Creating an Angle Constraint

Angle-type constraints fall into three categories:

	Angle
	Parallelism (angle value equals zero)

Now, when setting a parallelism constraint, green arrows appear on the selected faces to indicate the orientations.

Perpendicularity (angle value equals 90 degrees)

When setting an angle constraint, you will have to define an angle value. Note that this angle value must not exceed 90 degrees.

The tolerance i.e. the smallest angle that can be used to differentiate two elements is set at 10 -6 radians.

The following table shows the elements you can select:

	Line	Plane	Planar Face	Cylinder (axis)	Cone (axis)
Line
Plane
Planar Face
Cylinder (axis)
Cone (axis)

This task consists in setting an angle constraint between two planes.

Open the AssemblyConstraint03.CATProduct document.

Before constraining the desired components, make sure it belongs to a component defined as active (the active component is blue framed and underlined).

Click the Angle Constraint icon

This command is also available from the Insert menu.

Select the face to be constrained, that is the blue face as shown.

Select the second face to be constrained, that is the red face in the same direction of the blue face.

The Constraint Properties dialog box is displayed with the properties of the selected constraint and the list of available constraints:

	Perpendicularity
	Parallelism (you then need to define the orientation of the faces. You can choose between Undefined, Same, Opposite options)
	Angle
	Planar angle (an axis is to be selected. This axis must belong to both planes)

Keep the Angle option.

Enter 40 deg in the Angle field and keep Sector 1.

Note that four sectors are available:

Click OK to create the angle constraint.

As the angle constraint is created, the red component is moved so as to adopt its new position. A green arrow is displayed in the geometry area to indicate that this constraint has been defined. The angle value is displayed too.

This constraint is added to the specification tree too.

Graphic symbols used for constraints can be customized. For more information, refer to Customizing Constraint Appearance.