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Flat pattern of mirrored part?
- Thread starter sdb999
- Start date
Mandrake22
Mechanical
On your mirrored part, "Insert bends" with the same definition as the parent.
No problem. When you use "insert-mirror part" you end up with a mirrored part that is basically a dumb solid linked to the origninal part. Instead of creating your mirrored copy in this way, make a configuration in which you mirror the part about the required plane and then cut away the original half of the part.
- Thread starter
- #4
Mandrake22: Process bends can be inserted and a flat pattern view is generated in the model, and can be inserted into a drawing but displays as another top view, I could find no way to display it as a flat. Let us know if and what you do to make this work.
Stoker: Mirror solid body does work on sheet metal, but you must pick an edge surface as the mirror plane. Principal planes and bend surfaces can not be used, this makes mating much more complicated as the two parts can not share origin/plane information. Additionally merge bodies is required for sheet metal, so an additional cut/extrude is needed to separate the twins. It gets worse, only one flat is created for this file, the second must be manually created with configurations, derived configurations surpress/unsurpress etc. At the end of the day you have a handed sheet metal part fully associative to it's opposite hand brethren with flat patterns available for both. However no model items/dimensions, cosmetic threads or hole callouts for the mirrored part (separate bug).
Conclusion: Mirrored parts don't work yet for sheet metal, better luck next release! Our engineers could do this faster as two totally independent part files keeping up with the associative link on post-it notes.
Stoker: Mirror solid body does work on sheet metal, but you must pick an edge surface as the mirror plane. Principal planes and bend surfaces can not be used, this makes mating much more complicated as the two parts can not share origin/plane information. Additionally merge bodies is required for sheet metal, so an additional cut/extrude is needed to separate the twins. It gets worse, only one flat is created for this file, the second must be manually created with configurations, derived configurations surpress/unsurpress etc. At the end of the day you have a handed sheet metal part fully associative to it's opposite hand brethren with flat patterns available for both. However no model items/dimensions, cosmetic threads or hole callouts for the mirrored part (separate bug).
Conclusion: Mirrored parts don't work yet for sheet metal, better luck next release! Our engineers could do this faster as two totally independent part files keeping up with the associative link on post-it notes.
sdb999, I don't understand this comment: Additionally merge bodies is required for sheet metal, so an additional cut/extrude is needed to separate the twins.
I deal alot with sheet metal. I have never had a problem creating a sheet metal flat pattern from a mirrored part. I do as Mandrake22 suggests, and in the mirrored part I Insert>Bends.
Stoker, what advantage is there for creating mirrored parts with this method? I don't feel configurations should be used to create new parts in a production environment. Each part should have it's own file.
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"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
I deal alot with sheet metal. I have never had a problem creating a sheet metal flat pattern from a mirrored part. I do as Mandrake22 suggests, and in the mirrored part I Insert>Bends.
Stoker, what advantage is there for creating mirrored parts with this method? I don't feel configurations should be used to create new parts in a production environment. Each part should have it's own file.
Wanna Tip? faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
- Thread starter
- #6
Usually on a mirror body command you can "not merge" the resultant bodies. This is useful sometimes because you can hide one body or the other individually.
Yep. Somehow the bends suppression state got flipped in the flat pattern config. Once that was fixed flat patterns look good. But I still can't figure out how to display, cosmetic threads and model dimensions, without which this function is useless to us.
Yep. Somehow the bends suppression state got flipped in the flat pattern config. Once that was fixed flat patterns look good. But I still can't figure out how to display, cosmetic threads and model dimensions, without which this function is useless to us.
That is a short fall of mirrored parts, there is no thread data or dimensions to insert, it's just a empty part. But, it doesn't take that long to manually add that information in.
The only time I use mirrored parts is when the parts are truely mirrors of another part, being identical in every aspect except for the direction of bends/features. I know people that use a mirror part as the basis of a simliar but entirely different part. They hack bits off here, add chunks there... that's not a good practice.
Wanna Tip? faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
The only time I use mirrored parts is when the parts are truely mirrors of another part, being identical in every aspect except for the direction of bends/features. I know people that use a mirror part as the basis of a simliar but entirely different part. They hack bits off here, add chunks there... that's not a good practice.
Wanna Tip? faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
- Thread starter
- #8
Our machines are handed, like a car, identical in all other respects, so this will be a huge problem at go live if I don't find a reasonable work around. I wonder if copying the drawing of the original and then changing the references would work?
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- #9
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