Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I decided to model an industrial iron caster wheel with polyurethane tread, and all went well. Tonight I added three ribs to one side of the caster wheel, which looks great, but I would rather not repeat the process on the other side becaise of all the fillets and such which would have to be repeated.

Is it possible to split the wheel down the middle and then mirror the side with the ribs? I saw that I can split the model with a plane, but I can't figure out how to remove the geometry on the left side of the plane.

Thanks for any help. I'm sure my design intent was not what it should be before starting, but I'm new at this and am discovering as I go along.

Inventor 2013

Rendering is below. The other side is without the ribs.

Thanks!

[#2]

Post the file(s) here so others can see how you have modeled it to properly comment.

[#3]

As indicated - attach your file here as I suspect you might have done too much work already.

It would be trivially easy to split and mirror, but let's see what you have so far as it might be even easier than that.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

I suspect you are doing far to much work. I did 1/4 of the profile on the XY plane with the origin/center of the caster at the Origin Point, did the Revolution. Then created WorkPlane1 offset from the hub face for the sketch for the Rib. Did a single Rib and used the Circular Pattern to create the other ribs and then the fillets. Since I created the caster wheel using the Origin point for the Center of the Wheel, this then allowed me to use the existing XZ Plane to Mirror the completed side of the wheel.

[#5]

Thanks. Blair, I appreciate your going the extra mile to demonstrate the procedure for me.

When I first modeled the wheel I had no intention of doing the ribs, but decided later to take them on knowing that in order to do it correctly I would need to start from scratch.

For the ribs I created an offset plane from the hub and created a sketch of three lines, and then created the three ribs, then did the fillets. Even still, my intent was to only do one side since I was only trying to determine whether to paint the hubs black in real life (I'm restoring a c.1920 amusement park ride), so for that purpose I wouldn't need the other side.

Then of course I realized this was a learning opportunity and that I should rethink the design of the wheel to comply with accepted standards and to engrain them into my way of thinking. Naturally doing 1/4 of the profile would set me up for perfect execution, had I planned it in advance.

So now armed with the knowledge you've given me I'm going to create a new one tonight and utilize your strategy because I'm here to learn and I have great respect for a man when he gives me his time and instruction.

It's appreciated.

[#6]

I should ask, for the sake of understanding what is possible or not, can an existing model be sliced in half, with one half being discarded and the other half mirrored?

[#7]

Depending on how you modeled it it could be cut/split and then mirrored. When ever possible try and use the Origin point as the center/middle of your model.

You could have simply done a single rib and used the Pattern Componet command to fill in as many ribs as required.

[#8]

Thanks. Yes, I did go back and per your instructions created a new wheel with 1/4 profile, then created a new plane -1" from the outer rim. created one line on the new sketch and then made the single rib. After that I used a pattern feature command to create the other two ribs. Finally I mirrored the wheel to create a full one with 3 ribs on each side.

I'm pretty sure I created the original wheel longitudinally centered on an axis so theoretically I should be able to use that plane to slice it up the middle. I didn't fellet them since I seem to have that down pretty well. I wanted to concentrate on the pattern function to creat multiple objects or features.

Can you tell me how to do that if possible? Either the method is staring me right in the face and I just don't see it, or else it's not really practical to do so. Things have a way of hiding from my perception when my brain is fried enough from exhaustion.

Thanks again!

[#9]

The Mirror function, mirrors the selected Feature(s) used to create the part, so depending on the geometry after the slice. This is really a useless extra step and not sound modeling.

Not really sure what you are asking for in your final paragraph.

[#10]

Yes, I fully understand it's not sound modeling.

Let's say a client asks me to build a plastic case for his Electronic Mother-In-Law Silencer. The case must be asymetrical to allow for a heat sink since there will be times when the silencer must run at full power (Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.). 

The case is designed, but later he calls me and says that his engineers have found a way to use a different power transistor that runs cooler and therefore the large heat sink isn't necessary. He now wants the case to be perfectly symetrical. I wouldn't want to model the entire case again but rather slice it in half, delete the side with the heat sink protrusion and mirror the remaining side to yield me a symetrical piece.

This is a similar scenario to my wheel. I'm thinking of it as a time-saving move, in order to avoid reinventing the wheel should all the facts not be present at the time of the initial design.