Slot Mates

You can mate bolts to straight or arced slots and you can mate slots to slots. You can select an axis, cylindrical face, or a slot to create slot mates.

To create a slot mate:

1. Click Mate (Assembly toolbar) or Insert > Mate.
2. In the PropertyManager, on the Mechanical tab, select Slot .
3. For Mate Selections, select a slot face and the feature to mate to it:
   • The face of another straight or angular slot
   • An axis
   • A cylindrical face
   You can select overlapping features.
4. Select a constraint option:

   Option	Description
   Free	Allows the component to move freely in the slot.
   Center in Slot	Centers the component in the slot.
   Distance Along Slot	Places the component axis at a specified distance from the end of the slot.
   Percent Along Slot	Places the component axis at a distance specified by the percentage of the slot length.

   • To change the endpoint from which the distance is measured, select Flip dimension.
   • For slot-to-slot mates, you can select only Free or Center in Slot.
   • To specify a default slot constraint, click Options > Document Properties > Mates. Under Slot mates, select an option for Default constraint.
5. Optional: Click Lock Rotation to prevent the components from rotating.
   Locked slot mates have the icon in the FeatureManager design tree.
6. Click .