Automatic creation of drawings of mirrored components

[Anonymous]

I often have assemblies with large number of mirrored components. It takes me several days to make drawings of these mirrored components. It would be nice to create these drawings by mirroring the drawings of the original components , because these original drawings have been already created. Only the text must be in proper direction (left to right or right to left depending on language) . All the placement of views , sketches, remarks and so on can be mirrored.  User would only arrange their position a little to avoid possible overlapping with the title block or to place them in the correct position, but this is still much easier than creating the complete drawings. This must work for all kind of components including sheet metal flat patterns - although I know that they are same as original , but their orientation should be oposite (most of my components are the sheet metal assemblies).

[mallorn]

It is sometimes much easier and enough to mirror the whole wiev than to mirror an assembly

Please add new command: Mirror next to Rotate view.

If the view is mirrored - the small addition to view icon or extra info in the Model Tree - could be very helpfull.

[pierre.masson]

After mirroring a part or an assembly, all the related drawings are not mirrored. It takes a lot of time to recreate them.

We'd need the function to mirror also all the drawing views and annotations.

[brent_e_barbour]

One advantage the 2D environment in AutoCAD has over Inventor is the ability to take a completed dimensioned part detail drawing and “save as” copy and manipulate it for a mirror part. In Inventor, we can derive a part and even mirror it. However, if we’re to create a drawing of the mirrored derived part or assembly, there are no shortcuts. We have to create a drawing from scratch. It would be great if there can be a way to derive drawings with the base part. So if the base part has a completed dimensioned drawing associated to it, we can take that same drawing and derive it along with the part or assembly, either as an added sheet to the base part drawing or its own drawing.

[n.schotten]

I'm not sure how aware a base part is of having a mirrored partner.

I could see this as doing a drawing with the mirrored part and than 'unmirror' it to a new drawing sheet.

One thing to take into condideration though. Sometimes the mirrored parts get extra features added that are not needed in the base part.

[brent_e_barbour]

n.schotten,

You make good points.  A mirrored part is aware of it's base part even with any additional features.  Drawing files will need the same kind of linkage just like their IAM or IPT associates.  I don't know that IDW files are sophisticated enough to simply add this feature.  The technology of the IDW file may have to be rewritten and implemented much further from now several versions down the road.  I envision creating a drawing based off the "base" drawing to start, only much like you'd need to add features to a mirrored part, you'd also need the flexibility to add or remove dimensions to a mirrored drawing, but at least this feature would give you a baseline to start from and could save hours of work.  If this can be done for mirrored parts, perhaps this could also include similar parts (not mirrored) that are linked.  I'm not as concerned with the non-mirrored parts.  That can also be achieved with a renaming trick I know or the copy design feature in Vault.

[G.L.R.]

I've created a part and worked hours on drawing it.
Now i need a drawing of its mirror.
In order to save me another couple of hours, is there an option to create it automatically from a drawing I already have, without losing all the annotations ?

glr

[joaoasilvapinto]

Hi!

I don't know this can help you, but I would do the following, after having the DWG fully annotated of one part:

1. Create a new DWG;

2. Copy the sheet you have done for the new DWG file;

3. Go to, in the new DWG file, "Manage -> Modify (Replace Model Reference)" and replace the part/assembly with you new mirrored part/assembly.

I believe that, by doing this you can save time and just have to rearrange the dimensions.

When all is done, just copy+paste this new sheet to your "master" DWG file.

Hope this helps!

João 

[G.L.R.]

hi João
thank you
but when you change the reference model with a derivative mirrored files, all dimensions will be lost
at least that is what I checked,
or something I do not understand

gianluca

[DRoam]

Hi @G.L.R.. I just did a quick test, and when I did a Replace Model Reference to replace my original Part with a Derived mirror, all of my dimensions stayed associated except for a Chamfer annotation. So you might be doing something wrong there.

