Creating Mirrored Instances of Assembly Components

In assemblies, when you mirror a component, you add the mirror as another instance of the component, positioned symmetrically about a plane.

Creating a mirrored instance is most useful for symmetrical components.

Before mirror
After mirror

To create a mirrored instance and specify its orientation:

  1. In an open assembly document, click Mirror Components (Assembly toolbar) or Insert > Mirror Components.
  2. In the PropertyManager, under Selections:
    1. For Mirror plane, select a plane or planar face as the entity to mirror about.
    2. For Components to Mirror, select one or more components to mirror.
  3. Click Next .
  4. On the Step2: Set Orientation page of the PropertyManager, under Mirror type, click Center of bounding box, Center of mass, or Component origin.
    Locating the mirrored components by the bounding box center is typically more desirable for asymmetric components because the bounding box is unaffected by the components' features.
  5. Under Orient components, select a component for which you want to add a mirrored instance.
  6. Click a component orientation option:
    Orientation Option Description
    X mirrored, Y mirrored X and Y axes mirror about the plane.
    X mirrored and flipped, Y mirrored X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the X-axis direction reversed.
    X mirrored, Y mirrored and flipped X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the Y-axis direction reversed.
    X mirrored and flipped, Y mirrored and flipped X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the X and Y axes direction reversed.
  7. Click .
    New instances of the components are added to the assembly, mirrored about the plane that you selected. A MirrorComponent feature is added to the FeatureManager design tree.

Mirroring Asymmetric Components

In assemblies, when you mirror an asymmetric component, using the bounding box to position the mirrored component with respect to the mirror plane provides better results than using the center of mass.

When you create a mirrored instance of an asymmetric component, none of the orientations is a true mirror; all are flipped orientations. For a true mirror, create an opposite-hand version.
Mirrored instance of asymmetric component
Opposite-hand version of asymmetric component

To create a mirrored instance of an asymmetric component in an assembly:

  1. Click Mirror Components (Assembly toolbar) or Insert > Mirror Components.
  2. In the PropertyManager, for Selections, select the Mirror plane and the Components to Mirror and click Next .
  3. For Mirror type, select an option:
    Option Description
    Center of bounding box Positions the mirror so that the center of the bounding box for the selected component mirrors about the mirror plane.
    Center of mass Positions the mirror so that the center of mass of the selected component mirrors about the mirror plane.
    Component origin Mirrors a component instance about the component origin of the selected reference plane. This instance is not an opposite-hand version.
  4. Under Orient components, select a component for which you want to add a mirrored instance.
  5. Click a component orientation option:
    Orientation Option Description
    X mirrored, Y mirrored X and Y axes mirror about the plane.
    X mirrored and flipped, Y mirrored X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the X-axis direction reversed.
    X mirrored, Y mirrored and flipped X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the Y-axis direction reversed.
    X mirrored and flipped, Y mirrored and flipped X and Y axes mirror about the plane with the X and Y axes direction reversed.
  6. Click .
    A new instance of the asymmetric component is added to the assembly, mirrored about the plane that you selected.