Poor instructions in Basic Part Tutorial

[RexG]

This part of any beginners learning curve is really badly written:

Use Sketcher External geometry tool and select the upper right vertex of the face and click it so you are provided a point from the external geometry to link our sketch to. Select that point you just made available with the External geometry tool and then select the upper right vertex of the rectangle and click on the coincident constraint.

It took me a long time to understand the meaning was this:

Click on the External geometry tool
Click on the upper right vertex of the main body to select an external reference point for the rectangle you just drew
Right click to cancel the External geometry tool
Select both this reference point and the upper right vertex of the rectangle, then click on the Coincident tool

The previous words failed to mention the very important "Right click to cancel the External geometry tool".

To help other idiots please would you change the words. Blow by blow descriptions are always much clearer.

Rex

[chrisb]

Hi RexG, welcome. I have changed the docs.
If you refer to a tutorial, video, ... please include the link, it saves us time and costs you nothing, as you have the URL readily available.
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Basic_P ... torial_017

[RexG]

Thanks a lot ChrisB. This is the link: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Basic_P ... n_Tutorial
You use numbered instructions just above - but not in that paragraph. While I have experience in Solidworks etc
this was a hurdle I could not get. Once it clicked - plain sailing! Thanks. Rex.

[chrisb]

You use numbered instructions just above - but not in that paragraph.

You name it! I have tried to continue the numbering following the wiki help. It says I should use the html format <ol> but that was a complete failure. After trying for about half an hour I gave up. Perhaps I will change it to a bullet list.

[RexG]

Sorry I don't know html. Bullets are good - but I have found in the manuals I have written that numbers
are more useful - eg refer step 3 above etc. But thanks for your help.

[chrisb]

ping

Renato, can you help out? I would like to continue the the previous numbering from before the image in the following lines (search for "Right click" and you'll find the position).

Code: Select all

Right click to end the External geometry mode

Select that point you just made available with the External geometry tool and then select the upper right vertex of the rectangle and click on the coincident constraint. At this point the sketch should be fully constrained and look like the next image. 

The "Right click" line should get the number 5 and "Select that point" number 6. I had tried as described in the docs, but the <ol> was discarded.

[renatorivo]

Look at my changes, I'm not sure I did what you want

Renato

[chrisb]

Look at my changes, I'm not sure I did what you want

Thank you, that's what I wanted. And it was a tricky one. I transferred the changes to the 0.17 tutorial: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Basic_P ... torial_017, And recommend to RexG to use that as well, as he seemed to have referred to the old variant:

This is the link:

I don't quote the link, because you should not use it if you use 0.17 or newer.

[NormandC]

The "Right click" line should get the number 5 and "Select that point" number 6. I had tried as described in the docs, but the <ol> was discarded.

Oh man, did I struggle with this in https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Sandbox ... Tutorial_I. I tried html ordered lists as well (<ol>) without success. My problems were not with embedded images, but with multiple level ordered lists, and list items with carriage returns. I needed to include carriage returns, but <br /> would break numbering, and <ol> was no help at all.

The only way I found that continued numbering was this obscure trick using the paragraph html tag <p> I had trouble implementing:

https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Sandbox ... main_shape

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#*The 2 degree angle constraint for the short vertical lines.<!--
 --><p>This means that if you later move the datum plane, the pad will automatically adjust its outer radius. Remember that before you can use the datum plane for dimensioning, you need to introduce it as external geometry to the sketcher.</p><!--
 --><p>You are probably wondering why there is a small straight segment at the bottom of each arc. This segment ensures that there will be a draft angle of 2 degrees on the arcs. This might look like a lot of work for a very small benefit, but many CAD programs (and maybe FreeCAD one day) have tools that highlight a solid model in different colours and immediately show you all faces where the draft angle is not correct. You don't want that to happen to your model, especially after putting on a lot of fillets!</p>

Yeah, those <p><!---></p> were a pain to use. And they will utterly confuse translators, I'm sure.

In the end, I found a much easier method: discard the numbered list all together, create a non-bulleted list by using indents and add numbers manually! I haven't re-implemented that trick in all the page. You can see it in that section: https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Sandbox ... the_holder

Code: Select all

:1. Select the top circular edges of the bolt supports and press the [[File:PartDesign Fillet.png|24px]] '''[[PartDesign Fillet|Fillet]]''' button. In the Fillet parameters, set the radius to 4 mm.
:2. On each side of the body, select one edge between the bolt support and the main body. There is no need to select all edges, because the fillet will propagate along tangent edges. Create a second [[File:PartDesign Fillet.png|24px]] '''[[PartDesign Fillet|Fillet]]''' feature, this time with a radius of 6 mm.

: is the syntax for indent. The excerpt above will show as

1. Select the top circular edges of the bolt supports and press the [[File:PartDesign Fillet.png|24px]] '''[[PartDesign Fillet|Fillet]]''' button. In the Fillet parameters, set the radius to 4 mm.
2. On each side of the body, select one edge between the bolt support and the main body. There is no need to select all edges, because the fillet will propagate along tangent edges. Create a second [[File:PartDesign Fillet.png|24px]] '''[[PartDesign Fillet|Fillet]]''' feature, this time with a radius of 6 mm.

I believe Markdown, the syntax used by Gitbook which Yorik and sliptonic would like to convert the wiki to at some point (because it's Git-based), uses a similar simplistic scheme.

[chrisb]

Renato did a trick with <translate>:

Code: Select all

# Select one of the vertical lines and give it a vertical distance constraint and a value of 11 mm. 
# Select [[File:Sketcher_External.png|32px]] External geometry tool
# Select the upper right vertex of the face and click it so you are provided a point from the external geometry to link our sketch to. </translate>[[Image:tut17_slot_unconstrained.png|center]]<translate>

# Right click to end the External geometry mode
# Select that point you just made available with the External geomet

The idea of manual numbering is intriguing, these texts are not extremely dynamic. But then I would have struggled with the indentation; something you have solved. Thanks for that possibility.