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Mating to a sketch circle

I'm still pretty new to Solidworks, but I'm having trouble with something that should be pretty simple and I'm obviously going about it the wrong way.

I have a series of framed floor panels arranged in a circle (the top of a 37' turntable). The framed panels sit on top of a length of angle steel that is rolled to a 35' diameter. To fasten between the panel and the angle steel, we weld a unistrut 90 degree bracket to the deck panel frame and a mating bracket to the angle steel (the unistrut brackets are handy because they're pre-punched for 1/2" bolts). After brackets are welded to the panel & angle steel, a 1/2" bolt fastens the to parts together.

My problem is locating the brackets correctly on the frames of the deck panels. The center of the holes in the bracket needs to land on a circle that is offset (1.0625") from the exterior edge of the bent angle steel. I've offset the edge of the angle steel and have it referenced in the 'deck panel assembly'. However, I can't seem to create a mate between the sketched circle and the hole of the bracket. I've placed reference points in the bracket part, but when I select the point & the sketched circle, no mating options are available.

A picture of the deck panel assembly and circular sketch can be found at:

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Any advice would be appreciated.

Reply to
garethconner
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Adding a sketch point at the center and planar side of the bracket hole should do it?

Reply to
Paul Salvador

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the response.

I just tried adding a sketch point at the center of the bolt hole, and it doesn't seem to have any better result than placing a 3d reference point. When I select the sketch point & the sketch circle and try to add a mate, all the mate options are greyed out.

Paul Salvador wrote:

Reply to
garethconner

If this is the first part in your assembly its possible that it was inserted in a "fixed" position. If you cannot drag the part, thats likely the case. Right click the part in your assembly tree and "float" it.

Reply to
Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks for responding. It is not the first part in the assembly, and is floating. I can drag it around manually, and I can mate it to other components but I cannot create a mate to the sketch. I could have sworn that I've mated parts to reference sketches in the past, I'll try some more experimenting to see what I've goofed up.

Brian wrote:

Reply to
garethconner

The only solution I've found was to offset a line from the panel framing member in the reference sketch that intersected the existing sketch circle. This gave me an intersection whereby I could insert a reference point. With the reference point in place, I could mate it to the bracket's hole center.

I'm still a confused as to why I could not create Coincident mate between the sketch circle and the bracket hole center. My current solution is cludgy at best, any pointers would still be welcome.

Thanks.

Reply to
garethconner

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