DriveWorks Pro 17: Create Distance Mate [send feedback...]

Create Distance Mate

The Create Distance Mate Generation Task will create a Distance Mate, in an Assembly, between Reference Planes in each Component.

With this Generation Task you can use any Plane and although naming your Planes is not necessary to make this Generation Task work it is advised as good practice. See How to Name and Write Rules for a Face or Plane in a SOLIDWORKS Part for more information about Naming and Writing Rules.


Property NameDescription
(Name)The unique name for this task.
AlignedThe alignment type (True = Aligned, False = Anti-Aligned).
DistanceThe distance between the two planes (in model units).
FlipFlip the distance (TRUE = Flipped, FALSE = Not Flipped). The default is FALSE.
First PlaneThe name of the first reference mating plane.
Second PlaneThe name of the second reference mating plane.


When this Generation task is added the properties are both static and dynamic by default. See How To: Change A Static Property To A Dynamic Property to enable rules to be built on these properties.

Property NameExample RuleExample ResultMeaning
AlignedFALSEFALSEThe Alignment type. TRUE for Aligned and FALSE for Anti-Aligned.
Distance200200The distance between the two Mating Planes in Model Units
First Plane"Right Plane@Bracket " &DWSpecificationId&"-1"Right Plane@bracket 9999-1 The name of the First reference Mating Plane.
Second Plane"Plane2@Rib " &DWSpecificationId&"-1"Plane2@Rib 9999-1The name of the Second reference Mating Plane.
Rules for planes

When building the rule for the plane names, they must reference the generated file name and not the master. The rule must be built in the form: [Plane Name]@[Generated model name]-[Instance number].

If the plane is in the top level assembly, only the plane name is required.

The rule must include the instance number, even if there is only one instance of the component in the assembly.

Mating planes can be multiple levels deep. For example, the rule:

[Plane Name]@[Generated model name]@[Generated sub sub assembly name]@[Generated sub assembly name]-[Instance number] would be valid.

When filling out the Entity Names it is important to remember to add a space after the end of your model name before your quote otherwise the task will not work. For example "Part "&DWSpecificationId .

For more information about Mate Alignment see Mate Alignment in the SOLIDWORKS Help file.

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Insert Component Generation Task

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