SolidWorks Mirror Components Orientation Options

 

When using the Mirror Components command, there are 4 orientation options available if you don’t create an opposite hand version.  So the question is how are these orientations determined?

Orientation Options

In a previous blog post, we showed how SolidWorks 2014 now has the option to mirror using the bounding box instead of the centre of mass.  But this just controls whether the mirrored position on the other side of the plane is measured from the centre of mass or based on the bounding box.  This blog post can be found here.
For the orientations, the four options represent the following:

• Orientation 1: Translation over mirror plane, no rotations
• Orientation 2: Translation over mirror plane, rotated 180 degrees about the Y-axis of the part file
• Orientation 3: Translation over mirror plane, rotated 180 degrees about the X axis of the part file
• Orientation 4: Translation over mirror plane, rotated 180 degrees about the Z axis of the part file

If you need it rotated about multiple axes simultaneously, the part will need to be inserted manually and mated in its proper orientation.  The Copy with Mates tool may be useful.
The follow video demonstrates the orientation options and how they relate to the part’s axes.