How to copy a wall in place and reflect about (mirror a copy of a wall)

[Michael_Gia]

Hi, is this new?

I could've sworn I could use transform replicate on a wall so I could make a copy and then reflect it?

 

Since "copy and paste in place" is not available for walls how would you mirror a copy of a wall about a point/line?

 

I know I could make a copy of the entire plan and reverse it to copy back and forth but that's a little extreme.

 

What am I missing? 

[Ridge_Runner]

I just select wall, have a reference line available to mirror by, choose copy, mirror, done. Works for me. X11

[Chopsaw]

Sorry something glitched the first time.  Mike is correct.

[Michael_Gia]

8 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

Copy Paste > Reflect > Copy Paste in Place ( to replace original )

 

Ha ha, I've been using a hotkey for copy/paste but I kept hitting my hotkey for copy/paste in place.  I had forgotten my hotkey for copy/paste and was momentarily perplexed.

 

thanks, and why do we have both copy/paste command and the copy/paste in place command?  one works for walls and everything else and the other does not work for walls.

Or is it only one command?

[Ridge_Runner]

Just to use for walls I guess. 

[Michael_Gia]

1 minute ago, Ridge_Runner said:

Just to use for walls I guess. 

 

So they are identical commands then?

 

(these are the kinds of things that happen when I work weekends)

[Chopsaw]

Copy paste puts a copy on the clipboard. It works for walls because two walls can't occupy the same space.

[Ridge_Runner]

3 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

So they are identical commands then?

No. Copy/Paste waits for you to click a location to paste to; at least when used individually. I'm not sure about a hot-key as I don't have one set for that; Chopsaw may have the explanation for the hot-key.

[Michael_Gia]

My hotkeys are:

 

c = copy paste in place

option c = copy/paste

 

I just had not used that copy/paste for walls in quite a while and had forgotten it. It also isn’t in a menu. Only on the menu bar at the bottom. 

[Alaskan_Son]

Copy/Paste provides Point To Point Move and Reflect About in the Edit sub-menu which essentially makes it work exactly like Copy/Paste In Place followed by one of those 2 tools from the normal Edit toolbar.  If however, you want to use Copy/Paste In Place followed by something other than those 2 tools (Center Object for example), what I do is Copy, Center Object, and then Paste Hold Position. 

[Joe_Carrick]

Transform Replicate will do it.  ie: copy and reflect.= at the same time.

[Michael_Gia]

26 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Transform Replicate will do it.  ie: copy and reflect.= at the same time.

...Doesn’t work for walls though. 

[glennw]

11 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

...Doesn’t work for walls though. 

 

Transform/Replicate works for walls if you use Copy+Move (enter a distance)+Reflect.

I think you need the Move so that Chief doesn't try to place the copy on top of the original wall.

 

Or you can do a normal copy/paste it and then Reverse Layers.

[Michael_Gia]

1 hour ago, glennw said:

 

Transform/Replicate works for walls if you use Copy+Move (enter a distance)+Reflect.

I think you need the Move so that Chief doesn't try to place the copy on top of the original wall.

 

Or you can do a normal copy/paste it and then Reverse Layers.

We’re back to tricking Chief into doing something as basic as, mirror a copy of a wall. That’s pretty sad. 

Don’t you think it’s weird that there’s one “mirror a copy” procedure for walls and one for everything else? Certain functions live in a menu (which make them easy to find with the help menu) and other commands in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen?  I’ve come to get accustomed to Chief’s ways but when something like this happens, I realize it’s due to these inconsistencies, more than it is my “senior moment” that I waste an hour hunting for the way I used to mirror a wall.  

[Alaskan_Son]

1 hour ago, Michael_Gia said:

...Doesn’t work for walls though. 

It does on my computer.  Maybe its a Mac thing.

[glennw]

3 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

Certain functions live in a menu (which make them easy to find with the help menu) and other commands in a toolbar at the bottom of the screen?

