possibility of better overview of the various operations

[Erich Schulz]

hiya again,

is related to a few of my other posts. I'm hoping that my status as a complete noob stumbling around in the darking and bumping into things is kinda helpful and not too irritating. Freecad is truly awesome so I would like to be helpful.

I'm looking at this wiki page: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Path_Workbench

and also at the tooltips

and I am quite confused as to when I would choose each - I'm pretty sure I get the difference between helix and drilling but as the rest I'm only guessing (and based on efforts to date, guessing poorly!)

Code: Select all

   Path-CompleteLoop.png Complete Loop: Completes a loop from two selected edges

    Path Contour.png Contour: Creates a path of the contour of the base object

    Path-Profile-Face.png Profile from Face: Creates a profiling path from a selected face

    Path-Profile-Edges.png Profile from Edges: Creates a profiling path from selected edges

    Path Pocket.png Pocket: Creates a pocketing operation from one ore more selected pocket(s)

    Path Drilling.png Drilling: Performs a drilling cycle

    Path-Engrave.png Engrave: Creates a engraving path

    Path-Face.png Mill Face: Creates a surfacing path

    Path-Helix.png Helix: Creates a helical path

    Path-3DPocket.png 3D Pocket: Creates a path for a 3D pocket

[Erich Schulz]

I think the issue is much of the text is a bit circular... eg

deburr: "create a deburr path along edges or around faces"

so "along edges or around faces" is useful, "create a debur path" is a bit redundant

is "create a path directly along an edge or the perimeter of a face" accurate?

actually..

how about "create a small chamfer on an edge or the perimeter of a face"???

[mlampert]

I'm all for making any of the tooltips, class and method comments more expressive. Anything that I wrote could definitely need refinement - to put it mildly.

If you create a PR for these with better texts that would be awesome!

[Erich Schulz]

I'm all for making any of the tooltips, class and method comments more expressive. Anything that I wrote could definitely need refinement - to put it mildly.

If you create a PR for these with better texts that would be awesome!

cool

perhaps if we start work on the wiki page? if we can get that a bit clearer I am happy to do PR on the tool tips

I am especially confused by the terms "facing" and "contour path" and difference between a "path packet" and a "path 3d pocket"

what would be really useful would be some bigger thumbnails of a before and after (or maybe a set of before and afters) showing what each operation does

[RatonLaveur]

While this topic is open, there is one aspect of redundancy that i feel may be worth addressing, profile based on faces and profile based on face or faces.

I think the two tools could be merged into one and an if statement based on the selection (e.g. If face is selected profile based on face, if edge loop selected, profile based on edges). With the error message in the task panel appearing if the selection is confusing.
(e.g. If edge selected but not full loop, ask for loop. If edge and face both are selected ask to choose either or...etc).
It is possible that the deburring operation actually does the same thing, after all, deburring is profiling with no step down around one or several edges. One would have to select the right tool and tool controller for it however. Or it could be a drop down menu....

This actually echoes to some extent Russ's suggestion that 3D pocket might actually just be the merged pocket operation.

Or maybe all these tools are sufficient as they are and there more interesting fishes to fry (most likely a true statement).

[Erich Schulz]

It does seem like we have too many choices. Simplifying the UI and letting the code select the algorithm based on dropdowns within the operation definition.