Most of the products that we interact with in our daily lives, such as laptops, phones, and cameras, are made up of many different components that have been put together; that is, they have been assembled. One of the major elements of mastering SOLIDWORKS is being able to use SOLIDWORKS assemblies, which allow us to mix multiple parts together to create a single artifact. In this chapter, we will cover basic SOLIDWORKS assemblies, and in particular, standard mates. By the end of this chapter, we will be able to mix different parts together to form basic assemblies. The objective of this chapter is to get us generating complex artifacts by linking different parts together and creating an assembly. 

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Opening assemblies and adding parts
• Understanding and applying non-value-oriented standard mates
• Understanding and applying value-driven standard mates
• Utilizing materials and mass properties for assemblies