Draft WB / Snaps not working?

[DDEAN]

Playing around in FreeCAD Draft WB, drew one line vertical, one line horizontal. Clicked on snaps endpoint to turn it on, wanted to move one endpoint of line to the other endpoint of other line into a shape of an L. Simple, or so I thought, well no, CAD should be simple. I noticed it didnt look right. I zoomed way in and noticed, the endpoint snaps did not snap to either one. All snaps are off except for endpoint. Closed FreeCAD and opened it and still wont snap. I can see the endpoints highlight when I hover the cursor over them. Is there a setting I need to know about so this works correctly that is hiding somewheres, something I am doing wrong? Im frustrated and going bald from pulling my hair learning this CAD thing even with 10 years under my belt, I can already see this being a long road.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6703 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 2ce5c8d2e3020d05005ed71f710e09e9aa561f40
Python version: 2.7.11+
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[damian]

did you read the documentation?

http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Draft_Snap

For me the snap works correctly. It is not wonderful, but it works.

The grid also is important for the snap system.

http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?ti ... ToggleGrid

OS: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6698 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: master
Hash: ca7c5d31a4d61f32a25b71025b14641a6e378328
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[jmaustpc]

the two most common reasons people seem to have problems with snap are "working plane" and having all types on at once. Just turn on the snap types needed, as few as possible usually so that they don't contradict each other. "Working plane" Draft is largely 2d within a 3d environment, so you have to set an appropriate working plane. For more details read the wiki.

I almost never use a grid, mostly for me it just gets in the way, but others find it useful. Snaps work as expected for me.

Rather than carrying on about pulling hair out etc., spend your energy reading the wiki. The snaps work quite well, you just are not doing something correctly, it all seems obvious once you understand what they do etc.

here is the Draft Snap page on the wiki
http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... Draft_Snap

[DDEAN]

A welcoming bunch. What happened to the rules? I'll go find another piece of software to learn. Go talk down to someone else. While they are at it, delete my account and this post.

[quick61]

A welcoming bunch. What happened to the rules? I'll go find another piece of software to learn. Go talk down to someone else. While they are at it, delete my account and this post.

Wow... Bug, meet butt. Please proceed upwards in an orderly fashion and have a nice day.

Can anyone say snowflake?

Really, I had to read through this thread twice to even come close to figuring out what might of offended him/her/it.

While zooming way, way in on the intersection of the 2 lines may result in what appears to be a visual separation of the two lines, if you look at their end positions in the data tab, they both have one end point, (vertex), in common, and when one does a Draft Upgrade on the 2 lines to make them one wire, the operation works because internally the two end points are the same.

I don't know about the most of you, but about the crappiest snapping I have ever seen is from autocad. Don't know if it's the software or the operators but it's the autocad files that are imported into FreeCAD that have the end points so far apart that they can not be upgraded to wires until they are moved or replaced.

Best of luck finding another piece of software, there are more than a few out there. Maybe a more adaptable set of tools for your disposition might be in order.

Edit - If you must have your lines "looking" like their endpoints are touching, go to Edit > Preferences... > Part design > Shape view tab and change the tessellation setting from the default 0.5% to something like 0.0001% and it will "look" correct along with being mathematically correct. Just note to pay attention to the warning and understand the downside if changing this visual value to low.

Mark

[bejant]

I press Ctrl for snapping (but I don't remember if I've changed my Preferences or not), and the endpoints meet exactly at least to 6 decimal places. They also display correctly, the screen grab is zoomed in to 0.01 x 0.01 nm.

20160711a.png (7.79 KiB) Viewed 4852 times

OS: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
Word size of OS: 32-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.16.6703 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 2ce5c8d2e3020d05005ed71f710e09e9aa561f40
Python version: 2.7.6
Qt version: 4.8.6
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[AndrewHeard]

Probably won't help the original poster but may help other newbies like myself. I had the same frustrating problem with snapping not working. It turned out that I had to disable Nearest snap then the remainder of the snap modes worked as expected (when Windows ctrl key held down).

[jmaustpc]

Probably won't help the original poster but may help other newbies like myself. I had the same frustrating problem with snapping not working. It turned out that I had to disable Nearest snap then the remainder of the snap modes worked as expected (when Windows ctrl key held down).

Hi Andrew
this is another example, much like I said 2 years ago. All the different snap types can easily conflict if all turned on at once, particularly for newbies.

Snap to "working plane" causes a lot of confusion because the other snaps still work but are restricted to the 2d working plane. If viewed from above the lines ends will snap to each other within the 2d plane but if you rotate the view you will see that the lines have not snapped in the 3rd axis. This can actually be a handy cool feature, if that is what you want to achieve.

Jim

[AndrewHeard]

Thanks Jim. Yes discovered that neat feature myself. Terribly confusing for a new user though.

[claush]

Turning off all snapbuttons not needed helped.
Thanks to jmaustpc who mentioned it first.
Claus, 18.4 newbie