Mate(s) Problem... Again!

Hi,

I have a working assembly, all parts mated "nicely"...

I added a bolt to a hole and then about 8 or 9 mates go "crazy" that have
absolutely nothing to do with that part at all... the added bolt fits over a
mount hole ( a hole in a part with no other part or assembly in between).

I am trying to hide for a jpeg screen capture for my client, so it actually
mates nothing and just fills a hole for a picture capture.

Why does this happen? I have heard others mumble about this as well.

It is not the first time a behaved working model fails when adding mates...
I (we) really need this to work don't we???

Aron
SW2006, SP4.1

 

Aron,

Do you have the bolt heads constrained so they can't rotate ???? Like maybe
using a parallel mate with a flat ???

I tend to leave bolts free to rotate. The assemblies seem to solve faster
too.

One of the guys here can't stand to have any minus signs next to any parts.
He was getting lots of mate errors with parallel. He started using
perpendicular instead, and doesn't have this issue.




Mark

 

A lot of times, for me is the solution to suppres the last added mate(s),
then the red flags disappear.
Un-supress the supressed mates and all works fine! Strange, but it works for
me.

Wim

 

You can try the old trick: suppressing _all_ faulty mates in one go and then
'Undo'. This used to help with earlier versions.
Unfortunately it is usual that they wrack the mating system in the new
version again... although it used to happen with SP 4.0 rather than with SP
0.0. this is somewhat early...
John

 

Do you have any sub assemblies in the major assembly?

One time I had an assembly with some sub assemblies. Then the client
requested some additonal parts. Without paying much attention the new
parts were contrained onto the sub-assembly but in reality the parts
were placed at the assembly level. This is actually very easy to do
and SW should really pop up a warning when the user does something like
this. But, until then we just need to be aware of such a sequence.

Even this confussion did not create any problems until a certain number
of the parts were constrained. Then, all of a sudden there were all
kinds strange errors and reaction.

When the new parts were moved up to the assembly and reconstrained the
problems all disappeared.

But, if you don't have any assemblies this isn't your problem.

Hope this helps.

Ed

 

The Solidworks constraints solver gets confused very easily. I added a part
to an assembly, and the first mate I tried to add to it caused an
"over-constrained" error ( and "no" it wasn't set as "fixed").

From what I've read so far, I'm not getting excited about "SWIFT"
(SolidWorks Is Fucking Terrible??) - why do we need some extra technology to
fix a problem that other CAD packages just don't have?

Rant over.

John H

 

Ed (& everyone else),

That may be it... I have the "Major Assembly" made of some "Sub-Assemblies",
and then the hardware (from the toolbox), and a few brackets, etc., to hold
it together - i.e. like you would build it in reality.

I had a "width mate" (which can be handy at times) especially in this case
since these "panels" that get installed are movable, then you drill and
rivet on site. Anyway, once I got ride of that width mate things cleared
up...almost.

I did notice something strange (and I will mention an "artifact" later), I
had a part that seemed to have been mated to itself??? I do not know how it
happened - you cannot do it, SW won't let you - but it was an edge mated to
a nearby radius on the same part - a sheetmetal part. After I deleted that
mate, the part changed orientation and all was well again, and the assembly
is living happily (it loads faster) ever after!

Now for that artifact I mentioned earlier... a few parts in these assemblies
in question kept loosing their leaders of notes on the drawing sheets. I
always check the PDFs I send via email and twice I have had to go back into
the drawing and re-enable the leaders! I noticed this when I control-c
copied a note from one page to another in the same drawing, then saved the
drawing in PDF format. Under review of the pending/to-be-sent email, I saw
the problem... just thought I would mention this for added confusion :^}

All seems quiet in the land of oz for the moment - I've made it to "Munchkin
Land"... all parts, assemblies, and drawings are working, and the "Lollipop
League" is happy. See: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oz/images/vc52.jpg &
http://www.noplacelikeoz.com/OZ-lollipop.wav <-- Thought I would add some
comedy here I need it... been a long few weeks for me!!!

Thanks for everyone's comments and help - love this newsgroup - it usually
provides better help than a VAR and less expensive too!

Aron