Midplane madness

[beananimal]

Simpe really.

Create an object. 

Mirror the object.

Create a midplane between those two objects.

Move on of the objects.

The midplane does not move. It is fixed to the original position. 

The "create the midplane first" is a chicken and egg problem, there is no midplane without the mirrored object. 

Solution, create yet another sketch constrained to the faces of both objects and then create a midline there. So around your rear to get to your elbow, adding insane complexity to something that should just be simple. "checkbox - move midplane with objects" done.  

I sound like a broken record, but this software is just insanely bad at anything more than the simplest of designs. To get anything reasonable done, one has to have an endless bag of workarounds. This introduces insane complexity and forces oversights and errors and defeats the entire purpose of parametric modeling. 

[jhackney1972]

To create a mirror of a body or a component, you are required to select a Plane during the process.  This plane becomes the mid-plane and if you edit the position of this plane, after mirroring, the two bodies or components will be the same distance from the plane. 

[g-andresen]

Hi,

Share a file with a corresponding starting position to reflect on the process

File > export > save as f3d on local drive  > attach to post.

günther

[beananimal]

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@jhackney1972 wrote:

To create a mirror of a body or a component, you are required to select a Plane during the process.  This plane becomes the mid-plane and if you edit the position of this plane, after mirroring, the two bodies or components will be the same distance from the plane. 

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Thank you for the response:

That plane can't be used for other geometry, which is the issue that I am having, not the distance between the two components of bodies. 

[jhackney1972]

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@beananimal wrote:

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That plane can't be used for other geometry, which is the issue that I am having, not the distance between the two components of bodies. 

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The attached video will show you that the mirror plane can be used to create other bodies and components without losing the mirror plane status.  There are situations where it will not be a good practice but it can be used.

[davebYYPCU]

You can’t move the origin planes.

@beananimal if the original minor plane is an Origin plane, you have described the correct workflow / process.

Can be avoided if you move the original body, before the mirror in the timeline.

Might help….

[CGBenner]

I'm not the Fusion guru, like most of you all are, I'm an Inventor guy from way back....but I think the issue lies in the first few lines of the original post:

Create an object. 

Mirror the object.

Create a midplane between those two objects.


If the object has already been mirrored, and then a plane added as a midplane, that new plane is NOT the mirror plane.  So, @beananimal (since I honestly don't know), how was that new plane created?  The workflow used to create that plane may hold the key.  Like I said, I'm more of an Inventor guy.... does Fusion actually have something called midplane that is created symmetrically between two faces?

[beananimal]

Thank you for the response!

I do stand corrected, I see you created a plane to mirror the object, not a face of the object itself. It follows that the plane can be used for other purposes. 

Thank you for pointing out an obvious and reasonable workflow for the particular case. 
 

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@jhackney1972 wrote:

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@beananimal wrote:

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That plane can't be used for other geometry, which is the issue that I am having, not the distance between the two components of bodies. 

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The attached video will show you that the mirror plane can be used to create other bodies and components without losing the mirror plane status.  There are situations where it will not be a good practice but it can be used.

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[beananimal]

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@davebYYPCU wrote:

You can’t move the origin planes.

@beananimal if the original minor plane is an Origin plane, you have described the correct workflow / process.

Can be avoided if you move the original body, before the mirror in the timeline.

Might help….

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Moving things in the timeline is a hack, even if it is the common "work around" in this product. It is a mess in large projects. Worse, items can only be moved relative to their component or set of operations. 

Thank you for the response. 

[beananimal]

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@CGBenner wrote:

I'm not the Fusion guru, like most of you all are, I'm an Inventor guy from way back....but I think the issue lies in the first few lines of the original post:

Create an object. 

Mirror the object.

Create a midplane between those two objects.


If the object has already been mirrored, and then a plane added as a midplane, that new plane is NOT the mirror plane.  So, @beananimal (since I honestly don't know), how was that new plane created?  The workflow used to create that plane may hold the key.  Like I said, I'm more of an Inventor guy.... does Fusion actually have something called midplane that is created symmetrically between two faces?

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In this case, the derived plane is contextually tied to the object positions when it was created. The video example above works because the PLANE is moved, not the derived object. Hope that makes sense. 

[laughingcreek]

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@beananimal wrote:...Moving things in the timeline is a hack, even if it is the common "work around" in this product. ... 

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philosophical difference I suppose.

moving things in the time line is neither a hack nor a work around.  it's a powerful tool that allows for creating well structured, clean models without having to know exactly where your going at the outset.

[TimelesslyTiredYouth]

Well said, Fusion 360 is built for iterative workflows, where changes are inevitable, and the timeline gives us the freedom to adjust without starting over. So maybe it’s less about philosophy and more about striking the right balance between planning and flexibility.

kind regards

Ricky

[davebYYPCU]

Yeah, probably didn’t say that right.

Before making the mirror, place the body a correct distance from the mirror plane.

@CGBenner Yep, Mid plane is in the Construction Menu.

Might help….

[beananimal]

I don't disagree to an extent, but it you can't move stuff to begin with if it is not "well structured" and planned to begin with. That bring me back full circle to my complaints about the actual parameters interface to begin with. There is a lot of good with this product, and a whole lot of very ugly that has not been improved upon in a decade.  

"starting over" is often the actual result. 

Thanks for the response.