- Mate Folders
When you create an assembly, an empty Mates folder is automatically included in the FeatureManager design tree.
- Adding Mates
Mates create geometric relationships between assembly components. As you add mates, you define the allowable directions of linear or rotational motion of the components. You can move a component within its degrees of freedom, visualizing the assembly's behavior.
- Adding Mates from the Quick Mates Context Toolbar
You can use the Quick Mates context toolbar to add some types of mates in an assembly without opening the Mate PropertyManager.
- Temporarily Hiding Faces When Selecting Mates
Use the Alt key to temporarily hide a face when you need to select an obscured face for mates.
- Previewing a Mate Component in the Component Preview Window
The Component Preview Window facilitates the selection of items to mate. When you view a component in the Component Preview Window, you can zoom and rotate the view of the component independently from the rest of the assembly.
- Modifying a Mate
- Suppressing a Mate
You can suppress mates to prevent them from being solved. You can experiment with different types of mates without over defining the assembly.
- Deleting a Mate
You can delete mates. When you delete a mate, it is deleted in all configurations of the assembly.
- Fixing the Position of a Component
You can fix the position of a component so that it cannot move with respect to the assembly origin. By default, the first part in an assembly is fixed; however, you can float it at any time.
- Mating to Origins and Coordinate Systems
You can apply a coincident mate between the origin or a coordinate system of a component and the origin or a coordinate system of the assembly or another component.
- Preventing Rotation in Concentric Mates
You can prevent the rotation of components that are mated with concentric mates by selecting the Lock rotation option. Locked concentric mates have the icon 
in the FeatureManager design tree.
- Driven Mate Dimensions
You can set mate dimensions as driven, so that the value is influenced by other moving components in the assembly.
- Default Mate Types
When you select cylindrical faces or circular edges to mate with an axis, the software creates a concentric mate. When you select two parallel planar faces, the software creates a coincident mate.