How do you mate a pin into a slot so that it is free to slide and rotate within the limits of the slot?
Asked By Tom M.
When working with assemblies, SolidWorks gives you lots of flexibility using mates to simulate motion in your designs. Most users are familiar with the standard mates, like coincident and concentric, but SolidWorks also has advanced and mechanical mates that can help you achieve the motion you’re using for. If you’re trying to achieve a specific type of motion, it’s almost always a matter of fully fixing the part in every direction, except for the degrees of freedom needed to create the motion. In this SolidWorks video tutorial, we’ll look at a simple example of mating a pin into a slot so that it is free to slide and rotate within the limits of the slot.
I think you missed the point of the question; hopefully most people are familiar with the concentric mate. Showing the limit mate is helpful.
What I believe the question was referring to is mating a pin into a slot (as you would machine into a part with an endmill). There isn’t a “center axis” of the slot that the concentric mate works with. I typically mate the center axis of the pin to the center line of the slot. You could also use the Cam mate and turn the perimeter of the slot into a path, but I suspect that would require more processing power to solve.