Mirroring an extrusion that goes 'to surface'. Surface isn't on mirrored side

[trickepat]

Hello, first timer poster here.

Solidworks 2011. I am trying to mirror an extruded cut that goes up to a surface which is not on the mirrored side. This causes the mirorred cut to cut completely through until it reaches the surface on the original side.

When I try to just mirror the geometry, solidworks tells me that that isn't possible.

I tried to create a plane where the mirrored surface should be but I have no real idea how exactly to do that. I suppose I could find the start point of the surface and then measure the angle, but I will probably be making changes to this model and may not remember that I have to manually change it.

There has got to be a better way! Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[carson32]

If your entire part is symmetric you could try creating half the part, then mirror the solid. If your part is not symmetric, and the mirroring of the solid is not possible, you could perform the first extruded cut, then convert entities of the first extrusion into a new sketch, then perform another extruded cut up to the second surface.