Mirror feature is (almost) useless

[-_-_Daniel_-_-]

Hello Fusion360 folks - and especially Fusion360 developers!

In my point of view the behavior of the mirror feature is this (at least for now) not very useful - or only for a few cases useful.

--> Mirroring parts always creats new totally new parts

The typical behavior and use case in CAD when parts are getting mirrored is different: The mirror feature is mostly being used for saving time for arranging parts (such as screws / or any other part that can be 1:1  mirrored)

In SolidWorks for instance, within the mirror feature you can choose how the mirrored parts shall be orientated after mirroring.

I think the option “create a new part” can be interesting but will be rather seldom used in mechanical engineering.

Usually, you use the mirror feature to safe time for arranging parts (like patterns). And in this case the behavior should be the same as when using patterns.

In the best way the Feature would look like that (my utopia 😃😞

• The Option Menu will call a functionality as I am used to it in SolidWorks when mirroring parts

By the way:
The guys from “bommer” developed a feature to combine parts in their parts list (so the amount will be added) just because of that behavior of fusion360. But this has to be done with any mirrored part individually.

I guess if there would be a better way to use the mirror feature (as explained above), this will be helpful for lots of your users!

As long as this is not happening, I am going to avoid using mirrored parts.

What do you think about this? I would be happy for your feedback!

Thanks in advance

Daniel 

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@-_-_Daniel_-_- wrote:

In SolidWorks for instance, within the mirror feature you can choose how the mirrored parts shall be orientated after mirroring.

I think the option “create a new part” can be interesting but will be rather seldom used in mechanical engineering.

What do you think about this? I would be happy for your feedback!

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@-_-_Daniel_-_- 

I am a CSWP SolidWorks user going back to 2007.

Can you File>Export your *.f3d file to your local drive and then Attach it here to a Reply?

From your problem description as near can determine you might be confused about components/bodies/features (no difference between Fusion and SolidWorks).

Mirror parts (components) are quite common in machinery design?

Attach some files to illustrate your points.

[mufuo]

What exactly does the Mirror command lack from Solidworks? It is possible to combine mirrored parts with Combine. Do you want to see this option directly in the Mirror command window instead of this second step?

[-_-_Daniel_-_-]

Hey there,

thanks for your replies! I think screenshots will be sufficient for to explain that issue.

(I am aware, that there are different solutions instead of mirroring parts that work "correctly" within fusion, such as patterns or "duplicate with joint")

I've set the german language to german within fusion... "Spiegeln" means "mirror"

 

I used to use the mirror feature with SolidWorks, as I mentioned, very often to arrange parts such as screws or parallel pins (and also individual parts designed by myself) for symmetric assemblies. Within Solidworks mirrored parts even move accordingly to the mirror plan when the original part is being moved (which I definitely like, but the principle functionality in fusion regarding joints is just different - I also do not like it that, I have to use joints for any part that is created by a pattern, but that is a different topic)

Thank you again

Daniel

[mufuo]

These need to be evaluated by the developers, it seems like a serious mistake.

[TrippyLighting]

I am not relying to anyone specifically.

The OP is clearly missing the functionality of mirroring components in SolidWorks. 

In SW this is very powerful and equivalent functionality is missing in Fusion 360.

The experienced mechanical engineers  and machine designers in my day job use the component mirror function in SW all the time and very effectively. So, yes in machine design, this is used frequently!

[jeff_strater]

Mirror in Fusion is for producing true "mirrored" components and bodies (meaning:  a "left" and "right" handed version of a component, with different geometry).  These are always new part numbers, because they contain fundamentally different geometry.  You are correct that other CAD products overload "mirror" to be a component instance placement tool.  In Fusion, you should use Joints to position component instances associatively.  In your example, you should create a regular component instance, and use a Rigid Joint to position into the other holes.  Recently Fusion added Duplicate With Joint to make this even easier.

[-_-_Daniel_-_-]

Hey Jeff,

thanks for your reply. Of course I know the "status quo" and I appreciate the possibility to create NEW mirrored parts whenever they I need it.

