MATING CONDITIONS IN ASSMEBLY

When component objects are added to the assembly part file, each component object is mated with the corresponding objects. By putting mating conditions on components of an assembly, you establish positional relationships, or constraints, among those components. These relationships are termed mating constraints. A mating condition is made up of one or more mating constraints. There are eight mating constraints as shown below.

• Mate – Planar objects selected to mate will become coplanar and the direction of the normal's will be opposite to each other

 Align – Planar objects selected to align will be coplanar but the normals to the
planes will point in the same direction. Centerlines of cylindrical objects will be in line with each other.
• Angle – This fixes a constant angle between the two object entities chosen on the components to be assembled.
• Parallel – Objects selected will be parallel to each other.
• Perpendicular – Objects selected will be perpendicular to each other.
• Center – Objects will be centered between other objects, i.e. locating a cylinder along a slot and centering the cylinder in the slot.
• Distance – This establishes a +/- distance (offset) value between two objects
• Tangent – This establishes a tangent relationship between two objects, one of which has to be curved such as a free form surface, a circle, a
sphere, or a cylinder.
The Mating Conditions dialog box is shown below