how can i mirror a part in assemblies?

andrew_gorman

I'm working on a simple knife project and want to mirror the handle scales in the assembly...can't see how to do this right now? Any advise?

brucebartlett

You Can't, Yet.

brucebartlett

Further to this, you can mirror in the part studio, which may be acceptable for this project but the parts will be a different instances from side to side, unlike what you expect from an assembly with the same instances repeated. The pattern tool works in the assembly and in the future I expect to see a similar mirror tool. 

owen_sparks

If you have an assembly made from parts from different sources then a workaround is to do an in context edit of the sub-assembly, then mirror the whole thing then squirt it back.  Sounds a bit convoluted but works well for now.

Owen S.

mark_williams

brucebartlett said:

You Can't, Yet.

Is this still the case?

john_mcclary

Yes, Both methods mentioned above are still true.

I need mirror assemblies often, What I did was similar to Bruce's suggestion.
But I added a mate connector on the origin, then mate all the parts in the assembly with that mate.

Although when i do this, my intent is to have it mirrored around the origin, you should consider all methods and choose one that fits your project best.

Owen's is good for a sales drawing, but like they said, each instance will be a new part, so not very viable if you want a parametric BOM.
Bruce's is good as it creates a part in a logical place that you can choose while inserting, you  will just need to rebuild/replace your parts manually in the assembly as needed.
The mate connector can be tied to a configuration which allows you to use the "replace parts" in the assembly and get your mates for free.

john_mcclary

@mark_williams
Here is a video showing the workflow, It can be very tedious if you need to do an entire assembly, but for a few parts in a larger assembly, this would be fine.

As you see in the second half of the video, full assemblies are faster to just re-insert and mate the normal way.

Each part that I do a "replace part" and choose the CCW configuration, is a mirrored part in the part studio, with the mate connector being re-defined in the configuration.

Even though all the mates will be attached, you may need to edit and rotate them here or there, as you can see, I only had to do it to the bottom shingle 180°

Hope this helps


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHrFI727kOw

bill_schnoebelen

Is this still not a feature?

john_mcclary

Not yet

andy_cate

When will this feature be added?

Sorama

May I know the status of this feature?

n_schoemaeker

Hum, just a ping to the OnShape team: mirroring a part in an assembly is very well needed and pretty basic for a CAD software.

Patterning doesn't do the trick, and the other solutions are tricks, which make it impossible to have correct BoM.

Please, we need simple mirrors

Janik

Sorry for the bother, but the feature would be very nice.

Thank you,
Janik

ryan_smith460

In the assembly toolbar you can select "Create Part Studio In Context" then you should be able to create a new plane half the distance in the direction you are going, and then mirror. This is the way I did it, but a feature to do this for you would be great.


This is what it looks like when you mirror it in the context assembly.

The tool is the part studio icon with the plus.

I hope this is what you are looking for.

Paul_Pela

Is this still not a feature?

john_mcclary

correct

Axel_Kollmenter

john_mcclary said:

correct

roger

Timmy

How is this still a thing? I just duplicated the part studio and mirrored the parts that needed it, then placed it in assembly again. Quite a pain as it required organising, repositioning and adding mates again. Please add this feature already.

Couldn't put it any better:

n_schoemaeker said:

Hum, just a ping to the OnShape team: mirroring a part in an assembly is very well needed and pretty basic for a CAD software.

Patterning doesn't do the trick, and the other solutions are tricks, which make it impossible to have correct BoM.

Please, we need simple mirrors

Phil_Angileri

This post was a helpful work around. Plus 1 for mirror in assembly.

uldema

mark_williams said:

brucebartlett said:

You Can't, Yet.

Is this still the case?

yes, six years in now

phares_blank

This is a basic feature like linear pattern. I'm sure there are difficulties to implement this feature, but it should be a high priority. Coming from Solidworks, not having mirror is super frustrating.

Yam_S

+1

it's by far the most voted improvement request.
so much more important for the users than the stuff that are being presented in the latest updates.

I have a more detailed question about it, I'll post it in the improvement request thread.

Cooney_South_Design

This needs to be implemented - its a basic function of CAD software like - point, and line outside of a sketch....
Neither of which onshape can produce...

Louis_Simon_Malo

I'm a solidworks user and I follow this post since 3 years... I think I will be ready to switch when this feature will be there...

shawn_crocker

I never really liked the mirror feature in solid works.  Yes, I used it to position a symmetrical part in a mirrored position within an assembly.  I did not really like having the mirror feature actually create the mirrored version of the part.  I always found at some point, the link to the original part would break and things would stop updating.  In fact, I never really liked having a solid works assembly create new part geometry at all.  Something always seemed to get messed up during editing and revisioning.  Now, features that modify geometry within the assembly but do not push the geometry changes down to the part level are features I did really like and hope to have in onshape.  ah...like extrude cut in the assembly...

Gerard_Boterman

At the origin, create a mate connector. Use circular pattern (360 dgr, qty 2) and select the parts or sub-assembly you want to mirror. This will mirror the parts.

tindan

Gerard_Boterman said:

At the origin, create a mate connector. Use circular pattern (360 dgr, qty 2) and select the parts or sub-assembly you want to mirror. This will mirror the parts.

At first I thought that this worked. But all it does is rotate the part. Am I missing some step?

Rhett_Robinson

tindan said:

Gerard_Boterman said:

At the origin, create a mate connector. Use circular pattern (360 dgr, qty 2) and select the parts or sub-assembly you want to mirror. This will mirror the parts.

At first I thought that this worked. But all it does is rotate the part. Am I missing some step?

@Gerard_Boterman this will not mirror a part, this will create a circular pattern. @tindan to create a mirrored part you currently have to create it at the part studio level.

john_mcclary

Gerard_Boterman said:

At the origin, create a mate connector. Use circular pattern (360 dgr, qty 2) and select the parts or sub-assembly you want to mirror. This will mirror the parts.

Rhett is correct, this is not a mirror

One more thing to note @Gerard_Boterman

If you reference the origin in an assembly. Be sure to mate that reference to your fixed part is some way also.
Otherwise, the patterned part will float around in a higher-level assembly. Sometimes this is what you want, but I assume by default this will cause confusion coming from other CAD systems. Where Assemblies are always static.

Typically, I try to avoid referencing the origin unless I'm mating the "Main Body" to it, rather than using "Fix".

Pattabi_Kakumanu

There are many of doing it. One simple way is by creating an in-context part and creating the mirrored version of it. Check the detailed explanation with the video here

Even in SolidWorks the better way of mirroring is at the part level not in the assembly because if something happens to the assembly still the mirroring is correct if you do it at part level. (For example later you want to do Pack&Go and use only the parts in somewhere then it helps). If you can derive the part into a new part studio there you can simply create the mirrored version and import into an assembly later.