×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Mirror parts in Assembly

Mirror parts in Assembly

Mirror parts in Assembly

(OP)
Hi,

I mirror a part in the assembly. when I open the mirrored one separately, it has no intelligence, no features. Is there a way of preserving the features so I would be able to edit the part rather than it being "dumb"?

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

No.  Mirrored parts don't rely on feaure information, since it is all associated with the Parent part.

Ray Reynolds
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

(OP)
Thanks, I thought so too. just wanted to be assured.

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

m1mason,
That is the exact reason we discontinued the use of mirrored parts. We always wanted to modified the mirrored part a year later.

Bradley

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

Same here, we stopped using mirrored parts.  We had instances where the original part became obsolete or changed so dramatically the mirrored parts no longer served thier purpose.  This has happened a few times to many and therefore we now design individual models for left and right parts.

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

I'll add that I found this out a long time ago as well.  Now, I only use mirrored parts for the intitial design phase and prototyping of any project, and ensure that a fully-featured opposite-hand model is created for release and production.

Ray Reynolds
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

Hello Everyone,

In Pro/E you can mirror a part by copy and get all the features of the part to be independent like the original part.
The procedure is to create a new assy with no default datum planes, bring the component you want to mirror into the assembly (don't assy it to anything let it be unconstained), in the assy create a new part by mirror, name it, use copy not reference, select a datum from the original part the direction you want to mirror and the new part is mirrored.
At this point you call up the new mirrored part in a different window and save it to disk, wipe out the assy out of memory ... do not save that assy or it ruins everything.
By calling up the new part in a seperate window and saving it along with breaking all ties to the assy you now have a independent part from the original and a perfect mirror that you could modify all you want.

I know this is in Pro/E and I'm not trying to start any flames, I'm just trying to show a method of doing this that maybe someone could try in Solidworks since I am not that versed in the software. I'm sure there is someone that also uses Pro/E along with Solidworks from the group that could maybe try it in Pro then try it in SWorks, I'd be really interested to see if it works.

HTH

Brian

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

As soon as you mirror the part in the assy it becomes a "dummy mirror".  I don't believe there is an option to Copy the original, it references by default.  Pro E has a little more freedom that way.  

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

Thank you aamoroso for the feedback. I guess there aren't many options in this area.

BTW great name aaMOROSO 8^)

RE: Mirror parts in Assembly

I tried it.
If you mirror it in an assy then part1 becomes part1.
If you mirror it in as a part, the part1 it becomes part2, but still a mirrored part.

Bradley

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources