MATING ORIGIN PLANES IN 2014 TUBE AND PIPE

[cadman2011]

Hello all,

I have a question for you. Hopefully some of you folks use similar workflows and can help with this one. I'm using inventor 2014 and 2012, I have two computers and have used tube and pipe for a few years now. Can anyone tell me why you can no longer mate your tube and pipe origin plane to your regular enviroment origin planes.

Is there a reason for this? this used to be my first step, to lock the planes so your tube and pipe runs didn't move on you. I keep getting conflicting mate issues when I make the last plane mate. It allows the first two planes to mate without error, but as soon as I do the third I get the conflicting constarint error.

Please advise if something has changed as this used to be the method I used to keep pipe runs from floating on you. Thanks a bunch for any help.

[JDMather]

Make a (very) small sample assembly that exhibits this behavior and attach it here.

[cbenner]

I do this as well, and my pattern is usually Mate (YZ-YZ), Mate (XZ-XZ)... Align (XY-XY).  So far this has always worked for me.  If something has changed, I may be fairly upset.  Like you, this is my first step in T&P.

[cadman2011]

Well, I tried to attach a file, but it won't let me there is a file size restriction here on this website. I tried posting a blank file which was 7,000 kb (packngo so you had all design data) and the website says too big. So best I can do is screen shot attached. All you really have to do is start tube and pipe from a blank assembly and try mating the planes from both environments. It errors out on me when you try to mate the last planes together. The first two mate fine.

I mated the YZ from my main assembly to the YZ in my tube and pipe environment, then XZ from both - that all goes well and then when you go to mate the XY's from both environments you error out with conflicting constraints as shown in the attached screen shot. Please advise if you can do this in your 2014, because if you can that tells me they have something set-up wrong.

Thanks very much for your help.

[cbenner]

Change the final constraint to an Align constraint.

[cadman2011]

Chris,

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean. The whole constraints menu is not available to me. All I can do is mate / mate without mating actual geometry. Did you mean mating an axis rather than the plane?

[JDMather]

I prefer to add 3 Mate-Flush constraints so that the coordinate systems match up.

I prefer to display extended browser information to make it easier to diagnose problems like this.

[cbenner]

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@cadman2011 wrote:

Chris,

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean. The whole constraints menu is not available to me. All I can do is mate / mate without mating actual geometry. Did you mean mating an axis rather than the plane?

On the right is the default: Mate, circled on the left is it's complement, Align.  On your third plane to plane constraint try choosing this option.  It usually works for me.  FLUSH!  That's the word, thank you JD... my brain is not functioning this morning.

JD's method of using all FLUSH constraints is also a good (maybe even better) suggestion.

[cadman2011]

This is exactly what I was trying to do. That's what you have to do pretty much to get the geometry to not float. Did you do that in 2014 or an earlier version because when I mate mate the last plane I end up with conflicts.

[cadman2011]

Chris,

Thanks..that's what I thought you meant. Those options are not available to me in 2014. I am only able to pick constrain from the ribbon. Don't get the mate / mate or mate flush option. I know what your saying, even in 2012 you had to have a mate flush for your last mate or it wouldn't take. But it seems you dont have access in 2014 version.

[JDMather]

2014

see attached

Have you installed SP1 & 2?

[JDMather]

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@cadman2011 wrote:

I am only able to pick constrain from the ribbon. Don't get the mate / mate or mate flush option....

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Post screen shot.

[cadman2011]

The menu Chris just showed a screen shot of does not become available during your selection as it previously did in 2012. So I am only able to select constrian from the ribbon. This below does not come up when you pick constrain from ribbon.

Did you do that example.iam in 2014?