Perpendicular Mate
Keeps two entities at a right angle (90 degrees) to each other.
What you get: the two picked faces or edges held square to each other (90 degrees), one mate named Perpendicular1 in the Mates folder.
When to Use It
- Stand a post square to a base plate
- Keep a hinge pin square to a door face
- Hold two panels at a corner
What It Does With Each Pair
The Perpendicular button is lit for these pairs of picks:
- Two flat faces
- Two round faces
- Straight edge with flat face
- Two straight edges
- Round face with straight edge
- Circular edge with flat face
- Two conical faces
- Conical face with round face
- Conical face with straight edge
For two faces it keeps the face normals at 90 degrees, so the faces themselves are square to each other. For a flat face and an edge or axis, the edge or axis stands straight out of the face.
Step by Step
- 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 Perpendicular 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.)
- Click the green check (or press Enter) to add the mate. The message reads "Perpendicular1 added." and the window stays open for the next pair.
Options
- 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).
- Mate alignment may show. It matters when one pick is a flat face and the other an edge or axis, where it decides which way the edge points out of the face.
Tips and What to Expect
- Perpendicular only fixes the angle. The parts can still slide and turn about the common direction.
- If you want an angle other than 90 degrees, use Angle.
Common Mistakes and Messages
- 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.