Mirror a feature with a draft fails

Mirror a feature with a draft fails

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Mirror a feature with a draft fails

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Hi!

I'm on a hunt for a solution to make mirroring a feature with a draft less annoying (or a better way to do it than the one I've figured out). I have attatched a file (by the way I'm sorry for the main body operations being named in different language) in which there's a main body + a mounting "Leg_extrusion". The mounting piece consists of 3 features:

-rectangular extrusion,

-a hole,

- a draft.

I would like to mirror the mounting piece but when I do so I get an error for the draft. The problem lies within draft, when mirroring Inventor doesn't recognise an edge which had been used to generate it. 

 

I can fix it by editing the "Leg_extrusion" and making it a separate body, but a host of problems arise when doing so - holes have to be edited as well (inventor still keeps them attatched to the main body), the draft itself has to be edited and on top of that I'd have to combine both bodies in the end.

 

I believe there's no other way the draft can be created in this example (using the Draft tool) to make it work with "Mirror" but it would be great to be proven wrong here. It's a simple example, but I'd like to avoid creating chamfers instead, moving it into the sketch or similar workarounds since Draft itself is more flexible I guess and a "better practise?".

 

Best regards!

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JDMather
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Something like this (see Attached)?

 

Exercise 7.36 Gripper Rod Center.PNG


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Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
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Thank you for your reply!

 

I was really hoping to be proven wrong as far as mirroring a draft is concerned. Judging by your reply I take that it just doesn't work (side note: it's interesting that pattern works but mirror does not). In your example that draft was defined in sketch, it works here but I imagine it might not be ideal in more complex parts. 

 

To cut it short: should we in general avoid using _draft in symmetrical features because they're probably going to fail when we mirror them? Also should we avoid mirroring fillets and/or chamfers or is it safe practice? 

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SBix26
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In your particular example, I would never have even considered using a Draft for that feature, since it really isn't a draft-- draft gets you the proper result, but sketched feature such as @JDMather 's example gives better control and a bit more obvious to an onlooker.

 

Still, I don't know why the Draft feature wouldn't mirror, especially if it works as a pattern.  In general, using fillet and chamfer in patterns (including mirror) is fine if you're including both adjacent faces in the pattern; if you're not including both adjacent faces, it will probably fail.  I suspect something similar is true for Draft.


Sam B
Inventor Pro 2020.0.1 | Windows 7 SP1
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Message 5 of 5

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In normal circumstancesI wouldn't have done it myself the way I did here but I'm learning all-things-Inventor and trying new things so I ended up here this time. Thanks for your answer!

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