By Trisha Freeman
Mirroring a feature, or a set of features is a great way to duplicate features quickly while maintaining a link. However, mirroring a pattern in CATIA can be tricky. Below is an unfinished part file. The mounting flange on the left needs to be duplicated to the right side. This is a perfect situation to use the mirror command because we know that we need the same exact set of features on the right and we have a mirroring element in the form of a reference plane in the middle of the part.
The flange consists of four features: a pad, fillet, hole and rectangular pattern. In order for this to work, all features need to be consecutive features in the tree.
If you try to mirror these four features, the system will alert you that the rectangular pattern cannot be created.
You could mirror the three allowed feature and then create another pattern for the right flange. But another solution in this case is to employ the use of multiple bodies. This can be done in the right click contextual menu.
This new body is automatically assembled into the main part body tree.
Within that new body (Body.2) you can complete the mirror. You cannot mirror a Boolean feature so if need be, change your active level so that you are active inside of Body.2.
The right flange is complete and now linked to the geometry on the left.
Watch the video below to see how to tackle mirroring a pattern on a feature that removes material.
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