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Mirror Problem
patrick_gilbert_roberts
Member Posts: 5 ✭
I am a complete beginner and I have hit a brick wall. For a very simple woodwork project I have created a rail 25 x 40 x 400 mm. I have created a tenon on one end using "extrude - remove". I now want that same tenon on the other end. I have exhausted my free goes on Chat GPT and I think I have tried everything! In the "Mirror" dialogue box I have selected "Feature Plane", I have tried the midpoint mirror plane and the opposite end mirror plane. Nothing seems to work. Any help would be very gratefully received as I'm completely stuck.
Thanks in anticipation.
Answers
hard to visualize what could be the issue with no visual or doc link. But have you tried using a mate connector through the mirror plan selector?
Thank you, MDesign for taking the time to respond to my plea for help. I have now spent about two days trying to learn how to use OneShape and have made almost zero progress. I have been working in tandem with Chat GPT and the topic is now half a mile long! I would say that 95% of all of the instructions and suggestions made by Chat GPT were useless to me because the tools or sub-menu items it was referring to and guiding me to use, are simply not there.
I have to assume that these are all limitations imposed by the free version. I am disappointed that the free version is so limited - certainly YouTube videos don't give that impression! At the end of the day, I am a woodworking hobbyist. I was looking for something that would enable me to sketch up a design and check that it works, before I start wasting valuable wood. I am also retired and have limited income so I cannot justify the cost of a subscription. I guess it's back to pencil and paper.
Thanks again for your response.
@patrick_gilbert_roberts
AI often confuses SolidWorks with Onshape and replies with workflows related to SolidWorks, that's probably why you can't find anything that the AI wants you to use.
Better use the Onshape online learning center.
If you are trying to use the assembly mirror feature you need to select a mate connector to define the mirror plane.
(Onshape has a very fundamental aproach to define relations between parts, which makes it less intuitive to use, but extremely stable)
Hello Patrick. I think your current impression of the limitations of Onshape in the free version may be wrong. I too am a hobbyist, mostly woodworking. I have been an Onshape user for 7 years. Unless ultra-simple, all of my projects use Onshape to create my project or jigs and other aids to enable a feature or operation of that project that otherwise may not be practical, possible, or may eliminate being risky.
Seems you have initially come upon a frustrating stumbling block that leaves you with thinking Onshape is not a usable resource. After your searches for a resolution have come up empty, you have come to the right place. I have very little doubt that it is fixable. It may not be the Mirror feature, but something created beforehand or something missing that Mirror needs to be successful.
Besides Onshape being loaded with the tools needed to create, a valuable tool is this forum. Please post a link to your document so we can help you out. - Scotty
Not trying to show off. Just want to show how Onshape has enabled me:
@patrick_gilbert_roberts You will find the help at learn.onshape.com
Also assuming any AI knows wth it is talking about is not a good way to approach things. go to the source if you want answers.
The free version doesn't remove any of the modeling tools so that's not the issue.
Going through some of the learning centre basics is a good time investment.
For specific questions use the built-in AI advisor instead of ChatGPT, the whole point is that it shouldn't hallucinate stuff about Onshape!
Thanks, one and all for your comments. I'm all too happy to happy to concede that Chat GPT is not my best resource. Its "intelligence" is truly artificial! However, to its credit, it did seem to be describing the Onshape UI. It was telling me that I should find three coloured axes arrows under the planes in the Features sidebar. It was also trying to help be move one part independently of the other in "Assembly" , and telling me I should find sub-menus that would allow me to "un-group" the two parts. It suggested I right click on a part in "Assembly" and choose to "move to new sub-assembly". None of these options are available to me in my UI.
I will return to the Learning Centre. I started there but it only gave me three pages and then just wouldn't go any further. Perhaps it thought three pages was all I could absorb in one day!
My Practice 1 is truly simple. It is a leg with two mortises cut into one end and a rail with a tenon on each end.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c5b98e624d6c084f99d5d01c/w/70dbd8409c3cd8a5cb34533d/e/e36aaed5514706eebe0017cf
Just to address the Mirror problem you originally posted, this copy of your document uses the Mirror tool to accomplish that. - Scotty
You can also use a mate connector with the mirror feature and skip the separate plane feature. If the mirror plan will be used for more than just this feature it is good practice to create a separate plane for later use.