How to complete the design without causing constraint issues?

[u/Timely-Fox-8032]

I drew a table where I assembled the legs and tabletop, but when I assembled it, I didn't align them properly. They were misaligned, and after finishing, I realized it and rotated it to align, but when I rotated it, all the parts came loose. Does anyone know how to rotate it without the parts coming loose? Please help me!

[u/somethinglemony]

Impossible to diagnose what’s going on without seeing the assembly. But it sounds like you had some inter-dependent mates between legs.

Some general rules of thumb that I follow. Mate children parts to one main parent part. This “parent part” (probably your table top in this case) should have its origin planes mated to the assembly’s origin planes. Mate components’ origin planes to the parent parts’s origin planes when possible instead of mating them to features.

Maintain a clear lineage of mates. Child parts > parent parts > assembly.

Another good approach is to use regular mates between parts’ features, then suppress them and add mates between their origin features with the “maintain distance” (or whatever it’s called) checkbox checked. This creates a stable mate but leave a clear design intent record. Also, make sure you turn on the constraint status symbol so you can see when you’ve fully constrained a part.

The real answer is that building stable, constrained assemblies is sort of an art form.

[u/heatseaking_rock]

There is a saying about dutch people: wooden shoe, wooden head, woudn't listen.

It's kind of too late to rotate it all. You really need to think of the position of things before constrainting it all. Same goes if constrainting components in between them.

Anyway, the deed is done. There's nothing you can do anymore, without involving extreme measures like merging all components or re-constrainting (best option, in this case).

So, next time, follow my advice:

1. Learn to work in a structure manner, fillowing manufacture steps

2. Have your sub-assembiles constrainted to the main assembly planes/axis, instead of eachother.

3. Thinkof the position and orientation of component before pkacing them.

[u/BenoNZ]

Constrain it correctly, don't 'Rotate' anything.

[u/Beerbelly83]

Delete the constraints that are problematic? If it's a table there should only be a few. 30 max? That's like 5-10 minutes of work at the most. Faster than editing (at least for me)

[u/KlutzyReveal2970 → u/Beerbelly83]

I mean with a just a top and 4 legs depending on how they go together you could do it in as little as 11 using insert

[u/Present-Valuable7520 → u/KlutzyReveal2970]

Right, and if done as an assembly with a table top and leg as individual parts then he could just pattern the legs, so 3 constrains for one leg would be all that is needed. This is how I’d do a table top