how to save as new mirror part in different planes

[jzhang-3]

When I save as "mirror part", there are no options for mirroring plane, it looks alway mirror in a default plan or coordinate system.

Is there a way to select different plane as in model operation?

Thanks

[Mahesh_Sharma]

Hi Jack,

As Steven mentioned currently there is no option to define references when saving part as "Mirror part". You can vote for the Product Idea submitted by Steven here.

[dgschaefer]

There is, but it takes creating a temporary assy.

1. Make the assy and assemble your source part
2. Select "Component Create" and "part" as the type, "mirror" as the Sub-type
3. In the "Mirror Part" dialog, select the mirror type and uncheck "Placement Dependant" to avoid making the mirrored part a child of the assy.
4. Pick the part you want to mirror
5. Pick a plane to mirror about. If you pick a plane in the target pat itself then the new mirrored part will not be a child of the assy and the assy will not be needed to keep it up to date.
6. Select OK to create the part
7. Open the mirrored part and save it.
8. Discard the temp assy.

[dgschaefer]

I was reminded of this post because @sxw9637 Kudo'd it.  The fact of the matter is that, while this method works, it does not produce a different orientation or geometry than simply using the File > Save As > Mirror command.

[sxw9637]

I used the method a few times yesterday, it worked well.  I was able to mirror the part about whichever plane I needed to, which was different each time since the part to be mirrored to make a right/left, then front/back, and top/bottom (total of 8 unique parts).

Using the SaveAs Mirror command didn't give me the option to select which plane to mirror about.

Only complaint was when editing the new mirrored components, if the feature being edited was before the mirror feature in the model tree, you would be editing it on the un-mirrored version and have to think about the mirroring(s), since the thing you were editing would now show at the other end of the part.  I.e., just like editing an earlier feature makes the model roll back in the tree to that point, the same is true when editing something before the mirror feature, and it can be somewhat confusing.

Using Creo 4.

[dgschaefer]

I'm still on Creo 2, perhaps it's improved.

I found that opening a part created either way and putting it in default orientation revealed the same result. It was as if I had mirrored about the FRONT plane regardless of what plane I actually selected.  Again, perhaps this is different after Creo 2.

I'm not sure what you mean by adding features to the mirrored part before or after the mirror feature.  In my mirrored parts, the mirror feature is the only feature.

[sxw9637]

Hi Doug,

Not sure about Creo 2, but in Creo 4, when using the Mirror Component in an assembly, there's a place to specify the mirror plane.  The part in my screenshot below is a bad example since the part's symmetric already if I were to flip it around, but it's creating a new component by Mirroring across the Right plane.  It's also a bad example that I used the Assembly datum plane - I should be using the Part's datum plane.

There's also an option to pick "geometry" or "geometry with features".  If you pick "geometry", you get what you're showing.  But, if you pick "geometry with features", you retain the model tree followed by the Mirrored Merge item in the model tree.  So you can go back and edit features created before the Mirror, but you're editing it on the unmirrored version (since it rolls it back to before the Mirror to do it).

I'd also upvote that solution posted by @Mahesh_Sharma, but unfortunately I get an access denied message. 😞

[dgschaefer]

Ah, that makes more sense.  I've never used the mirror with features functionality.

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@sxw9637 wrote:

Not sure about Creo 2, but in Creo 4, when using the Mirror Component in an assembly, there's a place to specify the mirror plane.  The part in my screenshot below is a bad example since the part's symmetric already if I were to flip it around, but it's creating a new component by Mirroring across the Right plane.  It's also a bad example that I used the Assembly datum plane - I should be using the Part's datum plane.

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I understand this, my point is that it doesn't seem to make a difference in the geometry that results.  I've mirrored the same part using the Save As > Mirror function and using an assy and a datum plane, but the two resulting parts are indistinguishable. I'm not sure that using an assy gets you anything for the extra effort.  Again, perhaps beyond Creo 2 it's different.

[sxw9637]

Yup, that's true, the geometry that results is the same whether you use an assembly datum plane vs one internal to the part.

One of the other posters in another thread said that if you use an assembly datum plane, that the resulting part is a child of the assembly and you'd need the "temporary" assembly to be in session in order for the mirror to continue to work.  If the plane is internal to the part, that wouldn't happen.  I saw it in a couple places, I think you outlined it in your earlier post from 04-09-2014 (which was pretty helpful).

That made sense to me so I made sure to always use one of the part's datum planes, though I didn't investigate it further to verify that there'd be a problem mirroring about an assembly plane when that "temporary" assembly were discarded / not checked in / etc.

-Seaver

[dgschaefer]

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@sxw9637 wrote:

Yup, that's true, the geometry that results is the same whether you use an assembly datum plane vs one internal to the part.

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Not to belabor the point, but that wasn't what I was saying. In my experience the geometry is the same for all mirrors, regardless of how they were created.  Mirror by the FRONT, RIGHT, TOP or some other plane, assy planes or part planes or even just do a file > save as > mirror, they all result in the same geometry and same default part orientation.  I don't think that should be the case, but it is.  Given that, there's really no advantage in creating the assy and picking your mirror plane.  Just save as > mirror and be done with it.

Starting with this part, shown in default orientation:

and doing a Save As > Mirror, I get this, also shown in default orientation:

If I assemble it to a temp assyt and mirror about the part's TOP plane, the assy looks like this:

But, if I open the mirrored part, it looks like this, in default orientation:Identical to the Save As > mirror part.  Selecting the top plane only effected its position in the temp assy., which I don't care about.

[sxw9637]

Ah, this is true, good point Doug.

TIL that it appears to be just a principle of symmetry that if you mirror something about a plane, the resulting something is independent of the plane you mirror it about.  Makes sense when you think about it; I can't think of a counterexample, at least.

Guess that's why PTC doesn't let you pick what plane to mirror about when doing a SaveAs > Mirror, since it doesn't matter.

[dgschaefer]

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@sxw9637 wrote:

Ah, this is true, good point Doug.

TIL that it appears to be just a principle of symmetry that if you mirror something about a plane, the resulting something is independent of the plane you mirror it about.  Makes sense when you think about it; I can't think of a counterexample, at least.

Guess that's why PTC doesn't let you pick what plane to mirror about when doing a SaveAs > Mirror, since it doesn't matter.

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It only really matters in terms of the orientation of the geometry to the default CS.  It'd be nice to be able to define which side faces up and front.  Now, I usually need to define a second CS for assembly purposes. Not a huge deal, really, but an extra step I'd like to avoid.