Changing the reference of mirrored parts

[timbochung]

Is it possible to change the reference of a mirrored part? I've already tried to edit the reference by clicking the reference button in the 'file open' window but the mirrored part seems to ignore this and maintain it's original link.

Tim

 

[APPENG]

If you mean editing the definition to point to a different part, I dont know of any way that you can do this without resorting to writing an API program to access the definition. Generally speaking that level is not accessible to edit by the end user.

Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com

 

[timbochung]

Thanks for the reply. I'm in the process of updating parts and documentation to reflect 'field changes' and these mirrored parts where mirrored from some mysterious face. This makes it difficult to make a new mirrored part that will update nicely in a drawing.

Tim

 

[APPENG]

Ahh I see what you mean... unfortunately it does not keep a "feature history" of the process including the plane so you can edit it. Its sort of like making a snapshot about whatever face or plane was used.

Wish I had better news for you.

Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If possible, measure between the original & mirrored part. Parallel planes from each part would be best. Then place a plane midway between the parts & either use that as the mirror plane for subsequently placed parts or select a feature which aligns with the newly created plane.

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have

 

[APPENG]

Blimey... no why didnt I think of that!

Good Idea!

Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com

 

[MadMango]

Just one more reason to make better use of Planes than faces when doing these typpes of things.

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?

 

[timbochung]

I'll try it out but I'm not sure if it will help my particular issue.

Whoever designed this part and assembly didn't use nice reference planes. I'm guessing that they designed everything in context and maybe later chopped it up into sub-assys.

I'm trying to avoid having to re-dimension a new drawing of the 'old' part.

1. PartA_rev1 -> MirroredPartA_rev1
2. Make change to PartA_rev1 and do a save-as to PartA_rev2
3. However MirroredPartA_rev1 now looks at PartA_rev2 and the part history is lost.
4. Good thing is that the original part drawing is still good and just requires minor changes to make it OK

Now for other scenario...

1. PartA_rev1 -> MirroredPartA_rev1
2. Make change to PartA_rev1 and do a save-as COPY to PartA_rev2
3. Now because there was some funky plane chosen as the mirror plane - when I create the MirrorPartA_rev2 - the manufacturing drawing is all messed up because the views are all in the wrong orientation.
4. Good thing though is that the original parts and drawings are still intact.

I've worked around it by saving a copy of the mirrored part and then pasting it back in.

Hopefully it not too confusing. Sure is for me...

Tim

 

[APPENG]

May I suggest that instead of created a new part file "rev2" that you instead create a new configuration and call it "rev2"... you can then create another mirror part of of that new modified configuration and each will point to the correct model.

External refernces can be selective about which configuration that you are interested in using.



Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com

 

[timbochung]

I'm a little hesitant about using configurations for revision control. Although it would work well for this situation, I'm thinking that it may make things more tricky later down the road in terms of file management. It's nice to have dedicated files for each revision...

Tim

 

[APPENG]

YEah I can see your point... perhaps its time to consider using a PDM at this point...

Happy hunting



Regards,
Jon
jgbena@yahoo.com