AutoCAD - MIRROR command versus Scaling on Attributes

MIRROR command versus Scaling on Attributes

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URL: https://www.cadforum.cz/forum_en/forum_posts.asp?TID=12127
Printed Date: 31.May.2026 at 21:19

Topic: MIRROR command versus Scaling on Attributes

Posted By: Lee.J.Baxter
Subject: MIRROR command versus Scaling on Attributes
Date Posted: 02.Dec.2016 at 12:52

I'm producing a program that automates the production of schematics required for our shop floor, and I've created a .DXF file full of blocks that the program will use to construct them. There are some blocks that have attributes attached to them to annotate the schematics.

The schematics are representations of rail, and there's several blocks that will be used at either end, where one end will use a mirrored instance of the block. These blocks have text annotation that needs to be right-aligned at the left end of the rail, and left-aligned at the right end of the rail.

Now, if I insert one of these blocks and mirror it in the X axis using the MIRROR command, the block is mirrored as required, and the text is aligned to the opposite side; in the properties area, the "Scale X" property is "-1", which makes sense! However, if I insert the block and set the "Scale X" to "-1", the block is mirrored but the text keeps its alignment (i.e. its location mirrors, but its alignment doesn't)!

So my question is, what else is the MIRROR command doing to the block apart from setting its scale to -1? The reason I ask this is because I think my program is going to have to mirror the blocks by setting the scale to -1, so I need to know how to make this behave correctly.

Thanks in advance!

Replies:

Posted By: Vladimir Michl
Date Posted: 02.Dec.2016 at 14:02

See the related tip:

http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/justified-attribute-text-in-mirrored-blocks-autocad-tip11198" rel="nofollow - http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/justified-attribute-text-in-mirrored-blocks-autocad-tip11198

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Vladimir Michl (moderator)
ARKANCE - https://arkance.world" rel="nofollow - https://arkance.world - Autodesk Platinum Partner

Posted By: Lee.J.Baxter
Date Posted: 02.Dec.2016 at 14:25

Thankyou, I'll see if this will work in a couple of days when I have access to AutoCAD at work!

I knew that I had to set my attributes to multiline (which I've already done). It's just puzzling how the MIRROR command flips the alignment of the attributes, but setting the scale to -1 doesn't; I guess the MIRROR command must do more than simply set the scale to -1!

If anybody's interested (and to add further information about my problem), I'm using .NETDXF to actually write to the DXF files from my program (which is written in C#).