About Mirrored Copies of Subassemblies
Use the Mirror Component command, to create a mirrored copy of a subassembly. Mirrored subassemblies are useful for assemblies with a symmetric design. You can mirror any fully placed subassembly in the current assembly, including a previously mirrored subassembly, or an empty or packaged subassembly. To create a mirrored subassembly, you specify the plane of symmetry by selecting an existing datum plane or by creating a new one.
You can create subassembly mirrors for both symmetric and asymmetric components. The mirrored components are generated like a mirrored reference, as when individual parts are mirrored manually. You can see a preview of the mirrored subassembly during the mirroring operation.
Characteristics of Mirrored Subassemblies
When a subassembly is mirrored, the assembly features that belong to the subassembly are mirrored as well. All layer information from the original model is copied to the new layers. These layers are independent after they are copied.
When a component is mirrored individually, or when a subassembly is mirrored, the new component is placed in the assembly. You can mirror packaged and unplaced components and redefine placement (making the mirrors independent of changes to original components). Mirrored copies of packaged components are frozen in their default placement location.
Any substituted or graphically represented components (due to simplified representation settings) must be excluded from the mirrored subassembly. Only components of the original subassembly that are in a Master or Geometry Rep state will be mirrored.
Results of Redefining Mirrored Subassemblies
You can redefine the mirrored subassembly as a whole or select individual components to redefine within the subassembly. Redefining has the following results:
The placement of the mirrored subassembly (or the mirrored components) becomes independent of any changes to the placement of the original components.
The mirrored subassembly updates when the original component geometry is changed.
File Names of Mirrored Subassemblies
Default file names are created for components of mirrored subassemblies. The rule for default file name creation is NAME_MIR.PRT, where NAME is the original component file name. You can change the default file name in the following ways:
Select individual mirrored component file names and change them
Set a file naming rule and generate a new set of component names
Change the default suffix for mirrored components
Symmetry Analysis of Mirrored Subassemblies
When you create a mirror copy of a subassembly, you can perform a symmetry analysis to identify and reuse symmetric and anti-symmetric twin, mirror, components. This will eliminate the need to create new mirrored components. Performing a symmetry analysis allows you to reuse symmetric and anti-symmetric components. Mirroring a subassembly is similar to creating a mirror copy of an assembly. For more information, click the Related Link below.