Printing a scaled drawing to paper

[tantle1961]

I am trying to learn how to print my drawing on paper but having trouble following the tutorials. I want to select a group of objects and send them to my page drawing at a given scale. The only thing that I found that works is selecting each object one at a time and scaling it. I'm sure there is a better way since some of my drawings will have hundreds of items.

OS: Windows 8.1
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6706 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: f86a4e411ff7848dea98d7242f43b7774bee8fa0
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[renatorivo]

I'm sure there is a better way since some of my drawings will have hundreds of items.

Arriving in FreeCAD 0.17 with TechDraw_NewMulti

Renato

Edit
Here is a view of many objects from your file, Scale Type = Automatic

multi.png (83.73 KiB) Viewed 8510 times

[NormandC]

Arriving in FreeCAD 0.17

This can already be done right now in v0.16.670x.

What you need to know is that the Drawing workbench can only create views of a single object at a time. But this limitation can easily be worked around by creating a compound of your objects.

Select all the objects you want to put in a view (easy enough with box selection in the 3D view, Shift + B), then switch to the Part workbench and go to Part --> Make compound. Then you can create a view of the compound.

The compound is a new object that links all types of shapes together; the original shapes are hidden and nested under it in the Model tree.

Just one thing, in your file the elements under the Group will be removed from it. Groups and compounds don't work well together.

Think of the compound as a way to create an assembly that can be moved as a single unit. The compound is a new object, it will move to a new location, but not the original objects.

My modified file is too large to attach here, if you want to check it let me know and I'll upload it to my Dropbox account.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6707 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: 5465bc47c95db45e0be85dc0e2872419efadce0f
Python version: 2.7.12
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17

[tantle1961]

Thank you for the tip. How do I add dimensions to the drawing and is there a way to print at a specified scale like 1/4" per foot?

[NormandC]

How do I add dimensions to the drawing

In two ways

• By adding Draft Dimensions to the 3D view and projecting them to the drawing page https://youtu.be/nxNT0KychcY
• A lot easier is to use the Drawing Dimensioning module add-on to add dimensions directly to the page. See Installing under "Installing additional content" for an easy way to install additional modules to FreeCAD.

is there a way to print at a specified scale like 1/4" per foot?

In the Ortho views parameters, uncheck "Auto scale / position". The scale needs to be set in a decimal value. 1/4" = 1' - 0" translates to 0.02083.

FC_Drawing_Ortho_Projection_Tasks_01.png (47.72 KiB) Viewed 8484 times

[tantle1961]

This has been quite helpful - I'm almost there. I watched the video several times and got the drawing on the page and the dimensions added to a group. I must have done some wrong because now when I select the dimension group, the button to add the dimension is disabled (grayed out).

disabled button.jpg (211.61 KiB) Viewed 8465 times

[NormandC]

There's been some changes since I made that video.

You need to select the X-Y Dims group and the Ortho_0_0 view before clicking on the Draft Drawing tool. The dimensions will automatically adopt the view scale and placement.

But as I said, it is so much easier using the Drawing Dimensioning workbench, which didn't exist back when I made that video. You are doing yourself a disservice by not trying it out.

[tantle1961]

Thanks for the tip! That is so much easier.

[tantle1961]

I am loving this

Drawing Dimensioning

tool, very easy to use. Is there a way to configure the tool to display in feet and inches?
For example, 1'-6" instead of 18"

[NormandC]

Unfortunately I doubt it. I had a look and didn't find any way to, apart from manually changing the value, which kind of defeats the purpose of extracting dimensions from the model.

The original Drawing Dimensioning module author was South African I think. As far as I know only the USA & Canada, and maybe Great Britain use inches, the 7 billion other human beings on the planet use the metric system. We're in the very small minority here...