This all sounds logical to me.

The "toolbar at the bottom of the screen" is context sensitive and will only display tools that are relative to the selected object.

Isn't it better to be only presented with the tools that are relevant than having to search through menus to find a command?  

 

[glennw]

18 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

It does on my computer.  Maybe its a Mac thing.

 

Michael,

OK, I see what is happening.

Not a Mac thing.

Chief is being very smart!

In the Transform/Replicate dbx, I have Rotate/Resize/Reflect About set to Object Centre as my default.

This of course prevents Chief from doing the copy as it is trying to place a copy of the wall onto itself.

It works if I have Rotate/Resize/Reflect About set to either About Absolute Point or About Current Point.

Copy+Rotate also work because Chief can copy and rotate the wall over itself at a different angle.

[Alaskan_Son]

6 minutes ago, glennw said:

 

Michael,

OK, I see what is happening.

Not a Mac thing...

 

Not so sure about that...

 

...obviously there's no real reason to create a copy since the wall will override the original and therby make the copy moot, but my point is that it does work...at least on my end. 

 

[Michael_Gia]

7 minutes ago, glennw said:

Chief is being very smart!

Chief also needs to be not so smart like some of us too. 

I totally forgot about that “reflect about absolute or current point” in the transform replicate tool. 

[glennw]

3 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Not so sure about that...

 

...obviously there's no real reason to create a copy since the wall will override the original and therby make the copy moot, but my point is that it does work...at least on my end. 

 

Michael,

I don't understand what you are saying or your logic.

You are telling Chief to make a copy of the wall.

Chief does not make a copy of the wall, so how can you say "it does work".

[Michael_Gia]

Actually doesn’t work on my Mac, Glen. 

I tried absolute, current, Big Dipper, nothing works. 

The transform replicate tool would be the nicest option for this kind of take. 

[Michael_Gia]

2 minutes ago, solver said:

Watch on YouTube: http://youtu.be/cBgEqEHLSVI?hd=1

 

 

 

You understood perfectly. We were just trying to accomplish the same with the “transform replicate” tool. 

[Alaskan_Son]

10 minutes ago, glennw said:

Michael,

I don't understand what you are saying or your logic.

You are telling Chief to make a copy of the wall.

Chief does not make a copy of the wall, so how can you say "it does work".

 

It does make a copy.  The copy just overrides the original.  All I'm saying is that I'm not experiencing any semblance of inconsistency.  Copy/reflect works in all scenarios without any caveats.  Chief isn't disabling any tools on my end to be smart.  The only missing tool is Copy/Paste In Place because 2 walls cannot occupy the same space...i.e. the tool would be utterly useless and wouldn't even do anything. 

[glennw]

20 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

Actually doesn’t work on my Mac, Glen. 

I tried absolute, current, Big Dipper, nothing works. 

The transform replicate tool would be the nicest option for this kind of take. 

You must be doing something wrong.

Can you post a pic of your Transform/Replicate dbx?

[Alaskan_Son]

23 minutes ago, glennw said:

How can you prove it either way? 

Sounds like you're just trying to argue for the sake of arguing my friend, but here's the closest proof I can come up with.  Build Wall Framing for your one test wall, turn on framing layers, and Reflect.  What do you have?  Reflected wall with framing right?  Reverse Layers.  What do you have?  Reversed wall with framing right?  Use Transform/Replicate and Reflect about Object Center.  What do you have?  Same thing right?  The wall is reversed but framing remains. Now use Transform Replicate and Create a single copy with or without reflecting.  Yup...that just happened.

 

Seriously though, you can do the same thing with auto framing turned on or not and with retain wall framing checked or not to see further proof, and watch what happens with your wall detail numbers during those framing tests too.  Its pretty clear that Chief is being perfectly consistent with its behaviors in this regard.  Again, the only difference is that we don't have Copy/Paste In Place available for walls...presumably because it would be a useless and confusing tool.