Performing Quick Mirror Analysis

You can easily perform mirror analysis of geometrical elements without adding the feature to the tree. This helps you to take an easy check on mirrored elements.

This task shows you how to:

Open the FreeStyle_Part_52.CATPart document.
 

Create a Mirror Element

  1. Click Soft Mirror   in the Generic Tools toolbar.
    The quick mirror is performed on all the elements under the root node Part as per the symmetry plane set in Tools > Options > Shape > FreeStyle > General tab, Soft Mirror area, Symmetry Plane list. By default, ZX plane is set as symmetry plane. 

    • Use the User Defined Plane option in the Symmetry Plane list to choose any plane as the symmetry plane. With this option activated, if you select a plane and click Soft Mirror, the plane is used as the symmetry plane. Otherwise, the plane selected for the previous mirror analysis is reused.
    • Press Ctrl+F8 to use this command.

  2. Click Soft Mirror   again.
    The mirrored geometrical elements and freedstyle analysis are hidden.

  3. Create a surface.

  4. Click Soft Mirror  
    The updated soft mirror is displayed. The new, deleted or modified elements are included in the mirror update.

 The mirrored elements and Soft Mirror analysis are not added to the specification tree.

Hide an Original Element while Mirror Creation

You can create mirror of an existing element around a symmetry plane by hiding the original element.

  1. Open a 3D shape.

  2. Click Soft Mirror, Hide Original in the Generic Tools toolbar.
    Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+F7 to use this command.

    The surface is mirrored as per the plane set in the Symmetry Plane list and the original surface is hidden.

  3. Click Soft Mirror, Hide Original again.
    The original surface is displayed back.