API checking for bad mates.

Is there a way in the API to check for bad mates? I looked in help and
couldn't find anything.

 

Remember that a Mate is a Feature : Feature::GetErrorCode is what you're
looking for.
Check www.cadml.org for tools that represent assembly structures as graphs,
with errors in red.

Just had an idea! When you add a mate that overconstrains the assembly, many
mates go to red. The FeatureateModified API could be used to know which
was changed last and display it as the probable cause of the trouble... Will
do this ASAP...

 

Thanks Philippe.

The one drawback I see to using this is in a large assembly. Wouldn't it
require a traversal of the entire feature tree in each check?

DateModified might show the last problem, but I am going to be looking at
assemblies that may not be as "fresh" and that may have mates that seem to
have gone bad on their own earlier in the feature tree.

 

Structure traversal is quite fast.... and multiple copies of a subassembly
could be traversed only once..-.

Do you have a better idea ? I've been rading and thinking for quite long now
about constraint graphs... If you plan to find the smallest set of mates
that must be deleted to remove overconstraints without modifying the dofs of
any part, then:
1) I wish you good luck, it is a tough problem (you must consider the
geometry of the mates too...)
2) if you have money to spend on this, I can help you ;-)