Finding Mates in SOLIDWORKS: A Quick Guide

Assembly mates in SOLIDWORKS are super important for putting things together, but sometimes, finding them can feel like a treasure hunt. This guide will show you a bunch of different ways to get to your mates, whether you like digging through the FeatureManager design tree or grabbing them right off the screen.

Key Takeaways

• There are multiple ways to find and edit mates in SOLIDWORKS assemblies.
• Organizing your mates can save a lot of time.
• Using graphical selection tools makes editing mates faster.

Accessing Mates Through the FeatureManager Design Tree

The most common place to find mates is in the Mates folder within the FeatureManager design tree. This is where all your mates hang out. But that's not all! Each component in your assembly also has its own Mates folder. This is handy because it only shows you the mates that are directly connected to that specific component. So, if you're working on one part, you can just look at its mates without getting lost in the whole assembly's list.

Organizing Your Mates

Keeping your mates tidy can make a big difference. You can actually organize the main Mates folder using sub-folders. SOLIDWORKS can even do this for you automatically. Just right-click the Mates folder and choose Group Mates, then By Status. This will create folders like 'Solved,' 'Errors,' 'Over Defined,' and 'Suppressed,' sorting your mates automatically. You can also group mates by separating fasteners into their own folder, which is pretty neat.

If you have mates you use all the time, like those with specific dimensions, you can add them to your Favorites. This gives them a spot right at the top of the tree for quick access. Another super useful tool is the Search function. Just type in part or all of the mate's name at the top of the FeatureManager, and the results pop right up in the tree.

Using Graphical Selection for Mates

Sometimes, it's easier to grab things visually. You can select a component and then click View Mates. This brings up a dialog box showing all the mates linked to that component. You can then select a specific mate to see its selections or even edit it right there.

Even quicker is using Breadcrumbs. When you select a component, Breadcrumbs appear, showing you a list of all its associated mates. Click on a mate in the Breadcrumbs, and you can choose Edit Feature. This is a really fast way to make changes. For example, you could easily swap out one reference for another, fixing or updating the mate on the fly.

No matter how you find them, whether it's through the main Mates folder, a component's specific folder, automatic grouping, favorites, search, or graphical selection like View Mates or Breadcrumbs, editing them is straightforward using the in-context menus. These methods should make managing your assembly mates a lot less of a headache.