Proposal for draft modifiers to work in draft edit mode

[Moult]

I have been trying to draw various floor plans which I deal with at work with FreeCAD and although it is certainly possible, at times it is frustrating in terms of speed and workflow. It is partially because I am still new to FreeCAD, but I think that the workflow with the draft module could be improved with these proposals:

1. There needs to be a fast way to move into "edit mode" for a draft object directly or a draft object that is the base of another object. Right now, I only see finding it in the tree and double clicking it. This is slow. I propose that a new shortcut, say "D E" (draft edit?) will edit the draft object. If you have another object selected, it will check if there is a base, and if so, edit that draft base instead.

2. In the draft edit, you should be able to modify not just one vertex, but instead an entire edge. You should also be able to modify multiple vertices at once, or multiple edges at once. This opens up possibilities

3. In the draft edit, you should be able to use all of the modifiers currently available to you in the draft toolbar. Move, rotate, offset, etc etc. Of course care will be taken to ensure that the user cannot save a disconnected graph.

I believe these improvements will make the drafting functions much more powerful (even more powerful than Revit sketches, as it supports vertices too), and retains all of the existing FreeCAD-specific power of replacing bases, reusing a single base for multiple components, and the whole concept of keeping bases and their parents separate.

These changes will be quite significant code-wise, I imagine, and so I would like some feedback before I embark on this.

[carlopav]

Completely agree: the edit tool need some love

1.

I agree! Consider that in most drafting software "editing" is directly activated when selecting an object, without having to press any key...

2.

I agree again, this was on my plans

3. In the draft edit, you should be able to use all of the modifiers currently available to you in the draft toolbar. Move, rotate, offset, etc etc. Of course care will be taken to ensure that the user cannot save a disconnected graph.

Do you mean that we should provide more custom editPoints to provide handles for those functions or just allow to exit edit mode, launch the command and restore edit mode automatically?

PS i think that multiple object editing will be needed someday.
PS2 Yorik merged yesterday a couple of things i've modified to edit wall base object and arcs. And today i proposed a pull request on arc editing by 3 points, but the one of today seems to have some failed checks (@Regis, that's why i'm not yet into the mood of explaining you how i do them ).
PS3 @Moult, great that you are planning to work on that command too!!

[bitacovir]

At the beginning, the Draft module was supposed to have only basic drawing features. The focus of Yorik's works was on 3D modeling at that time. Now that there are more people interested in coding, it would be a good moment to improve this workbench. Therefore, go for it!

Now, if you need more feedback, you could prepare a roadmap about what you want to do. This way people can help you with ideas or priorities.

[yorik]

Have you guys checked the stretch tool? You can even work on several objects at the same time. I actually never use the draft edit tool anymore...

[Moult]

The stretch tool is awesome! However it has some limitations:

1. It only works on vertices that can be selected in a bounding box. I propose for the upgraded draft edit mode to allow you to independently select and add to your selection the same as you do in a 3D view.
2. It only implements moving things. I propose for the upgraded draft edit mode to support all modifiers.

That said, it is cool how it works on multiple objects. Perhaps the upgraded draft edit mode can have that feature too - so that you can select multiple objects and edit them all at the same time.

[bernd]

Have you guys checked the stretch tool? You can even work on several objects at the same time. I actually never use the draft edit tool anymore...

How do you edit your Draft objects than? Create them new?

[yorik]

How do you edit your Draft objects than? Create them new?

If I need to add/remove points, then yes, still need Draft Edit. But that's fairly rare for me... The most common case is the need to move vertices.

[carlopav]

If I need to add/remove points, then yes, still need Draft Edit. But that's fairly rare for me...

That's why u didn't include it in bim wb toolbars
I think anyway that it could be a nice tool to implement, that could be customized to display more handles to perform draft commands in a more intuitive way... To me it's also a nice way to dive into freecad code, since at the moment it's a quite abandoned command (and so we can experiment with no much worries I guess). Mould do u think we could write a shared doc to address our work on that tool?
Ps i'm waiting for some free hours to pull request the arc 3 points edit mode that is almost finished, and a small refurbishment of the edit tool to make more easy adding custom task panel for each kind of object (working with arcs I was thinking about adding some commands like invert arc and half circle)
Yorik, do u think that could be ever a good thing to auto enter edit mode when selecting an object?

[bitacovir]

Some drawing tools from other CAD programs that used to be very useful for me were:

Divide tool.
In Freecad we have Draft point and Draft PathArray. But I don't know how to snap on the points created on a line to use them as a reference. Also, it looks like the location of the points does not match with the start/end of the line.

Fillet
To create rounded corners.

[carlopav]

Fillet
To create rounded corners.

I really miss this one too... it's really useful also to join two lines without creating an arc in between... btw the sketcher have a fillet command, could we use it as a base?

say "D E" (draft edit?)

At the moment it seems the better option to speed up entering the mode and doesnt conflict with other keys as the option i suggested. Still dont know if you agree the edit mode could be set automatically when selecting an object.

Maybe we can focus to perfection the "one object editing" for the moment since the stretch could fill the gap of multiple object editing.

PS Why not joining the two topics on draft edit?