In Design Faster with Design Library and Mate References Pt1, I described the process for creating components with Mate References to be used in the Design Library. The Design Library is a great place to store assembly components you use most often in order to streamline the assembly process for new assemblies. This example will illustrate the process for creating a new assembly quickly and easily from Design Library components.

Adding Library Components to an Assembly

Now that our Design Library is populated with the most our commonly used components, it is time to build a new assembly. In the Design Library locate the folder to contains your desired component.

All the items in the selected folder will appear in the lower pane. If you hover over the item, the tooltip will provide a larger view of the item, the filename and the description you entered when adding the item to the Design Library.

To add a component to an assembly, click the item in the lower pane of the Design Library and, while still holding the mouse button, drag the item into your assembly.

Drop the component into the graphics area.

When you drop the first item into the graphics area, you will be prompted with the following message. If you wish to have multiple copies of the selected component, all you have to do is click in the graphics area to add more. For this instance, we only require the one component, so click the red ‘X‘ or hit ESC on the keyboard.

Notice, in the image below, that the MateReferences folder displays four Mate References that coincide with the Mate References we created earlier on the Linear Bearing. This is what I meant earlier, when I said that the Mate Reference names must match for SolidWorks to properly recognize the mates.

Now it’s on to the Linear Bearing we added earlier.

When you drag-and-drop the Linear Bearing directly onto the holes in the plate, the Linear Bearing will drop right into place. Without exiting the command you can add the Linear Bearing to all four of the holes in the Plate.

No further action is required to fully define the part. If you were to try to move the Linear Bearing, you would not be able to since it is fully defined.

In the Linear Bearing, I also added a few more Mate References for the Shaft and Screws. If the shaft and screws are created with the same named Mate References then they could be added to the assembly just as easily.

How easy was that? I just created a quick assembly with fully define mates without using a single command other then dragging components from the Design Library.

In Conclusion…

As you can see, an extra 2 minutes of work when creating your library components can save you hours of work when creating assemblies from your most commonly used components. That reason alone, should be enough to justify the usage of the Design Library but if you are still not convinced that the Design Library is a good idea then come back next time for some more tricks for using the Design Library. Until then, keep those comments and questions coming… it is readers like you that make this the best damn SolidWorks Blog on the net!

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