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AE_96099891-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 7, 2021
Solved

Mirror component with varying features

  • May 7, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 6247 views

Hi,

 

As I dive even deeper into the mysteries of Creo 6.0, I find myself experimenting with the mirrored assembly component.  Traditionally, our tooling designs use family tables to vary features on dieblocks that are mostly symmetric.  When I say "mostly symmetric" I mean that some features, like the parting surface or runner and gate systems are symmetric around a top level assembly plane.  But other features may not be symmetric, like waterline systems or the cavity mark number.

 

I've been experimenting with the mirrored component as a possible alternate technique, and I've noticed that a mirror component that is saved as it's own file still maintains geometric symmetry, regardless of if the feature history tree is passed along during the save.  I thought that maybe after mirroring the part, I could open the mirror and add new features that would not be reflected in the source part.  As an example, dieblock 1 is created, then saved as a mirror as dieblock 2.  I then created new extrude features after the mirror that mark each block as "1" and "2" respectively.  Sadly, the symmetry between mirror components is bi-directional, updating either dieblock updates both, regardless of when the mirror was applied in the history tree.

 

What would make life super great for me was if I could make the mirror part behave sort of like a family table.  I could model all the geometry that was going to be symmetric, sort of like how a family table has a generic source, and then after mirroring I could then add the features that were independent of each other, like the cavity marks that I mentioned.  The mirror would keep the stuff I wanted to be symmetric, and I wouldn't have so much work tracking the features that were not symmetric.

 

My gut says that creo won't allow this, but maybe one of the forum experts can confirm my suspicion

Best answer by tbraxton

Mirror options explained in this context. 

http://support.ptc.com/help/archive/creo30/creo_pma/usascii/index.html#page/fundamentals/fundamentals/fund_two_sub/To_Mirror_a_Part.html 

 

The mirrored merge is a result of the process I posted above using save as.

 

Family tables are not usually my first choice to control a design. I would need to understand in more detail the exact intent behind the parts to offer an opinion on if a table is the best way to control it. If you use windchill then family tables offer up some additional potential issues.

1 reply

tbraxton
22-Sapphire II
tbraxton22-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
May 8, 2021

If I understand what you want to implement, I think it is possible by mirroring the parts (not in assembly mode). Try the following:

 

Open the part of interest

File->Save As->Mirror Part

Select the Geometry only and Geometry Dependent options

Select OK to create the mirror part

 

You will then have a mirrored part with a mirror merge as the first feature. You can then add features as required that are unique to the mirrored version. This mirrored part will update if the mirror reference is changed so that the symmetric geometry is controlled by the reference part.

A
AE_96099891-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
May 10, 2021

So the key is to not be in assembly mode when engaging the mirror.  Why does creo see a difference in context if a part is mirrored in the assembly versus the part mode?

 

If I understand the mirror feature correctly, the geometry only selection means I'm recreating model surfaces only, no features that I can edit, since those will be controlled by the source part.  What is the geometry dependent option saying?

 

Also, what If I add features to the source part after the mirror part has been saved?  I'm looking to have symmetric geometry from before the mirror part has been saved, but then have features in both the source part and the mirror part that are independent of each other.  This is the part that I think creo won't be happy with.

 

tbraxton
22-Sapphire II
tbraxton22-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
May 10, 2021

This is a design intent map detailing how to structure the parts to provide the functionality you want. This exploits a single master model part to define the mirrored (common) features and enables the addition of features unique to the left and right versions that do not affect the master model geometry.

 

The geometry dependent option makes the mirror merge dependent on the master model reference part so the mirror merge will update when the master model is modified.Intent map for mirrored parts with unique featuresIntent map for mirrored parts with unique features

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