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Mirroring geometry

cummibj

New member
G'day

I am wondering if it is possible to mirror a part and to use that new geometry as a seperate part file. I realise i can mirror a part within part mode and this creates a exact mirror but this mirror is only kept within the same part file. In my business of heavy sheetmetal fabrication it is very common to have a mirrored part, but having to manually create 2 part files seems ridiculous when all the info is captured in the first part and only needs to be geometrically mirrored. I can't seem to find a way around this, any help would be much appreciated. Thanks Brett
 
With the part already completed, create a dummy assy with no datum planes.You will not be saving this assy.



Place the part in the assy, do not assy it to anything.



Select Component, Create, Part, Mirror, name the part, copy, select the part to mirror, now select a plane off the original part to mirror about, ok.



The new part will be mirrored, call up the new part (that's in session) up on the screen and save it. Now go back to the assy you created and do not savethe assy just wipe it out of memory.



You should have a new part the is completely independent from the model you mirrored from.
 
Moroso is right, but you really don't need to take the precaution of not creating datum planes in the assembly. These will not hurt. As he says, you will not be saving the assembly, it is used just long enough to create the copy. You can use your default startup assembly.



He told you to use the copy option. This is probably a good idea, but just note there is a reference option that will keep the two parts linked. When you change one, the other will change. I haven't tried it, but I imagine you would have to open the original, change it, then regenerate the new one.



Have fun
 
Hello ToddHammer,



You are exactly right about the default datums and copy/reference.



I just hate spending the time assembling something to the datum planes, I know you could bring in something with datums displayed and just have it packaged. I'm one of those old school Pro/E users that still is holding onto the old sketcher and not using Intent Manager 8^). When I was working at Rand it would kill me to have to use Intent Manager, slowed me right down.



As with copy/reference, copy is independent and reference is linking the 2 parts.
 
I have tried Moroso's technique to mirror a part and I get the following message when I try to pick the part to be mirrored:



The selected entity is external. It cannot be backed up.



Any ideas?



PS. I'm using wildfire.
 
Thanks for all the responses, worked well, one more question,

Is it possible to mirror a assembly, then designate new part numbers. ?



Regards Brett
 
Yes you can mirror an assembly. Use the same method as for parts. The only problem is you will mirror everything in the assembly. I have never come accross an assembly that is a complete mirror to another, usually they share parts that are not handed. If so suppress those parts before you mirror. Also, make sure you suppress any hardware, unless you want mirrored hardware.
 

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