Maybe it is just me, but it seems that Limit Mates are behaving better in SWX2016 (SP4.0). In the past I had a lot of trouble with Limit Mates applied in a subassembly and them causing problems in upper level assemblies. For instance, we use a lot of pneumatic cylinders. In the cylinder subassy I'll set up the following configurations: Retracted, Extended, and Stroke Limited. The first two are static and the last one has a limit mate that allows travel between the retracted and extended states. In working out the designs I would often change the states of the cylinder subassy between Retracted and Extended. However, if I used the Stroke Limited configuration it would cause all kinds of issues, especially the higher up (more levels) I was in the top level assembly. In order to get the top level mechanism to perform according to the limitations of the cylinder I had to create another cylinder configuration, Free, that had no limitations on the stroke. I would then create a suitable limit mate in the top level assembly. This is not how we should have to do it. The Limit Mates should be applied at the lowest level possible so that it benefits anything using that subassembly.
Well, I'm happy to report that Limit Mates seem to be performing as you would expect. I have cylinder assemblies four levels down with all the associated assemblies set to flexible. Using the Stroke Limited configuration I am not getting the yellow and red mate warnings I used to.
Are any of you aware of a change made that accounts for this? Have any of you experienced the same thing?
SolidworksAssemblies