[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by mplanchard

Adam

I believe you are talking about square shafts and square holes. This has been an issue. SolidWorks recreated all VEX components from the VEX Starter Kit for Square Bot and they are posted on www.3dcontentcentral.com. Search for the parts with a May 25, 2008 or later creation date such as Shaft-3000 and VL-PLATE-5-15 Rev A. You will see that these components have Axis build down the center of Square Holes and the parts have what are called Mate References. Mate Reference allow you so select coincident of concentric geometry when you insert a new part into the assembly - like Toolbox components. I can get your mates down to two or even one depending on the position in the assembly because the new VEX parts in SolidWorks are very smart. These are competition standard, materials have been assigned and mass has been confirmed with the physical shape of Square Bot components.

Marie

Actually, I was refering to the standoffs that you mate to the square hole though it seems like the same solution. I ended up cheating and prayed to design gods that the standoffs were symetrical. I ended up constraining the part using two symmetry constraints. I will try using the reference geomtry that I see in your videos. Also, is there any form of collision detection in Solidworks? I have a model of the Vex tank tread but I ended up jumbling it up into one giant mess of collisions.