Pattern and mirror features — PartCraft help

Patterns and mirrors copy features you have already built. The copies are part of the history: change the original and the copies follow.

What gets copied is what the feature does: a boss pattern adds material, a cut or hole pattern removes it. Patterns can be patterned and mirrored again. An imported STEP solid can be copied too; fillets, chamfers and shells cannot.

Linear pattern

Select the feature to copy in the history (for example a Hole or a Cut). With nothing selected, the last solid feature is used.
Choose Linear. Three copies appear 20 mm apart along X.
In the right panel, set:

Setting	What it does	Default
Features to copy	Tick every feature to copy. Only features above the pattern are listed	The selected feature
Direction	X axis, Y axis, Z axis, a line or centerline from any earlier sketch, the axis of a revolve, or a picked edge	X axis
Spacing (mm)	Distance between neighbors	20
Count	Total number, including the original (1 to 1000)	3
Reverse direction	Copies go the other way	Off

Use an edge as the direction

Click a straight edge of the part in the view. The right panel says Edge and shows its length.
Choose Linear: the pattern runs along that edge.

Or select the pattern, pick an edge, and choose "Picked edge (use the one picked now)" in Direction. A picked edge is fixed in space: it does not follow later changes. A sketch line follows its sketch.

Circular pattern

Select the feature to copy (for example one hole near the rim of a disc).
Choose Circular. Six copies appear equally spaced all the way round.
Set:

Setting	What it does	Default
Features to copy	As for Linear	The selected feature
Axis	X, Y or Z axis, a sketch line, the axis of a revolve, or a picked edge	The last revolve's axis if there is one, else the Y axis
Angle (°)	360 spaces the copies equally all round. Less spreads them over that angle, first and last at the ends	360
Count	Total number, including the original	6
Reverse direction	Turns the other way	Off

The world axes pass through the origin. For a disc not centered on the origin, use a sketch centerline or a revolve's axis.

Example: the eight bolt holes of a flange

Revolve the flange (see Revolve a turned part) about the Y axis.
Sketch on the flange's flat top face, put one point on the bolt circle, and make a Hole.
With the Hole selected, choose Circular. The axis is already "Axis of Revolve1".
Set Count to 8.

Mirror

Select the feature to mirror in the history, or select nothing to mirror the whole body as built so far.
Choose Mirror. It mirrors across the Right plane.

To mirror the whole body across a face of the part instead, click that flat face first, then choose Mirror. (Clicking a face clears the history selection, so this always mirrors the whole body.)

Settings in the right panel:

Mirror: tick The whole body (as built so far), or clear it and tick the features to copy.
Mirror plane: Front plane, Top plane, Right plane, the face it uses now ("A face of Extrude1" or "A fixed plane"), or "The face picked now". To mirror chosen features across a face: select the Mirror in the history, click the face in the view, and choose "The face picked now".

Mirroring the whole body across a face doubles the part, for example a half bracket into a full one.

Messages

"Build a feature to copy first." or "Build a solid first." There is nothing solid to copy yet.
"Choose the features to copy." Every Features to copy box is cleared.
"Extrude2 has no solid to copy." That feature failed or is suppressed.
"Fillet1 changes the body's edges or walls; it cannot be copied. Copy the features that make solids (extrudes, revolves, holes, imports)." Fillets, chamfers and shells cannot be patterned or mirrored; pattern first, then fillet.
"There is no body to mirror yet."