DraftView positioning and TechDraw

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chrisb
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by chrisb »

Roy_043 wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 9:14 am AFAIK this is correct behavior.
Thanks for the info.
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Roy_043
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by Roy_043 »

I just found out that you can update the Source property of a TechDraw_DraftView to point to a Part object. So the behavior is not fully consistent.
paullee
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by paullee »

paullee wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:48 pm I thought objects can exist in different Layers whilst be contained in a Group, but it seems not - usually I will try select a Group and use Draft View.
Seems it is consistent what BIM wiki says:-

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/BIM_Layers - "Layers don't interfere with any other FreeCAD structure such as groups or Building parts, so any object can be at the same time part of a layer and part of a group. "

BIM Layer is not same as Draft Layer ?
paullee
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by paullee »

stanluk wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:24 am Nice one, however I think You hacked my example a bit. Consider that in real project (the one that I cannot share unfortunately) I have hundreds of wires in each layer. When I make a link to a layer instead of single wire the TechDraw do not show anything.
paullee wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 9:50 am
paullee wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:48 pm I thought objects can exist in different Layers whilst be contained in a Group, but it seems not - usually I will try select a Group and use Draft View.
Seems it is consistent what BIM wiki says:-

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/BIM_Layers - "Layers don't interfere with any other FreeCAD structure such as groups or Building parts, so any object can be at the same time part of a layer and part of a group. "
So in fact, Layers and ordinary Group can contain same objects at same time :)

So it is now much more flexible, no needs to do Links. Though user needs to organise 'twice' - if all objects in a Layer are supposed to be 1) has same visual effect and, 2) Contained in a Group for DraftView to show, user needs to do the similar procedure twice.

On the other hand, if a Layer contain portion of objects (with same visual effects) are not intended to be all shown in a DraftView, this becomes an advantage - otherwise, needs to do 2 Layers (with same visual effects).

Indeed, it may be even better, if DraftView directly support Layers. Want to help by filing a Feature Request in Mantis BugTracker ? :D

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Roy_043
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by Roy_043 »

It is technically possible to put an object in more than one layer. But this more or less defies the purpose of the layer. It is certainly discouraged in the GUI, you cannot do this with a drag-and-drop type operation f.e.

Interestingly putting an objects in more than one group is not allowed and causes an error.
stanluk
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by stanluk »

Thank You all for suggestions. However I would like to remind problem definition - it was related to positioning of multiple DraftViews on TechDraw, however the discussion has moved to side effects of making single DraftView from multiple objects.

Generally I was able to solve my problem with simple trick. In each layer I have made a tiny lines which are defining left-upper and right-bottom boundary of each layer. Those line are placed in exactly the same coordinates in each layer and as a result all layers have exactly the same outer boundaries. In this way when I now add two DraftViews (one for each layer) into TechDraw I can easily position them as placing them on same TechDraw coordinates results in a output the same as in 3d view.

It also makes my workflow nice. If I modify the layer A, all tech draws AB, AC, AD get automatically updated. The only side effect are those tiny lines which may appear on print, however they are so small that no one should even notice.
paullee
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by paullee »

I also did try long time ago adding 'brackets' at four corners to define the view, but that was not very handy.

Hope putting objects in a Group help the workflow.
[EDIT - in fact, if a various grouping of Layers needs to be shown, use of Groups to organise those objects into a DraftView does not help, as objects currently can only go into 1 group to my understanding. ]

And wish someone capable have time to improve in this area :D
carlopav
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Re: DraftView positioning and TechDraw

Post by carlopav »

Roy_043 wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 9:14 am AFAIK this is correct behavior. Some Draft commands can create Part objects. The TechDraw_DraftView command is not intended to handle them.
I agree with Roy
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