Hold two bodies together

Two bodies in a document are two solids standing where their sketches put them. A joint holds one against the other, so moving the first carries the second and turning the joint swings it.

You need two bodies. Manage the timeline has New body, and Import a solid brings one in from a file.

Make the joint

1. Switch to the Model view.
2. Click the face you want the other part to sit on. In the Joints section a button appears: Grip face of Body 1. Press it. The face it is holding is now shown as a chip.
3. Click a face on the other body. The button becomes Joint Body 2. Press it.

The second body turns its face to meet the first and lands centred on it. The list now reads Body 1 holds Body 2.

TIP

Pick the face you want them to meet ON, on both parts. The two faces are brought together facing each other, which is why a plate's top and another plate's bottom mate flush.

Stand it off, or swing it

The row carries two fields:

• offset, millimetres along the axis the two faces share. 5 leaves a 5 mm gap.
• angle, degrees about that axis. Type it and the part swings.

Grip a hole rather than a flat face and the axis is the bore's, which turns the angle into a hinge instead of a turntable.

Move the pair

Under the list, pick the body that holds and type into X, Y or Z. The held body comes with it, and the joint is not remade: it grips faces, so the answer is worked out again from wherever the holder now stands.

The fields are greyed for a held body. Its joint decides where it goes.

Let go

The × on the row removes the joint. The body it held goes back to standing where its own features built it, since the joint was the only thing putting it anywhere else.

When it will not

What you see	Why
No Grip button	The face is neither flat nor round, or it is a blend face with no durable name. Pick another
"already held by a joint"	One joint per body. Remove the existing one first
"jointed in a loop"	The chain closes on itself, so there is no body to start from. Remove one of the joints in the ring
"lost the face it gripped"	The part changed and that face is gone. Remove the joint and make it again

See also

• Joints, for the whole section
• A second body, for making the parts in the first place
• Bodies, to fuse the pair into one solid instead