Edit Bar controls: Interactive, Mode, Leave Original, Selection
This tool allows you to create a mirror image of entities, and optionally copy them, reflecting them in a specified mirror axis.
Before activating the tool, select the entities to be transformed. Alternatively, if you start the tool without any selected entities you will be first asked to identify an entity to mirror.
If you wish to modify the selected entities, ensure the Leave Original option is switch off. If, on the other hand, you wish to modify a copy of the selected entities, switch the option on.
The outcome of whether the transformed entities are selected or not is determined by the Selection option. Select New, Select None, Select Original and Select All.
From the pull-down list choose the required mirror Mode:
- About axis
- About entity
- About X
- About Y
If you select About axis, then you should enter an angle for the axis and then identify a point on the required mirror axis.
If you select About X (that is top-to-bottom), pick a point to define the horizontal mirror axis.
If you select About Y (that is left-to-right), pick a point to define the vertical mirror axis.
If you select About entity, pick a line entity to define the mirror axis.
If you have selected Leave Original, the new entities are added to the current block. However, if Leave Original is switched off, you can hold the Shift key down to override this setting.
Interactive - if you switch this option on then you will not be offered the choice of mode. Instead you should identify two points that define the mirror axis. After identifying the first point you will have a cursor consisting of the axis and the mirrored geometry that you can drag around until you achieve the desired results.
Constraint Manager
If you have the Constraint Manager active whilst using this tool there are several differences.
When Leave Original is enabled there are two new edit bar options:
Add Symmetric Constraint - this option causes the tool to create a symmetric constraint using the mirror axis and adding each original entity and its copy. This means the mirror axis needs to be a permanent line in the drawing. You can either choose an existing line or create a new construction line. In Non-interactive mode, if you create a new construction line, the tool will add a constraint or dimension onto it. In About X mode it adds a horizontal constraint, in About Y mode it adds a vertical constraint and in About axis mode it adds an angle dimension. If you click on one or two entities when creating the symmetry axis then it will add a coincident constraint between the axis and the clicked entities.
Replicate Constraints - this option causes the tool to copy all the constraints associated with the original entities onto their copies, but only if the constraints are still satisfied after copying. The tool doesn't copy any dimensions.
Coincident constraints are added where any points on an entity copy are coincident with any existing entities. If the coincidence lies somewhere along the mirror axis then it will also be included in the coincident constraint.
Related topics: Selecting, Edit - Transform - Drag, Edit - Transform - Move, Edit - Transform - Scale, Edit - Transform - Rotate