Angle Mate

Keeps a set angle, in degrees, between two entities.

What you get: the two picks held at the angle you type, in degrees, one mate in the Mates folder named with its value, such as Angle1 (45°).

When to Use It

The Angle button is lit for these pairs of picks:

For two faces the angle is between the face normals. For edges and axes it is between the directions. The angle runs from 0 to 180 degrees.

Open an assembly (assemblies need the Pro plan) with at least two components in it. See Assemblies: Start and Insert Parts.
Click Mate on the Assembly tab (or right-click a component and choose Assembly tools, Mate...). The Mate window opens on the Standard tab.
Click the first entity on one component in the view. It appears in Mate Selections. You can also click the Front Plane, Top Plane, Right Plane or Origin row of a component or of the assembly in the Model tree.
Click the second entity on a different component. After the second pick the parts move to show the result, and a small Quick Mate pop-up by the pointer lists the mates that fit. Leave it, or press Esc to close it; your two picks stay.
Click Angle in the Standard Mates list of the Mate window. Click the other buttons in the list to compare; only the mates that fit your two picks are lit. (A click on a button in the Quick Mate pop-up adds that mate straight away, as it stands, with no further steps.)
An Angle (degrees) box shows the angle the parts have now. Type the angle you want, for example 45, and press Tab. The parts turn to it.
Click the green check (or press Enter) to add the mate. The message includes the angle, for example "Angle1 (45°) added." and the window stays open for the next pair.

Angle (degrees) box: 0 to 180.
Flip dimension: uses the supplement, which is 180 minus the angle, so 30 becomes 150.
Use for positioning only: moves the parts as the mate would, but no mate is kept. The message reads "Positioned. No mate was added."
Make first selection transparent: the component you picked first turns see-through so you can reach what is behind it.
Multiple mate mode: the first pick is the Common reference, every further pick is a Component reference on its own component, and one mate is made for each. Create multi-mate folder groups them (MultiMate1, MultiMate2 and so on).

An Angle mate fixes the angle only. The parts can still slide and turn about the common direction.
To let a part swing within a range, use Angle Limit.
The tree shows the value, for example Angle1 (45°).

The mate you want is grey. The two picks do not fit it. Remove one pick (click it again, or press Delete in Mate Selections) and pick a different entity.
"Those entities have no mate in common." Every mate button is grey because no mate fits the two picks, for example two corners for Parallel. Remove one pick (click it again, or press Delete in Mate Selections) and pick a different face or edge.
"Pick the second entity on a different component." Both picks were on the same component. A mate always joins two components, or a component and the assembly's own planes or origin.
"Collapse the exploded view to add mates." Mates cannot be added while the assembly is exploded. Collapse it from its row in the Exploded Views folder. See Exploded Views.
"This mate over defines the assembly. Force it to solve? Yes breaks the conflicting mate. No keeps it unsolved." The new mate fights the ones already there. Click No to keep it unsolved and look at it, then delete or change one of the two. See Mates: Fixing Mate Problems.
Nothing moves. A fixed component does not move. Right-click it and choose Assembly tools, Float, or fix the other component's side on purpose.
It turned to the wrong side of the angle. Tick Flip dimension.

Found a mistake or something missing on this page? Tell us.