topic Re: Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs? in Fusion Support Forum

Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs?

thespaltydog — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 01:15:08 GMT

Hello,

I'm curious if there is anyway to copy components and position them similar to a mirror effect for non-symmetrical designs. I use fusion for modeling furniture and would like to use it to make my build plans as well. A lot of the pieces I model typically consist of a base and some type of cabinet on top of it. Recently I did a model using mirroring and mid-planes which worked great for modeling, however it blew my parts list up and made it unmanageable due to all the added components. I'm unable to simply copy & rotate certain parts because they are offset from my origin due to the base. For example, I could copy & rotate the sides of my cabinet because I have the Y-axis to reference. However, I'm not able to do this for the top and bottom of the cabinet because I don't have a centered axis to reference. This is where the mid-plane and mirroring works great but now I have 2 parts on my part list that are exactly the same.

I've also tried things like point to point but found once I start changing my parameter values things start getting weird.

I would appreciate any tips you have! I've also attached my file to better show what I'm working on.

Thanks!

Re: Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs?

jeff_strater — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 02:55:57 GMT

I'm a bit confused about what, exactly you need to do. But, here are the basics:

Mirror of a Component will do a true mirror - reflect the component about a plane. This always generates a new Component (with a different name - by default, it appends a "(Mirror)" onto the source component name. This needs to be a different component in the BOM because it will not be the same geometry as the original, if the component is not symmetric about that plane.
Copy/Paste of a Component will create a new Instance of that Component. It will be the same underlying component, and will show up as a second instance of it in a BOM. This instance will have the same geometry as the original. To position it, I'd recommend using Joints. This results in a parametric relationship that is associated to the selected geometry, and will update with changes to that geometry.

If that does not answer your question, please record a screencast of the operation you are trying to do, so we can see what doesn't work today. Thanks.

Re: Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs?

davebYYPCU — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 03:13:20 GMT

Couple of things, I don't use Parts List so have no idea how they work.

Plane 6 is a duplicate of the origin plane.

If you can't live with the origin here, put an axis where you need it.

In most cases where you are mirroring, you can Circular pattern and have the parts list become correct, as far as I know.

One circular pattern, will do top, side, stretcher, door and handle, to make their duplicate.

To make the pattern your door sketch was a shocker.

I have not worked on the legs, 4 off, with 2 independent leg spreaders due to the combine Cutting, they would be a little too far from the base sketch.

Might help....

Re: Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs?

jhackney1972 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 03:34:38 GMT

@davebYYPCU has given you the answer and given you a partial model. I completed the assembly using Patterns and created the drawing so you can see the result. It is not much more work and as @davebYYPCU points out, the Parts List comes out perfect. (Pardon the material, I did not change my base material I use all the time)

Re: Alternative to mirroring for non-symmetrical designs?

thespaltydog — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 18:06:37 GMT

Thank you! I haven't really ever used the circular pattern tool before. I'll give that a shot moving forward. I also liked seeing how you added the new axis centered in the cabinet.