Not often I get ready to post a question about a challenging situation and resolve it before I hit POST but this is that time. We have a part that there are two (2) used on an assembly. These parts have extruded text on the sides that is critically important. We are now updating the design so now the two parts are no longer identical, there's a left hand and a right hand part that are mirror images of each other.
The challenge is that when we derive and mirror the opposite hand, the text extrusion also mirrors so the text is backwards. We absolutely cannot break the link between these parts. We can remove the text extrusion from the original and then add it to the copy, but if we add it to the original it will once again show up mirrored on the derived part. Was a head scratcher for a while.
Then we stumbled across the solution and it may be obvious to some but was immediately obvious to us. In the original part we created a new Model State called TEXT OFF. Then we suppressed the text extrusion and saved it.
Then when we started a new part and started the derive command, we selected the TEXT OFF Model State.
Or you can change it from the derive menu even after the fact (RMB on the original part name in the model tree and pick Edit Derived Part).
Now our mirrored derived part has no text extrusion. We go back to Model State Master in the original, poof, there's the text extrusion. Then in the mirrored derived part we create the extrusion in that part. Both parts now have correctly displayed text but the geometry is still linked and what we do to the original is reflected in the mirrored copy.
One thing to note, seems any features you add AFTER you derived the part is automatically suppressed in the new Model State and won't automatically show up in the mirrored derived part. In the original you need to switch to the new model state, un-suppress the feature(s), save it and switch back to Master. Then when you refresh the mirrored derived part the features will show up.
