CAD for 18 years... so lost in Inventor

[ColinPearson]

I'm sure this is easy but I'm lost.  I've been working in CAD for quite a while, including a lot of 3D stuff.

I received some models that I need to get into CAD to make 2D blocks out of.  They are composed of numerous sub-pieces (parts maybe?) and they aren't aligned to anything useful i.e., the origin planes aren't square with the world.  The one guy I can ask at work (who is currently out) explained that I needed to create a new assembly, drag my original assembly into and then I can manipulate all teh pieces together as one without having to constrain every piece correctly in the original... he said they would come into the second assembly file with the same spatial relationships to each other as the original.  That all basically makes sense except that I'm not really clear on Parts, Assemblies, etc, but I think I can work through that for now.

 

Next Act:

Inventor guy  showed me how to create multiple Model States in the original Assy, then define some of the relationships between pieces so that I can 'toggle' between some variable positions of the pieces.  Okay, I get that too, at least at a high level.  He helped me set up two 'wings' that I can flip between two different Model States, so over in my final 2D Inventor drawings I can easily have views of the contraption in multiple positions.  These two things are arms that would hold counterweights on a crane via some hydraulic cylinders that extend into a hole in the counterweights.

 

Next Act:

I'd like to add the counterweights into the original assembly file, but since they're from a different file, it looks like I need to constrain them to the original somehow.  I have no clue how to do that.  I've tried for a few hours each over the last 3 days and it just does not make sense to me.  I tried Mating the blue cylinder with the center line of the hole below it, then repeating for the same feature on the opposite side of the model... I've tried adding planes offset and midway and through points then constraining those to various features, all kinds of stuff except for apparently the correct stuff.  I keep getting it 'stuck' in place where it doesn't belong and/or getting messages about errors updating the model.  I understand that for some reason the combination of constraints I'm trying to do can't be done on this geometry, but I have no idea how to fix it.  The only thing I don't know is the correct vertical distance between the counterweights (Ballast_#:1) and the rest of the model (various Oberwagen_#:1 named pieces), but I can find that out.

 

Would anyone be willing to constrain the Ballast:1 items for me so that I can see how it can be done and try to learn from that?  The blue cylinder in the screenshot should line up with the obvious hole below; same thing happens on the opposite side.  I hate to ask, but I'm jsut at a loss and not making any progress, not learning anything.

 

 

My ultimate hope is that the arm positions that change in the two different Model States will 'drive' the Ballast_#:1 pieces so that when I change States, the Ballast:1  pieces move inward/outward.  That may not even be possible but I feel like I have plenty to learn about constraining stuff anyways.

 

I APPRECIATE ANY HELP THERE MAY BE, THANK Y'ALL!

revolving frame.iam