Mirror command and construction lines

peter_hall

Hi,
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/13454b6b1af842d4a965f5f4/w/ee48bf34eb9f4c68992e91ad/e/3d40136b1fe54f418f265542

I made a commont about this, and it was cut off by onshape support suggesting it was fine, no problem. Well I tried again and construction line still mirrored as solid line so what am I dong wrong?

I was very disappointed that online support stopped my discussion not alllowing any further comments last time!
Please explain what I am doing wrong or why this is happening. thanks.

The post Mirror command and construction lines has a new comment.

Onshape Support

Hi Peter,

This has already been implemented and follows the current behavior of hitting mirror and then using the construction toggle to set the destination entity type.  Here is an example:

This is the designed behavior and matches that of the rest of the entity creation workflow.

View the comment

lougallo

@peter_hall currently the implementation follows the above workflow.  We would love to hear the discussion.  The improvement request you submitted is already an option via the workflow above.  If there is more to discuss, please comment here.

peter_hall

Im my workflow I create a rectangle (centre hole) then a rectangle (centre hole) using the top left point. 4 circles created using the four points of the rectangle made equal size. Now I have my circles for copying I select the rectangle lines and change to construction lines. Then I mirror, but the mirror changes the rectangle lines back to solid lines. Frustrating as I do this move a lot on tooling plates. What is wrong with my workflow which causes this to happen? Document link above at top of discussion.

andrew_troup

@peter_hall
The clip seems to me to imply this:
if you choose the mirror icon, then (BEFORE selecting the original lines), re-activate the construction line icon, ALL the new lines resulting from your mirroring operation will be created with the construction line style, regardless of whether the original lines had that style.

I didn't realise that until now. I need to try it out.

andrew_troup

Yes indeed, it seems that the nature of the lines created is not linked in any way with the nature of the original lines; it's purely a question of whether or not, at the time each original line is selected, the construction style toggle is active.

If the user is performing a mirror of multiple entities about a single line or plane, and some of the resulting lines are to be solid and others construction, it is possible to change the state of the construction style toggle part way through, without re-invoking the mirror line or plane.

Incidentally, before opening the OP's link, I didn't realise a plane could be used for sketch entity mirroring in Onshape, in lieu of a mirror line.

peter_hall

@andrew_troup Yes you are correct it is dependant upon whether the construction style toggle is on or off......so it is of no use if one wants to mirror a combination of solid lines and construction lines which is what I and I suspect many others would like to do in our workflow. So I feel this was a legitimate improvement request @lougallo . Over to you Onshape.

andrew_troup

peter_hall said:

@andrew_troup Yes you are correct it is dependant upon whether the construction style toggle is on or off......so it is of no use if one wants to mirror a combination of solid lines and construction lines which is what I and I suspect many others would like to do in our workflow. So I feel this was a legitimate improvement request @lougallo . Over to you Onshape.

It seems to me the part I emphasised in bold font is a strong view - it seems to me it is "some" use,  given that you could choose all the solid lines sequentially, then (without exiting the mirror operation) invoke the construction toggle, and carry on to select the rest of the lines.

I realise this will mean putting in more mouse mileage, by going back over the same ground, but it's only one more mouseclick than the workflow you would prefer. 

lougallo

@peter_hall Perfect!  That was the workflow I was looking for.  I will push this thru for voting and update our internal improvement to include this.  Thank you.

Vote here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/2064/mirror-command-and-construction-lines

3dcad

I might go with @peter_hall on this one, even though I understand that it is currently the same behavior as with other sketch tools.

BUT if we talk about mirror or pattern, for me it means it will copy the things I select exactly as they currently are.

ie. if I look into mirror, I expect to see exactly the same as original but mirrored - this is easy to remember and understand as it follows real world.

andrew_troup

You make a valid analogy, @3dcad

I tend to agree with @peter_hall 's preference, too, although I can happily live with the present workflow, now that I fully understand it. 

It's internally consistent, at the expense of being intuitive...

 ... I was just gently suggesting Peter was overstating the case a bit in his IR, because the current workflow does not need to involve lots of extra clicks.

peter_hall

@andrew_troup When I mirror I use a window to capture everything I want to mirror, this is a natural workflow to me. So for me I was not overstating the case.

andrew_troup

 @peter_hall 
OK, now I understand. And hopefully,  Onshape will, too.