Mate PropertyManager - Mechanical Tab

You add or edit mechanical mates on the Mechanical tab of the Mate PropertyManager.

Mate Selections

Depending on the mate type, different fields appear under Mate Selections. See separate help topics for the type of mate you are creating.

Entities to Mate Specifies the entities that you want to mate.

Use the Alt key to temporarily hide a face when you need to select an obscured face for mates.

When Optimize component placement when adding mates is enabled, components are placed in more logical positions on the screen and relative to other components when you create mates. To disable this option, click Tools > Options > System Options > Assemblies and clear the option.

Mate Type

Only the mates that apply to the current selections are available.

Cam Forces a cylinder, plane, or point to be coincident or tangent to a series of tangent extruded faces.
Slot Constrains the movement of a bolt or a slot within a slot hole.
Hinge Limits the movement between two components to one rotational degree of freedom.
Gear Forces two components to rotate relative to one another about selected axes.
Rack Pinion Linear translation of one part (the rack) causes circular rotation in another part (the pinion), and vice versa.
Screw Constrains two components to be concentric, and adds a pitch relationship between the rotation of one component and the translation of the other.
Universal Joint The rotation of one component (the output shaft) about its axis is driven by the rotation of another component (the input shaft) about its axis.
  Mate alignment
Aligned Vectors normal to the selected faces point in the same direction.
Anti-Aligned Vectors normal to the selected faces point in opposite directions.

Mates

Mates contains either all the mates added while the PropertyManager is open or all of the mates that you are editing. When there are multiple mates in the Mates box, you can select a mate to edit.

To edit more than one mate at a time, select multiple mates in the FeatureManager design tree, then right-click and click Edit Feature. All the mates appear in the Mates box.

Options

Add to new folder Places new mates in a folder under the Mates folder in the FeatureManager design tree. When this option is cleared, new mates appear in the Mates folder.
Add to New Folder is not available if you select By Status or Separate Fasteners under Group Mates. To access Group Mates, right-click the Mates folder.
Show popup dialog Shows the Mate pop-up toolbar when you add mates. When this option is cleared, you add mates in the PropertyManager.
Show preview Previews a mate when you make enough selections for a valid mate
Use for positioning only Moves components to the position defined by the mate, but a mate is not added to the FeatureManager design tree. A mate appears in the Mates box so you can edit and position the components, but the mate does not appear in the FeatureManager design tree when you close the Mate PropertyManager.
Use for positioning only is an alternative to adding many mates, then later deleting those mates in the FeatureManager design tree.
Make first selection transparent Makes the first component that you select transparent to make it easier to select the second component. This option is useful if the second component is behind the first.