How to "Unground from parent" components that are the result of a mirror operation

[GillesJrBisson]

I have my Right Bracket component. It is a modeled part destined to be 3D printed. It also contains imported components (bolts, bearings, threaded inserts) that are properly located and grounded to their respective parents.

Now the Left Bracket component should be a mirror of the Right one so I used the Mirror component operation which behaved exactly as I had hoped: the body of the bracket itself was mirrored and new instances of the imported sub-components were created and properly located (their initial locations are correctly mirrored) and they are grounded to their new parents as well.

But the problem is that the new sub-components of the Left Bracket cannot be ungrounded ("Unground From Parent" is grayed out and so is "Edit Initial Position") and their initial location is forever linked (it seems) to the components their are mirroring from the Right Bracket. So I can modify the body of each bracket independently but I cannot reposition a sub-component (like a screw for example). The mirrored left component won't let me unground the screw from parent and if I move the original screw from the right component (unground, move, capture, reground with update initial location), the left one moves as well.

Expected behavior: the result of mirroring components should be as if I had imported, positioned and grounded the components manually. They should thus have there own initial position which I should be able modify the same way I can any other components (unground, move, capture, reground with update initial location). 

My precise use case: a screw that is located at the bottom-front-right of the right bracket should be located at the top-front-left of the left one. Everything is a perfect mirror except for that screw that needs to move up a notch.

Is there a solution to that ? Or a work around ?

[jhackney1972]

In the attached video I am creating a Mirror of a Linked Assembly in file.  As you can see all components are free and can be moved freely but in the original assembly because all Joints, in the original assembly are lost.  I hope I am understanding your question.

If you would attach your assembly, I can take a look.  If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section, of a forum post, to attach it. If needed, ZIP a F3Z file.

[GillesJrBisson]

Hi ! Thanks for the response. My model does not use joints in this case as there are too many small parts (bolts, nuts, washers, spacers, bearings, etc). I use joints only for actually moving parts.

For all components that need to remain fixed once positioned, I use "Ground to parent" which has worked well for me.

If I need to tweak the position of a component, I select it and apply "Unground from parent", then I move the component with the Move or Align commands, then I capture the position and re-apply "Ground to parent" by selecting "Update Initial Position". It is then as if I had set the component's location correctly from the get go, everything related to that position is properly updated and the component is fixed relative to its parent. This is very straightforward.

But for components instanciated from the mirror command, their "Ground to parent" and "Initial position" states seem to be permanently linked to each original component they were mirrored from. I believe I should be allowed to modify the components independently AFTER the mirror feature. If I want to modify something that applies to both, I can always edit the original components BEFORE the mirror and this will be reflected in both.

[mayank.malukani]

@GillesJrBisson Unfortunately, 'Ground to parent' and 'Edit Initial Position' are not available for children of mirrored component. Ground to Parent can be removed by ungrounding the source component's children, but adding a different position than the source child component might not be possible currently with Ground to Parent. You can use a Rigid As Built Joint with root after you have moved the component. 

I hope this explanations helps. 

Mayank Malukani

Fusion Development team

[GillesJrBisson]

This is indeed what I see. I guess my point is that I don't get the rationale of this behavior. My expectation would have been that once the Mirror command is applied, and the children components are instanciated and positioned, I should be allowed to reposition them in subsequent operations in the timeline. Perhaps there is a good reason to prevent this, but I can't see any.

Anyway, I found out another problem with the Mirror command: it "mirrors" the bodies of the child components. Not only does it mirror their orientation and location (which is expected), it also "mirrors" the child components themselves (which is totally unexpected). For example, a "mirrored" threaded insert would now have its threads running in the opposite direction !!

So what I ended up having to do is mirror the bodies of my Right Bracket and manually create the Left Bracket component. I then had to copy the 20+ sub-components of the Right Bracket into the left one which is not that bad. But I had to manually unground, re-location, and re-ground all of them which is pretty tidious !!!

Moreover, it seems that when you "Ground to parent" a component that has moved, you are given the option to "Update Initial Position". But if you try to "Ground to parent" MULTIPLE selected components, then you are NOT offered the "Update Initial Position" option and they will all all revert to their original (meaningless position). So in my case, after having manually reposition the 20+ components, I have to manually "Ground to parent" them all one by one and "Update Initial Position". The option should be available as well for multiple selection !!!

Thanks !!