Path mate is used when we need to constrain a point on a component as it travels along a certain path.

For example; if we want to make the red ball travel along the pipe.

launch the mate tool, and expand the advanced mates to choose the path mate option.

Two selection boxes appear to choose the point on the component that you want to constrain, and the path you wish the component to travel along.

I will choose a point that I have created on the red ball as the “component vertex”, and the curved sketch of the pipe as the “path selection”.

To select a sketch of multi-entities as a path; select the “Selection manager” option and choose open loop for an open looped sketch.

Or you can just select the entities manually.

 

 

We can make our ball follow the path: (start at its beginning and stops at its ending).

From the option Pitch/Yaw control; select: Follow the path.

We can choose to start the ball travel a distance from the beginning of the path:

Or a percent along the path:

Select Okay and drag the ball manually. If you have constrained it to travel only along the path; You will see it starts at the beginning of the path and stops at the exact end.