First off, maybe some reading of the GETTING STARTED would be the least
to do to, well, get started.
The process is explained there.
Start an assembly and assemble your base part
Assemble the other part. Now, you can choose appropriate constraints to
ALIGN or MATE surfaces and planes (with or without offsets) to position
your parts.
Let me know your e-mail and I'll send you a better quality movie. It's
3.2MB so I don't think I can post it here.
HIH
Rui
Les LaZar wrote:
> I have a real noobie question. I've been using AutoCAD since V1.2. I recently obtained Inventor 10 and I am in the process of learning to use it.
>
> I must be missing something obvious regarding the alignment of parts in the assembly module. For example: I have two parts defined...a flat plate, 12" x 12" x .1" and an angle bracket, 6"L x 2" x 2" x .1 thick. The plate is the base part. Now I want to place the bracket on the plate in a precise position and orientation....say the corner of the bracket is 1" in x and y from the corner of the plate.
>
> I've been struggling with this for several days. In AutoCAD I would have used a couple of offset commands to establish the corner point at 1,1 from the corner of the plate and then moved the bracket to that point using object snaps.
>
> In IV10, I can drop back to sketch mode and add the guide lines to the surface of the plate but I haven't found any way to EXACTLY place the bracket at that intersection. Nor can I find an "easy" way to orient the bracket precisely with respect to the surface of the plate (regardless of location). The MATE constraint is usable for aligning the top surface of the plate to the bottom surface of the bracket, but the bracket is often rotated, at least a bit, with respect to the edges of the plate. Can someone please give me a clue as to what I am missing?
>
> Thanks for an assistance,
>
> Les