Creating and changing new part from Mirrored part

[AEC2012]

Is there a way to change a new part from a mirrored part. I want to change tap holes to thru holes and add new holes. I can not find a way to edit a new mirrored part and some people tell me this cant be done but I thought I would ask here. Thanks Brian

 

[MadMango]

The mirrored part is "dumb" meaning that it does not have any Feature information as the parent part, but it is associative to the point if you change the parent part, the mirrored part will change.

If you need to add or remove Features in the mirrored part, you have to create new Features using Cuts, Extrudes, ext. So for those tapped holes, just add a new Cut-Extrude over them to make them thru holes.

Ray Reynolds
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
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[charbroil]

MadMango isn’t steering you wrong. Solidworks’ mirrored parts are ‘dumb’ solids, just like a STEP-in or Parasolid-in translation.

You cannot edit feature locations in any of the above, but should have no problem “filling them in” with an extrusion (have “Merge Result” on). That makes a seamless surface on which you can build the new features in the mirrored part.

Personally, I shy away from that because I like to control every single aspect of the mirror part with the Master Model (Parent part). This may seem complex, but after a few times it becomes second nature and does away with any editing of the dumb file.

If you’d like to try this, you can create an extra Configuration in the original Parent Part. This config contains the location and correct feature sizes that are unique to the Mirrored part. These unique features should be suppressed in all configurations except the new config.

If you’re doing this prior to creating your mirrored part, you’ll get the configuration name for free when you Insert/Mirror Part. If you’re doing this after-the-fact (with parts you already have), you can create the configuration in the mirrored part and synchronize it with the “List External Refs” dialogue box. The “Use Named Configuration” dropdown list tells SW which config to look at in the Original partfile when the current config is activated in the mirrored part.

I hope that made sense. It’s my first post and all.


"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[SBaugh]

If you saved in as a parasolid and had Feature works. Then you might be able to get around that limitation. Featrue Works might be able to recognize some of the features and let you edit them.

Just a thought.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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