Viewing the Assembly Mates for a Particular Component
SolidWorks provides you with several ways to view which mates are associated to a component.
The most general way is to place your cursor over the top icon in the assembly FeatureManager, and right-mouse-click. Choose the option Tree Display - View Mates and Dependencies. This will place the FeatureManager in a mode where all the mates are grouped beneath their components. To return to the default display mode, right-click again at the top icon, and select Tree Display - View Features.
SolidWorks 2000 added a new assembly function to make mate searches even more convenient. Right-click over any component, and select View Mates. This invokes a split-screen display of the FeatureManager, and fills the lower half with the list of mates affecting that component. Starting with SolidWorks 2007, this command also shows callouts in the graphics window to illustrate the associated mates.
SolidWorks 2004 added folders on the FeatureManager for the mates attached to each component. Expand any part or subassembly in the assembly FeatureManager and you will find a "Mates in <assembly name>" folder directly beneath the icon for the part or subassembly. Expand the tree for that folder and you will see a short list of the mates of the parent assembly which involve that particular component.
