Solidworks 2009 'Mates' Question

[fatal-exception]

In my lack of weldments experience I have struggled to make prints for a part that is not on an original plane.

Hmmm. I've never had any problems making drawings from them.

...Secondly a 3D sketch can be a bear to modify later [depending on how complex things get and how drastic the change].

I agree with that.

[DMF_TomB]

add reference geometry axis and planes

for cylindrical surfaces have you tried creating an axis. it can be at an intersection of 2 planes or select the outside circumference of a cylindrical surface.

the center line axises of 2 cylinders can be made coincidence or made to touch one another . the plane on a axis of a cylinder can be set parallel on or at a distance from another plane or at a specific angle to another plane.

PS I have read the book Solidworks 2009 Bible and am now reading Solidworks 2010 Bible. I learned much about Solidworks from the Solidworks 2007 Bible.

I suggest learning about all possible mate types and learning about all types of reference geometry

[kelvoden]

My name is Mike and I have been teaching myself Solidworks using the 2009 SP 3 seat that we have in the shop i work in. I'm not doing to bad at it but i'm starting to have a little trouble getting my round tube parts to mate correctly. Im building a tubular type frame assembly out of 1" diameter aluminum tubing. Some of my tubes have square cuts on the ends and some are coped and mitered to fit together tightly at their respective junctions. There isnt anything to fancy regarding the design, all junctions are 90 deg joints.

My question is this: Are there any handy tips or tricks to getting my coped pieces to fit to the other tubing easily? Some of my tubing parts are mitered so that more that one tube fit together at the same point around a common tube if that makes sense. I can mate my tubes together by their miter but I cant get that assembly to mate correctly around the tube they share.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give and I apologize for not being able to provide examples at the moment but their are just too many restrictions on government computers.

Mike

Believe it or not it is very simple to do what you are trying to do and can be done without weldments (that is a whole other way to do it)
Simply make the mate using the planes of the two parts being mated and make a coincident distance mate.

[Smitty092000]

Well I played around a little bit and I got a lot closer than I have before. I still need to teach myself a thing or two so I can get the pieces to trim just the way I want them too but I'm happy with what I have so far. I still have some other components that need to be added to this model such as gussets and things of that nature but I wanted to show everyone what you have helped me to accomplish.

TomB: I have and am reading the Solidworks '09 Bible. I thank that book for nearly everything I know about solidworks. That and the mistakes I've made that actually helped me do something correctly later on.


Thanks again, Mike

PS.. Make sure you rename the attachment from .pdf to .sldprt...

PSS Thanks again

[JerryFlyGuy]

Ahh.. well that surely would have been fun to do w/ anything other than a weldment not impossible but... more 'fun'