Mirror nested blocks, but not flip them.

[Anonymous]

English is not my mother tongue, so excuse my grammatics 😉

I've searched the forum, but can't understand the posts that contains what I need. So I start a new thread in hope that I will get a clearer answer.

I'm plotting in electrical sockets, switches and different electrical symbols on house drawings.

Often we come a cross vertically separated houses for two or more families. (Two apartments identical, but mirrored)

Problem:

My ideal situation is to place the symbols on one side, and then mirror it to the apartment on the other side.

The problem is that then I flip all the symbols, and it looks a bit unprofessional 🙂

I've played around a bit with dynamic blocks, but can't understand how I can solve this.

Can anyone help!? 🙂

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I have attached a page from my personal electrical block library.  Many of the blocks are dynamic and might be what you are looking for.  Let me know if this is close and if you need help in modifying your blocks to work the same way.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[beyoungjr]

I haven't looked at the block library from @john.vellek yet but I bet there are useful ones in there for you.

If you wish to try to modify your own block/s to include a flip parameter and flip action it's pretty easy.

Try a simple light switch block.  When you mirror your floorplan all of the switches will be backward from the initial design of the block.

If you open the block in the block editor you can first add a flip parameter by selecting a point in the vertical center of the block and projecting the "flip line" vertical.  Then just position your parameter id alongside the block somewhere.  The proceed to add the flip action by selecting the flip parameter that it will be applied to, selecting all of the objects in the block (window around all, including the parameter), then eneter to finish.  Exit the block editor saving your changes.

When you look at your mirrored floorplan you can select each light switch block and click the flip arrow to reverse it.

Consider this your first adventure in dynamic blocks and enjoy exploring further if you wish.

As for mirroring the floorplan without mirroring the entire block/symbols... sorry but that's not possible as of this time.

Again, I bet the block library provided is great but I always encourage learning as well.  You can probably dissect some of those blocks to see how they are constructed.  Great learning opportunity there!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Ok, thank you both!

I think there's a lot of work flipping each symbol. 

So the conclusion is that I just have to mirror them and leave them flipped? 🙂

Thank you @john.vellek for the library. I'm working in Norway, so our electrical standard symbols are different, so it doesn't do me much good 🙂

Anyway, I learned something from looking at it!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

NO you do NOT need to leave them flipped.  If you not using dynamic blocks then simply select the "mirrorred" blocks and in the PROPERTIES palette change the X scale (mirror Left to right) or Y scale (mirrored top to bottom) from -1 to a positive 1 (or whatever scale was used when inserting) and the blocks will flip back.  Make sure the blocks are on unique layers to make their selection simple, turn off everything but that layer, then select and alter the X scale.

[beyoungjr]

This sounds exactly like what he was looking for.  Never tried this myself but makes complete sense!

Gonna play with it a bit later.

Excellent @Anonymous!

[Anonymous]

Thank you!
There's always an easy solution to a problem!
I didn't try it with the hole bunch, but one symbol worked perfectly, will try more later.

Thank you very much @Anonymous

[Anonymous]

As long as they are all the same scale it'll work for all of them at once. 

[Anonymous]

It worked!

Only thing, I had misplaced some of the orientation points, so it turned up side down some places.

But hey, that's just me! ;D

Again, thank you very much @rculp

[Anonymous]

You are quite welcome.  Take a minute to redefine your blocks with an insertion point centered on the objects for next time.