The part design workbench offers a streamlined workflow for creation of solids. It should not do everything, just solid creation, but that in a very efficient manner. The body is the solid and the features are a way to create it, work on it. This is the philosophie, everything should be geard toward that. Going away from this will only create a tremendous amount of confusion. Having part design features in the body, the part or at the documents top level completely kills the simplicity for no real use. I know what you guys are aiming at, but here I must set a red line: it is not going to work for the arbitrary user, it is too confusing. With the switch to parts and bodies we decided to introduce new concepts which of course have their own set of limitations, but now we should make sure we keep it consistent to not again lose the advantages.
deepSOIC wrote:Is it enough to say that I need them for my projects?
The general purpose is the same as it is in PartDesign: attaching sketches, referencing them for axes, referencing them from Sketcher... I hope you don't say you are about to ditch Part workbench.
I think they are going to be very useful in Arch, too. EDIT: for example, the current interface for placing Section is quite horrible.
No part stays
I also see your reasoning. However, I stay with my opinion: part design features only in bodies! Therefore one could bring the datum features to the part workbench and then add a special version to part design which always adds the datum to the body, like it is currently done for sketches. Your arch example is a good point for my view: it would be strange to need to go to part design to have a datum in arch. Or to make arch dependent on part design.
I think if we clearly present the advantages to users, they will stick to bodies without any enforcement from FreeCAD. This can be made as a don't-show-again pop-up when trying to place a new sketch, for example.
This will create a monster of mixed designs and a hell for the support guys here at the forum. I repeat myself, keeping it straight is important.
Suggestions? Drop it and tidy up the migration?
One thing I really want to be taken care of is the ability to make small changes to existing designs. I can imagine the amout of frustration, where I would have to go through the migration, probably a painful process, to merely add a small pocket to a piece.
I'm not against that, I'm only against being able to mix the old files with a part or a body. To offer some kind of "legacy mode" seems reasonable, but there should not be no way to add a part/body to an old document. One can additional think of a new feature which brings old documents into a body by grouping the whole document beneath it (or a subset of connected components). This could be the first feature in a new body. Than, through the work you have done, one can edit all the old features in this legacy object and still add new things in the normal body workflow.
There will be some pain going to the new worflow, yes. But it is way more pain supporting both for the future, imagine all the "why can't I use this design in assemblies" questions. We should have this pain now, one time the hard way.
Fat-Zer wrote:why?
I hope that I made it clear: PartDesign features only beneath a body everything else gets confusing.