Mirroring a (giant) assembly that has already been drafted.

[Vrtig0]

Ok here's the situation:

Using ST2

I've created a 10 cabinet assembly in sheet metal and completely drafted the assemblies, individual enclosures, and the flattened sheet metal parts that will be sent to be manufactured.

My issue is this: This entire assembly will also be created as a mirror of itself to go in another part of the building.

I've dug through the forums and haven't found an answer to this question, so here it is.

If I mirror this entire 10 section assembly across the y plane in order to generate the mirrored parts I need, will I have to go and create an entire separate draft of each mirrored assembly, enclosure and sheet metal parts? I'm at 25 pages, which is actually pretty small compared to some others I've done, but I'd really rather avoid this if possible.

 

[beachcomber]

Are ALL the parts mirrored or are some just rotated or moved to the other side?
You will only have to re-draw the mirrored parts, and you could just add a note on the original drawings such as

Item 1 - As Drawn
Item 2 - Opp. Hand

etc.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?

 

[Vrtig0]

well, with the way it's designed, pretty much everything would end up mirrored. Technically, I suppose with the sides of the enclosure, I could just call out the bends in the opposite direction, but the roof and doors would have to be exact mirrors.

I suppose I should stop looking for a lazy way and just redraft the damn thing. =)

Thanks for the input.

 

[KENAT]

You aren't being lazy, just trying to be efficient and it's the sort of thing that intuitively you'd think CAD should be able to do with a click of a button.

However, I think the reality is more complex, I can't think of a simple way to do it in SE.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[kjoiner]

One thing you could try is to use Revision Manager to copy the draft files and then use it to replace the model referenced in the "new" draft file to the mirrored one. You'll probably end up with a lot of dimensions to clean up but it may be worth a try.


Kyle

 

[beachcomber]

One thing to remember is that your mirrored parts will be Part Copies.
I've had to do similar things in the past, although most of the parts were not mirrored. It was more a case of the assembly being the mirror.
In the end it was quicker and better to just redraw them from scratch.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?

 

[Vrtig0]

which is what I ended up doing. I created an assembly copy and modified the parts that needed to be modified.

as to the draft copy, I hadn't thought of that. Wouldn't that still require doing a replace of every single drafted flat pattern as well though?

I ended up just drafting everything from scratch.

 

[beachcomber]

Good man.
Better to just get it done properly - then you have them all done if you need to modify or re-use.
It might take a little longer but its wort the effort and could save a lot of bother later.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.

Where would we be without sat-nav?