I am working on a mesh on which I am trying to add a bow to sash which ties in the back of a dress.

All is well getting my little bow, since I already have one which fits the need, however, it is at the front currently.

Now, to switch it to the back of the mesh, I have tried mirroring it front to back, which of course flips it around, then all I have to do is position it.

The difficulty is the normals are then all in reverse.

Simple align normals isn't improving it, nor is reversing the vertex order or using face to front then re-doing align normals. It is simply still bad.

It would seem that whats needed is a "flip normals", but there isn't such a tool to my knowledge.

Am I on the right track, or making wrong choices on how to go about it?

Oh, also..I do have my little bow as its own group currently.

Thanks loves.

Hmm. Well, just a thought... Rather than mirror front-back, why not rotate it 180 and then move it instead? Does it result in the same normals issues then as well?

Usually mirror and then align normals works fine but if the original had particularly interesting normals, what you get out won't look like the original much...

Another option would be to export the whole thing as an .obj file... then in a new document delete everything but the bow (which you already have in its own groups) and try using Smooth All on it instead of Align Normals, which may give you normals you like the look of better for that. Once it's basically fixed you can then reimport the .obj and then give that piece proper bone assignments again. Bit of a pain of a workaround but you never want to use Smooth All on the whole body mesh, so it might be an option.

I am going to go and work on trying both of those options, especially the second one. Thanks!

Rotate 180 rather than mirror worked perfectly!