BUT: in my experience with other software tools mirroring parts is a often used function just to arrange parts in order to save a lot dof time instead of using joints for any single component (similar to patterns).

I also mentioned the new function "duplicate with joint" whicht I definitely like but still causes way more clicking instead of mirroring (mirror with joints would be great ;D). Please don't forget that my screenshots are just an example.

What I ask for is an advanced mirror function as I discribed it in my first post. Unless the functionality won't be like that I am forced to use other ways instead of the mirror feature (as I used to use it before starting designing with fusion). Could you guy imagine to work on that? For suere it would be quite helpful for lots of users.

I am wondering if "arranging parts" ist for most of the designers the main use case to use mirror feature with other design tools- I guess yes. Can I start a survey here? 🙂

Daniel

[TrippyLighting]

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@-_-_Daniel_-_- wrote:

I am wondering if "arranging parts" ist for most of the designers the main use case to use mirror feature with other design tools- I guess yes. Can I start a survey here? 🙂

Daniel

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It really depends on what you feel a "designer" is 😉

At this point in time, most folks that come here (95%+) are hobby users, or don't use Fusion 360 for machine design in a professional production environment. That, however is the environment where that function is most useful.

A survey here will likely not be representative of what professional users in machine design need. I would even go so far as to break up machine design into different sectors.

Not every machine is a completely new, from-scratch  design. In many cases, after the initial engineering effort, the designs go through a period of constant refinements, however that does not necessarily require a complete redesign and an advanced mirroring function will provide diminishing returns in such a scenario, as the initial engineering/design efforts can be amortized by a larger number of more or less identical units sold.

Where an advanced mirror functionality can make a significant difference, is in Engineer-To-Order scenarios. The custom manufacturing automation industry I work in is such an ETO industry and entirely dominated by SW. The mirror function is just one reason for that 😉

[Christoph_360]

Hello

I especially missed the ability to mirror a component (not a copy) so that I can create a Left Right assembly with configured design.

HugeTooling delivered the crucial Tip Mirror Component with Scale

Mfg

Christoph

[-_-_Daniel_-_-]

Hey Christoph,

I am very aware that this is a useful function for your case.

Also if I wanted to design a car, it would be helpful to design e.g. the left front light by mirroring the right front light.

I am happy for you, that they implemented that function for that.

Anyway... the fusion360 mirror lacks the capability which we all know from other tools and which is very helpful to arrange assemblies whereever there is a mirror plane for identical parts way faster.

One more time I would like to refer to my 'mockup' above to improve that fusion360 feature! What has to be done to put that to the developers list?

Daniel

[kb9ydn]

What's needed here (in Fusion) is a mirrored component pattern.  This is a critical time saver for creating handed assemblies.

I would go one step further and say what is also needed is a pattern-driven component pattern.  This is useful in situations where you have a pattern of holes in a component, and want to populate those holes with fasteners and such.  The existing "duplicate with joints" function is a neat idea, and can be used for this, but it requires clicking on every location for placement.  For a handful of locations it's fine.  For a hundred locations, it's less than fine.  It also has the downside of spamming up the timeline with component insertions and joints.  Ideally this would only put a single entry into the timeline, as patterns do now.  Also a single entry would allow editing of the feature to add more components or skip specific locations.  Or, at the very least, have an option to automatically condense the component insertions and joints into a timeline group.

C|

[-_-_Daniel_-_-]

Hey CI - I totally aggree!

1. mirrored component pattern
2. pattern-driven component pattern

PLUS:

A possibility to lock the parttern/mirror parts at their target position (like a checkbox that can be checked within the pattern/mirror menu) - with that it won't be necessary anymore either to use joints for any single pattern/mirror part nor to use the rigid group function after mirroring or creating a pattern. (which is a typical behavior with other CAD tools)

How to push that forward to the devleopers?

thx Daniel

[TrippyLighting]

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@-_-_Daniel_-_- wrote: pattern-driven component pattern

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Yep. I put that suggestion into the now defunct Idea Station about 7-8 years ago.

Along with a number of others that have not been implemented!