2015 + 2016: Mirror issue

[WHolzwarth]

IMO, this is caused by bad placements relative to the origin planes. But it's part of an imported file.

Walter

Later: I've been trying another situation for this ring. Mirroring was ok, when a mirrored part was created. Mirroring failed, when part was re-used.

[karthur1]

Walt,

I didnt get any error when the ring was reused, it just wasnt placed correctly.  When I unground/constrain the first occurance of the ring, then it mirrors correctly when reused.

Kirk

I hate to get off on a tangent, but one grip with the mirror command, if I may. This is a perfect case of an issue I have with the mirror command. All the parts are the same on both sides of the mirror plane.  I would like to be able to select mirror and reuse ALL the parts.. the bracket, the washer and the ring. In order to do this, you have to copy/paste then constrain the items.  Mirror will not work unless at least one of the items is set to mirror. I have never understood that....In this case the bracket has to be copied or it will not work right.... rant over....

[WHolzwarth · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your comments, Kirk.

In a personal message from ADesk Support I've been asked for using constraints instead of grounded parts.

Why didn't I constrain the whole stuff?

- I'm from time to time looking at 3D stuff in Grabcad. Ok, this coin has two sides. But it is, as it is.

- If I'd want to totally constrain such an import (STEP, IGES, SWX or others), I'd could spend lots of hours. Therefore I'm only building additional sub-assys (if needed) after in a first step grounding all components.

- Sometimes each and every part of such an import comes in as a separate file, even though geometry is identical. Think of balls in a ball bearing.

- So, I could blow up my HD with these files, or do some cleanup. I'm using arrays for that, replacing files, or using mirroring. Normally mirroring and re-using is faster done than some rectangular arrays with different distances.

So far in theory. In reality, Inventor collapses, if bad placement of parts relative to origin axes appears, and they shall be re-used.

This surely can be improved, if only some development capacity is left besides all Cloud efforts.

Walter

[karthur1]

Walt,

Thats just what I had to do to get it to mirror... And I hear you about the importing.  Struggle with the same thing at times.

- Sometimes each and every part of such an import comes in as a separate file, even though geometry is identical. Think of balls in a ball bearing

Do you ever use the "Import assembly as single part" option?  If things on the assembly are pretty much static,  this helps with the files like you mention.

Kirk

[WHolzwarth]

Kirk, in most cases I'd like to have not only a single part, or even multibodies for an import of a whole machine.

I'm using imports of assemblies and parts, but as mentioned before, some clean-up helps, looking at final disk space and browser overview.

I'm still preferring sub-assemblies, because of having the ability for doing moves by constraint or DS simulations for sub-assys. But I don't need to constrain each and every part in these sub-assys. Grounding is the way to go.

Walter