Mirror Component

[LMD001]

Hello Everybody

Is it possible to mirror components?

It seems I can only mirror bodies, after selecting the component in the browser and activating the mirror command, the selection is lost, all I can select are the bodies in only one component.

Again I must be overlooking something.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and kindest regards

Ludo

[zhanganchun · Accepted solution]

Hello Ludo,

Mirror Component is not supported yet. It's  a limitation. Currently we can only Circular/Rectangular/Path Pattern Component.

One workaround would be: you can mirror the body first, then use "Create Component From Body" by selecting those two bodies together. Hope that meet your needs. Thanks!

[LMD001 · Accepted solution]

Hi Terry

Thank you for your prompt reply! The workaround you proposed works OK for me!

Enjoy your Holidays!

"--I love Fusion 360."  Yep, me too!

Again many thanks and kindest regards!

Ludo

[zhanganchun]

Thank you! cheers!

[O.Tan]

Well since you guys are in the process of developing mirror components, I hope you guys take account that not all things mirrored has to be mirrored, some components can be rotated or reorientated, so technically the quantity is 2 pcs instead of 1 pc & 1 pc (MIR) get it?

Also would be nice to have a dialog options to give user the option to check if the mirrored components is mirrored correctly and the option to correct the mirror or re-orient it (individual components) instead. 

[jonrbloom]

This workaround assumes the component has a single body. I need to mirror a component consisting of sub-components with many bodies. Is this likely to be handled properly in the near future ? Trying to acheive this by processing each individual body, one at a time, isn't much fun.

[matt.pooley]

Yes, a more complete Mirror Component solution is planned for the near future (unfortunately not the upcoming update in July), so you will not have to manually re-create the component hierarchy.

Since we are on the topic, it might be good to check some of our assumptions.  We are assuming that, as an initial version, when mirroring components, the most important things to duplicate are the component hierarchy and bodies.  The second tier of requirements would include work geometry (planes, axes, work points), and inter-component joints.  The third tier would be mirroring sketches.

The reason why we have put sketches last is that mirroring of sketches is quite complex.  A pure mirror would result in a left-handed coordinate system, and Fusion sketching makes the assumption that we always have a right-handed CS.  The alternative (trying to get the same geometry, but in a "normal" sketch) is quite complex.  I'm pretty sure that Inventor mirror component does not support sketch mirrors, so hopefully that is not a critical requirement.

Perhaps the above is TMI, but we think it's better to be as open as possible.

Jeff Strater (Fusion development)

[jonrbloom]

Thank you Jeff, this is really good news.

Prioritizing mirroring to bodies and component hierachies makes perfect sense. I've never felt the need to put a sketch within a sub-component, and not having the joints recreated would only be a slight annoyance for me personaly.

Out of interest, how practical is the above suggestion for detecting null mirrors ? i.e. if a sub-component is symmetrical about the mirror plane, then use the original sub-component rather than creating a new one. I was imagining a post-optimization phase where you look for bodies who's mirrored coords match the un-mirrored versions ? I'm sure this is much easier to request than deliver, but thought I'd ask if you had considered this ?

[jeff_strater]

That's a very interesting suggestion.  I don't think I've ever heard of a CAD package that does that, but it makes obvious sense.  Why add an entirely new part to your design if you could re-use the one you already had?

However, as you suspect, it's a bit of a challenge to do this.  Not a conceptual challenge, it's just work.  This might be a good thing for us to try as an API add-in.

Thanks for the great suggestion.  I will bring it up with the team, but my guess is that it will not make the initial cut.

Jeff

P.S.  My earlier comment was made while I was logged in as Matt.  I apologize to Matt and the forum for the identity theft 🙂

[O.Tan]

Just to clarify is that any changes I make the component will be reflected to the mirrorred component right?

Also in regards to mirror, some parts is unidirectional so it makes no difference to mirror it (also it messes up with BoM part quantity), this is more common when one is trying to mirror an assembly.

To avoid Fusion from doing a mirrored error, i suggest something like a dialog table (appear to confirm mirror action) which will highlight all parts that will be mirrored and parts that Fusion think rotating will result the same thing will be left unhighlighted. In an event where Fusion gets it wrong (somehow even SolidEdge excellent mirror command still gets it wrong), the user is able to manually reorient it with options like: flip, rotate x, rotate y, rotate z.

Thanks for being as open as possible!

[jeff_strater]

Yes, absolutely.  That is the plan.  Any changes to the original components will be reflected in the mirror.  Think of this as just another feature in the timeline.  If you roll back before the Mirror Components feature, the mirrors will disappear, and if you change the original, the Mirror feature will recompute and update the mirrored components.  Changes in hierarchy, body changes, geometry changes, all will update.

Of course, if you make references to the mirrored components, those will be subject to the normal compute rules.  For instance, if you have a original component A, then mirror it to A(mirror), then you make a joint to that component, then you go back and delete component A, then when the Mirror computes, A(mirror) will cease to exist, so the joint will fail, but hopefully that is all as expected.

Jeff

[eric_strebel]

Interesting thread. I am working on a pair of sunglasses and I have a inserted hinge assembly, that I have properly orientated and now need to mirror to the other side. Guess I can't...

Any idea for when something like this would be implemented?

[TrippyLighting]

You can still mirror a body an then make components of the original and mirrored body. It does not provide you withthe same clean tree in the broswer and he same lexibility but it's an OK workaround.