Sketch Symmetry

[tapenut1]

Is there a good way to deal with symmetry in sketches - Half the time I can't get max mirrors to work well with rail sweeps because they switch the surface orientation...I have just been manually copying vertex position to make a sketch symmetrical. i.e. selecting a vertex on one side of z -axis and pasting the number(s) for the opposite vertex. Mostly doing rail sweeps that are symmetrical by doing each half independantly.

I may be mistaken, but I haven't come across this exact procedure in the tutorials - only railsweep one side and then a blend on another.

[bziegler]

yes that is a good question :)
I've same troubles with sketches and models too !
Any way to use symetry on 3D models too ?

[EricPinkel]

I have little or no problem with the Sketch mirror. Here is a quick movie on how to use the Sketch Global Mirrior function.

http://www.integrityware.com/tutorials/Max/Mirror_sketch/Mirror_sketch.html

If the design is to complex t to use the global mirror I just use the max instance mirror function on the necessary sketch objects.

If your having problems with mirroring a rail sweep because of flipped surfaces than you can use the flip surface orientation under the rail sweeps power surface parameter roll out. here is an image pointing out it's location. Make sure you have 2 sided mesh turned off to see the results.

http://http://www.integrityware.com/tutorials/Max/Fourm_Help_images/Flip_Surface_Orientation_check_Box.jpg

Hope this helps.

Sincerly,

Eric

[tapenut1]

You've got to be kidding me - I spent over a week of making symmetrical railsweeps by copying vertex position and the solution was right under my nose.

Thanks so much and thanks for pointing me in the direction of the quick tutorial.

[tapenut1]

Okay - I am getting the mirrored sketches fine, but now when I go to railsweep the mirrored side, it gives me the original (reference side) sweep. ??

[EricPinkel]

Could you please upload the model so I can better understand the problem.

Thank you.

Eric