Part III: Working with Assemblies
FIGURE 14.10Positioning assembly components with sketches
This particular assembly is driven by two sketches on different planes to govern the position
of the parts. Keep in mind that this assembly has been used for all the other techniques as
well; this means all these techniques can exist together simultaneously, and are controlled by
configurations.Examine the assembly to see how the parts are mated to the sketches. This is important. The first
time you create a part such as this, you may be tempted to mate part planes to the sketch lines.Caution
Mating planes to sketch lines has a very serious drawback that you must be aware of. Unlike other types of
mates, which have an alignment that you can control, plane-to-sketch line mates cannot be aligned. This
means that the software is as likely to align elements correctly as incorrectly on any plane-to-line mate. n
Best Practice
A better way to mate part planes to sketch lines is to mate the Temporary Axes through the joints with the
sketch endpoints. This solves the alignment problem. n