[Bf-modeling] Improving the mirror modifier

[Noel Stoutenburg]

Friends,

Recently whilst on a trip (as driver), in seeking to reduce the monotony 
I was experiencing, I decided to plan how I would model a router bit 
(cf. <http://www.woodpeck.com/whitesidecovebit.html> ) in Blender. I 
first thought that I could reduce the work involved by using a mirror 
modifier, and model one side of the bit. But thinking about it further, 
I realized that, while the mirror modifier would be fine for the shaft, 
it would not work for the cutting head of the bit, because as currently 
implemented in Blender, the modifier is not really a mirror, it is an 
implementation of symmetry across a plane. So, using the mirror modifier 
on the cutting head part of the router bit would result in a router bit 
which had the cutters facing the same direction, instead of both cutting 
heads facing the same direction when the bit is rotating.

I realize that in Blender there are a number of means of solving most 
problems, and that there are other modifiers and work methods that might 
work in this situation. For example, I could create half the part (as I 
would do with the mirror modifier), duplicate the half modeled, choose 
(and relocate, if need be) the point of rotation, and rotate the copy by 
180 degrees, and then stitch the two together. A couple of other ideas I 
contemplated have even more steps to them.

Therefore it seems to me that enhancing the mirror modifier to include 
the capability of projecting the symmetry through an axis, or a point 
might enhance workflow, but would it enhance the workflow enough to 
warrant making a proposing this for a future release of Blender? Or 
might it be better to create a different modifier to achieve the end? Or 
is the potential utility to the Blender community so small as to make 
this not worth the effort?

ns