Buried deep in the advanced mates lies a hidden treasure. The Width mate is a little known mate that makes mating tabs and slots possible without calculating distances or using reference geometry. This is not one of the many new mates in 2008, in fact this mate made its debut appearance in the 2006 release. It may seem strange that I am making a post about a mate over two years after it was introduced but after all this time I have never seen a single person use it. Its a shame too, I see dozens of assemblies weekly that would benefit greatly from using the Width mate.

The first example illustrates the most basic usage of the Width mate. In this assembly we have a tab that needs to be mated to the slot.

While not selecting anything in the graphics area, press S on your keyboard. This will bring up the Shortcut Bar near your mouse pointer. Click the Mate button in the toolbar.

In the Mates PropertyManager, click the double arrows on the Advanced Mates label and select the Width button.

In the Mates Selections section of the Mates PropertyManager there are two selection fields. One for Width selections and the second for Tab selections. Ensure that the Width selection field is enabled and select the appropriate faces of the first part to be mated. You can select either the tab or the slot in this case, for this example we will select the two faces of the tab.

Next, ensure that the Tab selections field is enabled and select the two opposing faces of the slot.

When the selections have been made the tab will be centered exactly between the two faces of the slot. I am certain when you begin to play with this mate you will discover more uses for the Width mate.

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