How to Replace Assembly Components and Repair Broken Mates

How do you replace a component with another in a SOLIDWORKS assembly? There are a handful of ways to answer this seemingly innocent question, but depending on the approach you could be looking at a lot of added work.

Knowing how to properly replace assembly components in a SOLIDWORKS assembly could mean the difference between a quick swap and spending hours repairing broken mates.

Understanding Component Mates in a SOLIDWORKS Assembly

Before replacing assembly components, it is important to fully understand their mating scheme. In SOLIDWORKS, we can use the View Mates tool to quickly see what mates are attached to a selected component.

Using the SOLIDWORKS View Mates tool

With this tool active, the SOLIDWORKS graphics window is instantly filtered to show only the component and mated companions. Selecting a mate from the list will highlight the mate references, and an in-context window will appear with more options. Using this tool can make understanding a complex mating scheme easy.

How Not to Replace Assembly Components

A common method we see is to add the new component to the assembly, remove the old one, and then finally mate the new instance in place. While this may not be a problem for one or two components, it introduces a significant amount of rework each time a component is replaced.

Why You Shouldn’t Use This Method

• It’s manual and time-consuming.
• You run the risk of not using similar mates in the new component.
• You have less control over when mates break.
• There’s a better way to do it!

Using the Replace Component Command

The proper way to replace components in SOLIDWORKS is by using the Replace Component command. This purpose-built tool works best when the replacement component has a similar topology and required mates to the original component.

Step-by-step Guide to Using Replace Component

Using the Replace Component command is fairly straightforward, and the tool walks you through each step of the process.

1. Open the Replace Component command from the File menu or by right-clicking on an existing component.
2. Specify the component you want to add to the assembly. The PropertyManager will show currently open documents, but you can browse the file system for components as well.
3. Select whether you want all instances of the original replaced or just the one selected.
4. Determine if you want to re-attach mates on the new component. Typically, you would want to do this to streamline the process but if the new component is significantly different, then you may want to uncheck the box.
5. Hit the green check to confirm the operation and replace assembly components.

Using the Replace Component command in a SOLIDWORKS assembly

SOLIDWORKS will try to automatically remap the mates to the new component when using the Replace Component command. However, it cannot always do this, which leads to us having to manually remap the mates.

How to Repair Broken Mates After Replacing

In instances where SOLIDWORKS can not automatically map the existing mates on the new component, a new interface appears to help manually update mate references. The interface will show all the mates for the component that need to be remapped.

Step-by-step Guide to Update Missing Mate References

1. Select an unmapped mate in the dialogue box.
2. In the component preview window, select the replacement mate reference.
3. Repeat this process for all missing mate references.
4. Hit the green check to confirm the operation and accept the updates.

Remapping missing mate references

The Isolate toolbar will help in the process by showing only the relevant geometry and letting you quickly move between mates. Once everything is remated, the SOLIDWORKS assembly will behave as expected with the new component in place.

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