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!
