Revise the "IMPORTANT: Please read first before asking for help" sticy topic?

[NormandC]

1. Your FreeCAD version better be current.

Or else

Hi everyone

Hi Jim! Your pets are giving you a little time off I see?

The information is important but how to best display it is another question.

Yes, I do agree this info is important, but I feel that currently most new users don't read it, we need to find a way for more of them to (I recognize that no matter what we do, some will never read it).

We'll try to find a way!

About the images being attached the docx format, I was surprised because I thought that the doc x file extension was not an approved file extension in the settings.

Maybe Yorik added it when he included the PDF format not long ago.

I would add one further link in the search recommendation:
(...) The 3 (perhaps 4, not more than 5) most common questions are covered here.

How about the reverse:

Search the forum first.
Chances are other users had the same problem as you before. The 3 most common questions are covered here. Also have a look at our exhaustive wiki FAQ, the FreeCAD Manual and the Documentation.

and paste its content in the text input area.

Thanks! That's much better.

Everyone has an FAQ and everyone has seen too often that the FAQ contains questions which someone thinks might be interesting but aren't. So let's do something that looks more worth reading.

OK, let's recap on these common questions:

The 3 (4, 5) most common questions

1. Q. I exported my model to STL but all the holes are filled up?
   A. Don't select All or use Ctrl + A to export for 3D printing. You typically only need to select the last object at the bottom of the Model tree.
2. "If the feature (Pad or Pocket) you added doesn't show make sure that only the last element in the tree is visible." That one is tricky, sometimes it's due to a forked model...
3. ?

[chrisb]

How about the reverse:

Search the forum first.
Chances are other users had the same problem as you before. The 3 most common questions are covered here. Also have a look at our exhaustive wiki FAQ, the FreeCAD Manual and the Documentation.

I like that, and I like the exhaustive wiki FAQ.

[jmaustpc]

jmaustpc wrote:
Hi everyone

Hi Jim! Your pets are giving you a little time off I see?

Yes indeed, the last of the current batch has just been weaned.... And he is NOT happy about it. Prince is chucking a tantrum because he wants his bottle!

I have been logging in every couple of days or so and dealing with spam and first posts, as well as reading a limited number of posts but I haven't a lot of time lately.

Prince says "Moo".

Jim

[NormandC]

Bump

Before it slips back into obscurity...

[chrisb]

Before it slips back into obscurity

While I was reading my daily load of posts I thought about this post, glad you bumped it.
Is here a native english speaker willing to put it all together so that an admin can just insert it? If not I would give it a try.

Following Kunda1's work in the bug tracker I would like to add in the "How to report a bug" section a mandatory discussion in the forum first (see https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20804). I am sort of fed up by errors which aren't FreeCAD problems.

[chrisb]

I have collected the information from the previous posts, most is taken from Normand's proposal + further stuff of later posts. I have shortened the text for the freecad info, interested users can see what it contains. I skipped an extension of bejant, it seemed a doublette of the text above it.
If we can agree on this (and please keep in mind that as much as we want it to be perfect it only has to be much better than the current), we should continue with the text of the links in the text because they have to be online at the same time. The useful links section can be created / extended later.

------------
IMPORTANT: Please read first before asking for help

Welcome here, and thanks for your interest in FreeCAD! We are a small but active community of users and developers.

We are eager to assist you, but please read the following before posting.

1. Your FreeCAD version better be current.
   Bug fix releases are published a few times a year as needed. Make sure you are using the latest version (0.16 Revision 6706/6707). Download
2. Search the forum first.
   Chances are other users had the same problem as you before. The 3 most common questions are covered here. Also have a look at our exhaustive wiki FAQ, the FreeCAD Manual and the Documentation.
3. Please provide your FreeCAD version info.
   Open the Help --> About FreeCAD menu then click on the "Copy to clipboard" button, and paste its content in the text input area of your post. This will enable us to provide specific help. (Mac users: the About FreeCAD menu is under the Apple menu.)
   Please do not attach a screen capture. Don't add your FreeCAD info to your signature, as it will put it out of context.
4. Please provide a complete description of your problem.
   The best way to get quick and efficient help is to not spare any details. What workbench and tools are you using? What steps did you take? What was the result? This will avoid back-and-forth exchanges and save time for everybody.
5. Add your FreeCAD file and/or screen captures.
   Your FreeCAD file (*.FCStd) can be useful to troubleshoot the problem, and screen captures can also be useful. Under the text input area of your post, click on the Attachments tab, then click on the Add files button. (Many different file formats are supported)
   
   Please don't zip your *.FCStd file, it is already zipped. Windows users: please do not attach screen captures in Word or PDF format. Use the Windows Snipping tool to save your capture as a PNG image. (Here's how)
   
   File attachments are limited to 1MB in size. If your *.FCStd file is too big to attach, you can use an online storage service (many are free like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox).

Useful links
- detailed information how to copy the FreeCAD info
- The top rated errors and how to avoid them (same link as in the search forum first, repeated here to be easy to find by the willing)
- How to quote correctly
- How to report an error
- how to attach files
- ???

[NormandC]

1. Your FreeCAD version better be current.

That phrasing was a joke, dude!

Just kidding about the "better be current"

It would be more appropriate to word it like my original post:

Make sure your FreeCAD version is up to date.

I'll ask Jim or Yorik to unlock the read first topic so I can edit the first post and change its content to your collected post minus the "useful links" which is empty for now.

I realized creating a new read first topic would be a mistake: there are too many links to the current one on the forum that would be outdated.

But one thing we need to do before implementing these changes is to write up a common questions topic.

[chrisb]

1. Your FreeCAD version better be current.

That phrasing was a joke, dude!

It made perfect sense to me . Things like that were the reason for asking for a native english speaker.

[NormandC]

It is written like an ominous warning. What is implied is "or else (suffer our wrath )".

[jmaustpc]

I'll ask Jim or Yorik to unlock the read first topic

Done......, let me, or Yorik, know when you are ready for us to lock it again.

Jim