However, I tested another method which actually kept the Chamfer annotation and is probably more robust overall. This is the method:

1. You have your original file that you modeled. Call it Original.ipt.
2. Derive Original.ipt into a new part, but leave it as the same "hand" as you originally modeled it. Call it Original_Derived.ipt.
3. Derive Original.ipt into a new part, and mirror it about the appropriate plane to get the opposite "hand". Call it Mirrored_Derived.ipt.
4. When you make your drawing, use Original_Derived.ipt. Make all your dimensions and annotations, etc.
5. Create a copy of this drawing file and use the "Replace Model Reference", and choose Mirrored_Derived.ipt as your replacement.
6. Hopefully most of your dimensions and annotation will stay associated.

I'd recommend trying that and see how it works for you.

[G.L.R.]

thanks João and DRoam

I created a video where I put together what normally happens and your suggestions.

http://a360.co/2aHnuat  (mirror_workaround.swf )

thanks for the nice workaround.

although it will not solve all the problems it is already a step forward.

Gianluca

[dusan.naus.trz]

Could it work like here ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BTNW1utqZA

[KJMaas]

With a little forethought, a mirrored part can be created without ties to the original part. If the original sketch is placed on a user defined plane, then later, after saving a copy of the part file, the plane's normal can just be flipped to mirror the part. It depends on how you built the part though as I had some unpredictable results in my test as the sketch rotates 180 degrees when the normal is flipped. Regarding the drawing file, that is more difficult as you are stating. The only workaround that I know of is to create the first drawing, save two copies and then in the mirrored drawing "replace model reference" with the other part. Depending on the part and its view, it might only take a little movement of dimensions and views, or it may not be a time-saver at all. If you have to make many drawings of similar parts, save the first one as a template, then use that template to create all the other drawings. It will ask you for the new model reference when initiating a new drawing. Views and dimensions will all be there (depending on how similar the parts are).

[n.schotten]

I don't think making a copy and flipping it is smart. A mirrored part maintains a link, updating as it's brother is altered. A modified/flipped copy won't.

[Fouad-l]

I would like to have a button to generate a drawing of a symmetric part directly from the original part.

[DRoam]

@Fouad-l, please see this comment that I made on a duplicate of this Idea.

I did that method with your Part and it works fairly well.

Here is the original drawing. On the left-hand side is the original Part, and on the right-hand side is the un-modified Derived version of the original (the result of Step 2 in my post).

And here is the result after I did a Replace Model Reference on both instances and replaced them with the Derived mirror:

As you can see, the replacement of the Derived version kept all of the dimensions. And the top and bottom dimensions look perfect. Only the side dimensions need some adjustment. This is expected as those are the sides that flipped about the mirrored plane, so it would be expecting a lot to expect Inventor to know where to place them. This is where a dedicated drawing-mirror tool would come into play. Hopefully little case studies like this will help the Autodesk team know what kind of smarts they'll have to build into a drawing-mirror tool, if they ever decide to do so.

In the meantime, using the method I described in my other comment works pretty well for getting you started.

[Fouad-l]

@DRoam, Thank you very much for your suggestion.
The method you mentioned above works perfectly for simple parts, is the unique method i know so far to do that.
I Usually work with complex parts created from sheet metal, i tried this method but it doesn't work very well.
I was wondering if Autodesk can give us that potential tool to facilitate our day to day work, given that other software platforms already done it.

[KJMaas]

If one wanted to have a mirror part and maintain the feature tree as opposed to having the first item be a derived part mirrored, then one could do what I suggested there.If the relationship to the base part is there, then of course, use Derive with Mirror as OP had pointed out. My first two sentences perhaps were a little off-topic. I had my reply in three distinct paragraphs but when I posted it, it resulted in one big paragraph.

[Andrew2803]

@Fouad-l

Why don't you use Retrieve dimensions? It needs though a well built up/positioned sketch...

Derived mirror part keeps parent sketch dimension's place in respect, just tried it.

[Fouad-l]

Hi @Andrew2803.

This option may be useful for flate parts. i Normally work with complex bended parts, so this option isn't enough for me.

I Created the simple part above to simplify the idea. But the Tool needed has to work for any kind of parts independently of its complexity.

[inv.ideareview]

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