The way I do this is to:
1. show the local rotation axis of the joints, in the panel you are working in make sure that show>handles is on.
Go into component selection mode and click on the question mark on the right side of the selection masks.
Now when you select a bone chain the local rotation axis will be displayed.
Or select the joints in object mode and under the display menu, object components>local rotation axis.
2. In component mode,
select the rotation axis(s) that you want to flip
3. in the command line, or the script editor:
rotate -r -os 180 0 0;
This will flip the X axis 180 while leaving Y and Z the same
The numbers represent XYand Z respectively.
alan
When mirroring joints (hierarchy) in Maya with mirror joints function, it does not mirror the rotation axis (at least not on joints whose rotation axis you've modified).
Is there a MEL or easy way to mirror rotation axis in Maya (there should be). Or at least someone that could explain to me, exactly what attributes I need to change/flip to get the effect of mirror behavior on joints. I've been trying to write a MEL script to do this, but I'm having trouble getting it to work right.
Ragnar