: Illustrator: how to draw "snowflake" in live mirror mode? I want to draw such "snowflake" pic using 1/8 part of it. Is there way to use Illustrator to draw such a snowflake in live mirror

@Turnbaugh909

That is unfortunately just how Illustrator works with clipping masks and there's (as far as I know) no way to change that behaviour. The same problem exists with symbols; where the bounding box surrounds the entire contents, even if it is masked.

You can use a compound path instead.

If you do need to work with larger clipped artwork you can, as a workaround, place another Illustrator file which will correctly crop to the artboard.

So you set up your second Illustrator file something like this:



Place that Illustrator file in your original document (making sure to set the correct "Crop" when you place). You can then transform as you wanted:

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@Caterina889

(CS6 screenshots.. but it's the same set up in newer versions, just the dialog windows may look a bit different.)

New Layer....

In the Layers Panel, click the circle to the right of the layer name to select the Layer.



You'll know when you have the Layer selected by looking at the Appearance Panel.... It'll read "Layer" at the top.



Now choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform...

Enter these values:


Tick reflect X
set the 9-point-origin to middle-right
Insert 1 in copies




Click OK.

Now go back and choose Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform... again.

You'll get a warning about applying an Effect twice... click the "Add New Effect" option and this time enter slightly different options:


Tick Reflect Y
set the 9-point-origin to bottom-middle
Insert 1 in copies




The Appearance Panel should look similar to this:



Now draw.... anything you draw will be reflected horizontally to the right and then both left and right will be reflected vertically down.....



Reflection point art on the right and bottom of whatever you draw. So art will shift as you create more distant edges.

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@Goswami567

Use compound shape instead of clipping path. Then, apply three separate Transform effects: Reflect X, then Reflect Y, then rotate 90° – each with a copy added, of course. I've been able to get something that is editable and maintains the symmetry you're after. Move and edit the objects that are inside the compound shape (four ellipses in my example) to alter your shape.

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