Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I have an assembly of 3 parts.  I want to align holes from 2 of the parts and then fix them all in that position (as they will be welded together).  I can't figure out how to do that (lock-in position).  I restrained on axis and surface-to-surface but I don't know how to prevent 50168P and 50181B from rotating around.

[#2]

Typically the first part placed into an assembly is automatically "grounded" (ie..it cannot move anywhere)

Then you place the rest of the parts and constrain then fully to remove any "degrees of freedom"

You could just set any/all parts as "grounded" (right click on the part and select "grounded") once you have constrained them to remove most of the degrees of freedom BUT I think its always best to fully constrain all parts. (well I do leave screws/bolts partially constrained I guess..They are insert constrained into their holes but can still spin around which really doesn't matter)

The problem with just grounding all parts is that if you change something they won't update their placement based on their constraints to other parts..

Frankly I think that an assembly should only have 1 if any parts grounded.. All others should be ungrounded. In my opinion..

[#3]

Hi lemaycj, 

Most often I use an angle constraint placed between origin work planes of the part files (expand the Origin folder in parts of the browser tree) to prevent unwanted rotation.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[#4 · Accepted solution]

There are several ways to go about this, but the simplest would be to create an Angle-Directed Angle constraint between 50183 YZ origin plane to 50168P YZ origin plane at 30 deg angle, and a Mate-Flush constraint between 50183 XZ origin plane to 50181B YZ origin plane.  I think that will give you what you're looking for.

[#5]

mcgyvr,

Do you use Vault? Do you have issues with hardware causing edited out of turn errors when it's not locked down?

Thanks,

-Sam