SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible - Matt Lombard [53]
10. Select the chamfered faces of the Arm and Arm2 parts and create a Coincident mate between them. You can make Coincident mates between conical faces as long as the cones are the same angle. This special case acts like a combination of Concentric and Coincident mates. Figure 5.27 shows the selections and the result.
FIGURE 5.26
Creating a Width mate
11. Create a copy of the gripper part so that there are two instances of it in the assembly. You can do this by Ctrl+dragging the part within the assembly window with the Mate PropertyManager closed.
12. Mate both of the grippers to the Arm2 end using the same mating technique that you used for the previous conical face Coincident part.
13. Once you have applied these parts, try moving the various joints of the assembly. Notice that it is difficult, if not impossible, to isolate the motion of just a single part. This is because there are too many open degrees of freedom, and a lot of ambiguity.
14. Fix Arm2 to allow you to move the gripper parts as you want. Create a Symmetric mate between the indicated faces of the grippers and the Front plane of the Arm2 part, as shown in Figure 5.28.
15. Practice making angle mates, suppressing mates, and fixing parts to limit motion.
16. Save the assembly and exit the file.
FIGURE 5.27
Making conical faces coincident
FIGURE 5.28
Creating a Symmetric mate
Summary
A thorough understanding of mates, and editing and troubleshooting techniques in particular, makes the difference between a real assembly artist and a user who struggles through or avoids certain tasks. There is a lot about mates that is not straightforward, but with practice, you can understand and master them. You can put assemblies together quickly, with a focus on rebuild performance and Dynamic Assembly Motion.
Although best practice concepts should not dominate your designs, they are great guidelines to start from. To avoid making big mistakes, watch out for the pitfalls outlined in the section in this chapter that summarizes mate best practices to follow.
Chapter 6: Working with Assembly Sketches and Layouts
In This Chapter
Introducing layout techniques
Applying special treatment within an assembly
Working with a Layout tutorial
When working on parts or assemblies, design work often begins with 2D sketches. You can follow through to 3D with data created in this phase by laying out the design as a sketch in the assembly before you start making actual 3D parts. When you use a single sketch or multiple sketches either as a visual guide or as a functional framework for a model, it is called a layout. Two-dimensional sketches are easy to produce, and easy to use as the first step in design or modeling work. SolidWorks provides both formal and informal techniques for achieving this sort of effect.
The topic of layout sketches involves other topics that will be covered in more detail later in this book, such as in-context modeling and master model techniques. These topics are introduced here at a conceptual level to prepare you for the detailed information later on.
In-context modeling involves the creation of relationships between parts in an assembly such that one part drives features on another part. Layout concepts apply to in-context modeling because you can use an assembly-level sketch to drive geometry within individual parts.
Master model techniques can take several forms, but usually entail making geometry in a single part that is later used to span across several parts in an assembly. Layout sketches can be used to either break up or bring back together parts created in this fashion.
Looking at the Techniques
An informal technique called assembly layout sketch has existed since early versions of SolidWorks. This technique has been included in the SolidWorks official training materials for many years, and simply allows