I'm new to Solidworks and I've found the mirror feature great but somewhat limiting.

Once I mirror a body, is there anyway to convert these to objects which I can change independently of the original? Sort of like "break apart" when inserting a block?

Also, I want to mirror an object about the top plane then about the front plane. I can do these steps individually but if I suppress the intermediate "top plane" then the final mirrored object disappears also. Any suggestions?

I'm pretty sure I remember from linear algebra that I mirrors are matrix transformations so two mirrors in sequence should be able to completed as 1 mirror about some plane. Anyone know off hand what mirror about top followed by mirror by front plane is equivalent to?

Thanks in advance for the help.