. Not this time.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[EdDanzer]

Try adding a reference axis to each part and mating them. I have found using reference geometry very helpful if created first and the features based on them. Long term mate stability seems better and changing geometry does not affect mates when there is a substantial design change.

Ed Danzer

http://www.danzcoinc.com

http://www.dehyds.com

 

[NomLaser]

If you change one mate and the whole tree goes red, hit CTRL+Q. Actually do that quite often as it rebuilds the tree from the top down. If you click the red and green light icon for rebuild, it just rebuilds the components that have changed. CTRL+Q is a more complete rebuild.

 

[m1mason]

I agree with MikeHalloran. SolidWorks should introduce a "diagnostic mate" mode in Assembly similar like the one in Sketch mode. it should allow you to explore different scenarios until you decide to keep the right set of mates.

MTM
CSWA Certified
ATC Certified

CAD Blog

http://mtm-cadtutorials.blogspot.com/

Profile

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mtmcad

 

[fcsuper]

Just as a notice, National Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming up quick. I hope you are ready! ARRRGGGGHH

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[MikeHalloran]

Aye, Matey.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MikeMcL]

That's >>International<< Talk Like A Pirate Day. EVERYONE can celebrate!
19 Sept. (Saturday this year).

And Int'l Left Handers Day is 13 Aug.

 

[drawoh]

Just as a notice, National Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming up quick. I hope you are ready! ARRRGGGGHH

That's "Arrrrr", Liverpudlian for "yes".

"Arrrgggghhhh" is an expression of dismay, used when you are tortured by pirates, or when SolidWorks refuses to mate your parts.

JHG