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Q: How to Mirror a large assembly (150 parts +) with weldments and sheetmetal

Question asked by Ben Fulton on Mar 26, 2012
Latest reply on Oct 10, 2019 by David Sloop

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Hello,

I am needing to mirror a large assembly (opposite hand mirror)

I wish to keep the parent within the same model so any updates to the parent will be instantly viewable in the mirrored state.

I believe this is doable but SW says there is too many base sheetmetal parts.

In real world drafting terms, this assembly will accomodate being totally mirrored as it does not have parts specifically made in the real world as any particular right or left hand situation, other than the bolts.

Help!

This should be quicker than doing a full opposite hand remodel.

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Jeremiah Feist Mar 26, 2012 6:31 PM
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the first thing that comes to mind is to break out your mirror into 2 or 3 mirrors. i.e. mirror a few parts, then mirror a few more using the same plane to mirror about, repeat as needed.
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- Ben Fulton @ Jeremiah Feist on Mar 26, 2012 10:29 PM
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  Seems that way, each individual sheetmetal component needs its own "mirror feature"
  
  TEDIOUS!
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  - Mark Coville @ Ben Fulton on Mar 27, 2012 8:35 AM
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    Start a new assembly, insert the large assembly then mirror that across a plane. Create opposite hand version, you can choose to save as derived configs or new files.
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    - Alin Vargatu @ Mark Coville on Mar 27, 2012 8:44 AM
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      Good one, Mark!
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    - Ben Fulton @ Mark Coville on Mar 27, 2012 6:22 PM
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      Thanks Mark, I have tried this but makes the model incredibly unstable. I will work out why, again.
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Daen Hendrickson Mar 27, 2012 7:52 PM
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We have a very similar part but with fewer entities - about 40 weldments and 10 sheetmetal.

As described above, we started a new part and inserted the original part. We mirrored all the weldment bodies in one mirror feature. Then each sheetmetal body in its own mirror feature. Last step was a body delete to remove the original inserted part. Last Last step (which may not apply to you) was to add a save bodies to export the individual bodies.

Feature statistics show about 85% attributed to the import and the save bodies. 10% goes to the weldments mirror feature and all the sheet metal mirrors account for less that 1% each.

So far the mirrored part has behaved very stably.

Daen
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Ben Fulton Mar 29, 2012 5:36 PM
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I ended up using configurations and a design table to configure the planes that made this model either left hand or right hand. its nice and stable. Mirroring across the plain as suggested above proved to hard to handle for some reason. I will try it in the future though.

Cheers
Ben
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David Sloop Jan 10, 2014 1:27 PM
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Are you able to get drawings of the mirrored parts in any of these processes?
I have an assembly with weldments, and sheet metal parts. I need to make an opposite version of it.
I already have drawings of this version. I'd love it if the drawings would mirror also. I can tolerate some clean-up with the notes and such, I just don't want to remodel and redetail all of the parts.
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- Luca Messner @ David Sloop on May 18, 2015 2:20 AM
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  Hi David, have you found any solution for your problem?
  
  I have a weldments part with his linked cutting list drawing.
  
  When we have to fabricate also an opposite version my steps are these:
  1) create the opposite version of the part using the mirror command
  2) delete original version and keep just the opposite one
  3) make a new cutting list drawing for this part
  
  I'm looking for a command that produce an opposite version of a weldments part and his linked cutting list drawing as well.
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David Sloop Oct 4, 2019 8:19 AM
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Wow... 5 years later and I still am making Autocad drawings and mirroring those for my opposite version drawings.
Every time I do one of these, I try to figure out an easier way, but alas... there is none.
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- Alin Vargatu @ David Sloop on Oct 4, 2019 11:06 AM
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  David Sloop wrote:
  
  Wow... 5 years later and I still am making Autocad drawings and mirroring those for my opposite version drawings.
  Every time I do one of these, I try to figure out an easier way, but alas... there is none.
  Why? You can now mirror drawing views in SW. And they are parametric, so if the LH changes, the mirrored RH view updates.
  
  And all the dimensions are mirrored correctly. It is nuts!
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  - David Sloop @ Alin Vargatu on Oct 10, 2019 10:19 AM
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    Seriously? Since what release?
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    - Alin Vargatu @ David Sloop on Oct 10, 2019 10:39 AM
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      David Sloop wrote:
      
      Seriously? Since what release?
      2017
      
      2017 What's New in SOLIDWORKS - Mirror Drawing Views
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      - David Sloop @ Alin Vargatu on Oct 10, 2019 10:48 AM
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        Wow... Just Googled and found that video. Completely overlooked it.
        Just tried it out on a current job with RH and LH versions, and it appears it works.
        Thanks!
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  - Wojciech Paterski @ Alin Vargatu on Oct 10, 2019 10:35 AM
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    only problem is, that mirrored drawing does not need it's own part.
    and our purchasing system is based on SolidWorks parts:D
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Q: How to Mirror a large assembly (150 parts +) with weldments and sheetmetal

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