Tech Draw Navigation and general questions

[JoeB]

Version 0.17 Rev 13247 on Windows 10.
I have several questions regarding TechDraw:
1) Is there any way to change the mouse navigation on tech draw pages so that it acts like the rest of Freecad? On my box it is set up with sliders so it is difficult to dimension parts that span the page.
2) Is there any way to move views from one page to another page?
Thank you in advance
Joe

[wandererfan]

1) Is there any way to change the mouse navigation on tech draw pages so that it acts like the rest of Freecad? On my box it is set up with sliders so it is difficult to dimension parts that span the page.

We've only implemented the default pan/zoom so far. It's been on the list for a while.

2) Is there any way to move views from one page to another page?

Yes, but not easily via the Gui. I don't recommend it at this time. Could do it with some Python code.

[JoeB]

Wow! You guys keep surprising me as to what FC can do. I should have looked at the specs on TechDraw first. It looks like I can generate a number of views, set the scales, and then add pages and or move the views around on different pages so they fit. Perfect!

[NormandC]

Yes, but not easily via the Gui. I don't recommend it at this time.

No kidding.

1. Make FC document with a TechDraw page and a ProjGroup
2. Create a second TechDraw page
3. Select ProjGroup in the first Page and all its content
4. Right-click --> Copy
5. To question whether to copy dependencies, click No
6. Right-click on the second Page --> Paste
7. Copied ProjGroup is created below and outside the second Page
8. No way to drag it over the Page, not visible in it
9. Double-click on the copied ProjGroup --> instant crash!
10. Alternatively: if either second Page or ProjGroup is deleted, all document windows are "loosened" from the main area (odd hybrid between mosaic and tiled windows)

Maybe I should have refrained from posting. I don't want to delay the v0.17 release any further.

[JoeB]

Rough draft to see if moving a page view object move from one page to another works and it does
Pick two objects, the first being the wind to move, the second the page to move to

obj = FreeCADGui.Selection.getSelection()[0]# view to move
objp = FreeCADGui.Selection.getSelection()[1]# page to move view to.
objm = App.ActiveDocument.addObject('TechDraw::DrawViewPart',"test1")
objm.Source=obj.Source
objp.addView(objm)
objm.Scale=.obj.Scale
objm.LineWidth=obj.LineWidth

...... add more properties, etc, or select them all
then delete the original view....

[wandererfan]

Rough draft to see if moving a page view object move from one page to another works and it does
Pick two objects, the first being the wind to move, the second the page to move to

pobj.removeView(objm) removes test1 from the Tree, but not from page display. Need to fix that. Closing/reopening page is a workaround.

Moving the view using the standard cut/paste or drag/drop doesn't look simple. Might be a while before you can do this in the Gui.

[JoeB]

I was scared of doing that in a script as I am a newbie and wanted to make sure it works reliably. Tuning off the page "keep updated" on pages not being worked on really speeds up the process. You may want to post this to the naysayers about techdraw.

[wandererfan]

I was scared of doing that in a script as I am a newbie and wanted to make sure it works reliably. Tuning off the page "keep updated" on pages not being worked on really speeds up the process. You may want to post this to the naysayers about techdraw.

Naysayers?!! We have naysayers?? We are in good company then.

[JoeB]

Another question:
Is there any way to tag items in FC with a circle (with mk number) and a leader pointing to the item? Cad-document.pdf shows an example and FC-document.pdf shows the FC equivalent. I generate the page, page views and bill of materials via python code.
Any guidance or advice would be appreciated

[wandererfan]

Is there any way to tag items in FC with a circle (with mk number) and a leader pointing to the item? Cad-document.pdf shows an example and FC-document.pdf shows the FC equivalent. I generate the page, page views and bill of materials via python code.

Leaders/callouts didn't make it into this release. You can fake it by inserting an Svg symbol, but that isn't very elegant.