I have recently made the switch from 3ds max to maya, and I can use most of the tools in maya effectively. However one thing I have been having trouble with is symmetry. I Duplicate special, select instance, and change the first box in scale to negative one. I click duplicate special and it creates the object. The new object is symmetrical, but it was created inside the original object. This is probably a silly question with an obvious answer but I cant figure it out.
Thank you so much for the advice, it worked flawlessly. The only problem I still have is when i select a vertex on one side, it selects the symmetrical vertex and the one behind, selecting 3 instead of 2.
This sometimes happens when the pivot is centered to the object, move the pivot to the edge in the direction you want to duplicate and you can have solved your problem, the pivot needs to be in the center of the two objects, original and duplicated, you can translate the pivot as far as you want moved the duplicated object, or as near as you want, if the pivot is located just on the border, then your duplicated object will be closed to it.