Hello all you SW gurus.

First off, I'd like to thank the community for the time they take to share their expertise with us not as knowledgeable. Even though I'm a certified Professional - Core user, I keep learning new things all the time.

The title shares it all succinctly, but if you'd like an example, please read on. If not, please read the last sentence above the question:

Currently I'm working with a PCB designer and he sends over ECAD file types that I get the pleasure of converting to MCAD. These PCB's are complex and complicated with sometimes over 3000 components attached. The only option CircuitWorks offers in terms of mates is either all floating or all fixed as it imports the data to a 3D model. What I'd like to do is keep all floating and then mate all the components to the face of the PCB. There are components on both sides of the PCB. Currently, to think that after I select the common face of the PCB for the starting mate, I have to individually select the joining face of each component causes my eyes to gloss over and my stomach to squirm. I end up skipping this step, but causes me complications down the road. When I make changes to the PCB (like the thickness) all the components are left behind. Further more, whenever there is a change to the PCB layout (which happens rarely - I say facetiously), I get the honor of repeating all the steps.

My solution today is: that I use the "move" command, if the PCB thickness changes. I can 'drag-select' all components and enter a value to mass move them in any axis.

My failed efforts have been: trying to 'drag-select' all the faces during the Multiple Mate Mode; activating the 'faces only' or the 'planes only' filter to 'drag-select'.

One reason this may just be my own personal issue is because when the ECAD components are converted to MCAD they come in as blocks. When I adjust the view normal to the mating face there is only 1 face to select per part. If the parts were detailed, a 'drag-select' would grab the wrong faces. But all this can be solved with "configurations" and/or planes.

My conundrum is after selecting the 'common reference' trying to select multiple 'component reference' faces at the same time during the multiple mate mode.

Any thoughts?

- DW