Maya - Basic question

[will_...@yahoo.co.uk]

I'd like to import my Solidworks model to Maya for animation but...

Does maya have a feature, such as a mate in Solidworks, whereby I can
for example, rotate a wheel about an axle for animation (or a more
complex part)... how would you set up components in Maya to animate
this, i.e fix one component so that it doesn't move but easily rotate
a shape about the axle?.. does Maya have a component mating system or
do you need to just set the point about which it moves/rotates
numerically?

Thanks.