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Mirroring part and copy drawing

jmayer
4-Participant

Mirroring part and copy drawing

Hi,

I would like to mirror a part and give it a new item number. Let's call the first model "Model A" and the mirrored model "Model B". Is there any way to copy the drawing from Model A to Model B?

Thanks in advance,

Jason

16 REPLIES 16
Dale_Rosema
23-Emerald III
(To:jmayer)

If it is truely a mirrored part, here are a couple of thoughts.

On the drawing state that the Left Hand (or Right) is shown and that the other part number is mirrored. That way if you have changes to make, you do not have to update two sets of drawings.

Or you could use sheet two for the mirror part for views, but refer to sheet one for dimensions.

Dale_Rosema
23-Emerald III
(To:Dale_Rosema)

Or you could follow this discussion about copying parts and drawing:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/188570#188570

jmayer
4-Participant
(To:Dale_Rosema)

I've been following this discussion but I'm not sure it applies. The save as mirrored part option does not give the opportunity to copy the drawing.

Dale_Rosema
23-Emerald III
(To:jmayer)

No, but you could copy the original to a new name and then mirror it and you have the new part with its new drawings.

jmayer
4-Participant
(To:Dale_Rosema)

Sorry, it is a mirrored part; however, I do not want it linked back to the original. The two parts are not identical. I wanted to mirror it first, then make small tweaks to it.

Hi Jason...

You'd save yourself one monster of a migraine headache by just remodeling the thing. There are a few ways to accomplish a mirrored part. None of them are really ideal. There was a time you could've made a mirrorer part and it would work the way you're intending. Over the years the mirroring functionality has changed quite a bit. Now most mirror operations generate this oddball merge feature which handles the mirroring. It's really bad in my opinion.

There are ways to mirror without the weird merge feature... but you have to use a bit of trickery and several extra steps to get what you want. I really dislike mirrors to the point that I try never to use them. But... I'll go back and take a look to see what the best methods are with the current software.

What version of Creo or Pro/ENGINEER are you using?

Thanks!

-Brian

jmayer
4-Participant
(To:BrianMartin)

I used "save-as" mirror part which resulted in the weird merge feature. I don't like it either, but can you elaborate on why it's bad?

We are using Creo 2.

Hi Jason...

Go to the Tools menu and step through the model using the Model Player. You'll see how everything in the mirrored model builds itself in the wrong direction. Then, at the last moment, that weird merge feature pops up and everything flips to the other side!

You can't get rid of that merge feature. It's just sitting there looking at you... giving you the evil eye waiting to get all corrupt-y and blow your model to shreds.I don't like those new mirrored merges and I simply don't trust them. It used to be that your dimensions would pop up out in space on the mirrored parts. They're tried to fix some of those issues... but if you ever try to use annotations or any other model-based geometry (GTOLS, etc) just be aware that mirrors are notoriously glitchy. You may or may not get to keep those model-based features in your mirrored part.

So... instead, I have another way. If you go to the Model->Operations->Feature Operations->Copy->Mirror->Select option, you can copy most of your model and keep it separate from the original. Plus, you get native features- and no weird mirrored merge. All your annotations will continue to work, too. There's a bit of trickery involved in doing this, though and I am frankly a bit too tired to continue for the evening. I will try to pick this up tomorrow. I'm sitting here trying to recall what the exact technique for doing the mirror is... and I'm just getting nowhere.

I know you do not use the mirror "All Feat" option. That does something else odd. The trick is something like... use the feature operations mirror to copy all but the default datums. You make a datum plane a bit out in space so your new mirrored features won't intersect the old/original ones. Then, you create the mirror. Once the mirror has been created, a group with all the new features will appear at the bottom of your model tree. Ungroup this.

This is where I forget the next step. You're supposed to be able to delete all the original features now but they appear to be stuck to the new ones. You either have to do "something" to break that relationship... or else you use another ultra rare feature in the feature operations menu (Copy->From DifModel) to bring these features into a new model.

Like I said... too tired to figure it all out right now. There are, I believe 4 ways to make a mirror (I might be missing one):

  • Save As ->Mirror Geometry Only (Dependent/Independent options)
  • Save As ->Mirror with Features
  • Feature Operations -> Mirror
  • Create->Part->Mirror from assembly mode.

All but the Feature Operations method leaves the mirrored merge.

Off to bed!

Hi Jason...

I totally struck out on this one. I was able to create the mirror without the extra merge feature. But I was just unable to break the new features off from the old ones. I'll try a few more ideas. Seems like you may have to live with the weird merge feature. 😕

Thanks!

-Brian

jmayer
4-Participant
(To:BrianMartin)

Thank you for your replies. If you run across something, please let me know.

Thanks again,

Jason

Daves1
1-Newbie
(To:jmayer)

In Creo 2.0

Fiile > Save As > Mirror Part

- Dave

Dale_Rosema
23-Emerald III
(To:Daves1)

Dave,

Does that work for the drawings also or just the model?

Thanks, Dale

Unfortunately only with the model....

If your drawing has the same name as the model and is in the current working directory or session, you can use the config.pro option rename_drawings_with_object part

It will save a new drawing with the name of the (mirrored) copy.

The functionality is not very common, so don't expect too much of it. But it may be worth a trial.

P.S. Note that File > Save As > Mirror Part is creating the copied part in session only. You still need to save it to disk.

But the option will save the copied drawing to disk.

That works Pretty good!

 

you have to do the 2d drawing before you save the 3d part as Mirror Image?!

 

 

Add rename_drawing_with_object to your config.pro file

Then go to file >save as > mirror part

And it should work

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