Mirror tool problems

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Lately, for some unknown reason, my mirror tool has been acting up. It will not reference the point I tell it to mirror off of.

Example: I have a 4" thick wall and a partition that intersects perpendicularly. I want this same partition mirrored on the other side of the 4" wall, so I mirror with a reference point at 2" (the center of the 4" wall thickness). Normally this mirrors the partition correctly. However, it will not do this anymore. I can't make heads nor tails of what might be causing this, but where it ends up mirroring the partition is way off at some odd angle.

Anyone know what caused this and/or how to correct it?

Thank you in advance.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> so I mirror with a reference point at 2"

You can't mirror by a point, you need at least 2 points building up a mirror line.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Hi, thanks for responding.

I may have been a little unclear, let me rephrase the situation:

I select the mirror tool. I select the lines I want to mirror. It then asks me to specify first point of mirror line. This is when I have always typed in a certain number of inches. Say I don't type in any number, I just click the endpoint of one of the lines, it's going to mirror directly upon that point. However, say I want it mirrored 4 inches away from that existing line/object. Then I type in "2", hit "enter", and it should (and has always up until now) mirror the line/object precisely 4 inches away from the original line/object.

Does that make more sense?

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Anonymous wrote:

.... It then asks me to specify first point of mirror line. This is when I have always typed in a certain number of inches. Say I don't type in any number, I just click the endpoint of one of the lines, it's going to mirror directly upon that point. However, say I want it mirrored 4 inches away from that existing line/object. Then I type in "2", hit "enter", and it should (and has always up until now) mirror the line/object precisely 4 inches away from the original line/object.

....

---

Typing just 2 is not enough information in that situation -- 2 units from where? in what direction?  And hitting Enter after typing in 2 would not finish the Mirror command anyway -- you would need to give it another location on the mirroring axis.

I don't know how AutoCAD determines a location under those circumstances when only a single number is typed in, and it isn't always the same for me -- it may be influenced by what direction the cursor is currently relative to the last point, or to the origin, or something.  I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't ask for better information.

You could do it similarly to what you describe if you have some Object Snap mode(s) running and  have Object Snap Tracking on [F11 key].  But you would have to first hover over some Osnappable location until the little green plus sign comes on, and drag the cursor to establish a direction from there, and then type in your 2.  That would give you a first point of a mirroring axis 2 units in that direction from that Osnappable location, but you would also still have to give it another point to establish the mirroring axis direction from there.

[Anonymous]

Ok, since my explanation of the situation is obviously not clear enough, I'm sharing four photos illustrating exactly what is happening. Hopefully this will help to better understand what the problem is.

[Anonymous]

I do get your point

And yes you can mirror with a starting point and a distance, BUT:

To do that your "ortho " should be ON, so after hoovering you could add a distance to the command line and then mirror the object.

Type F8 key  to turn it on , then repeat the mirror operation and let me know how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Ortho only determines whether your mirrored object mirrors across the y and/or x-axis or not.

It doesn't really have anything to do with the problem. If you look at photo 3, to where my arrow is pointing, see how far out and random the point from which it is basing the mirroring action? I need that point to be 2 inches directly below the endpoint I hovered over to begin with, on the y-axis.

It has always worked this way, ever since I began using AutoCAD. But for some reason it's doing this now, and I don't know if I accidentally changed something or what is going on.

[Anonymous]

Make sure your Dynamic input is on

[dany_rochefort]

My best guess is your Osnap settings  causing the problem. Turn off all your osnap except endpoint and try it again. 

Either that, or some sort of ''Snap to Grid'' setting is messing w you. Make sure F7 Gridmode,F9 Snapmode, F10 Polar are all off.  F8 ortho snap on... It works just fine on my pc.  

If that still fails, just import you stuff into a fresh drawing and try again. Sometimes drawings become corrupt and weird thangs happen. 

Keep me posted!

[parkr4st]

OP

clarify select the end of the line.  did you select and click or just hover until the cursor "locked" onto the line end?

the hover and "lock" works as you want.  drag the cursor in the direction wanted and enter 2.  works for me

[akif.coku]

I get this similar problem. How did you resolve this? Could it be a repair of installation maybe?