Can't activate second body to document

[ahowe42]

Hello All. I'm a newbie with any kind of CAD software, and am learning FreeCAD as part of a project to make a jewelry box. The box is a rectangle, with the 4 panels identical in design, except that the 2 side panels are longer than the end panels. I'm trying to make a single FreeCAD document that has both sets of panel types as parts

Banglebox.FCStd

the document on which I'm working

(68.37 KiB) Downloaded 11 times

. I currently have a body in the doument, in which the end panels are sketched. I can add a second body, but when I attempt to add a sketch to it, I get an error message that I must activate a body first. Even after I double-click on the new body, then try to add a sketch to it, I get the same message. Why am I not able to add and activate the second body? Thanks.

The version I'm using is 0.17, as that is the latest version for which I could find a tutorial that helped.

Andrew

[chrisb]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Usually you should attach your full FreeCAD info as described in the IMPORTANT forum rules linked above, but 0.17 is obsolete anyway. Please retry with the current stable 0.18, where the tutorials for 0.17 are valid as well.

[ahowe42]

Thanks, and apologies. Same behavior with 0.18, and on a different PC.
OS: Windows 7
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.16131 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: 3129ae4296e40ed20e7b3d460b86e6969acbe1c3
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedKingdom (en_GB)

[chrisb]

Does the activated body have a light blue background color?

[DeepSOIC]

I can't reproduce. But just in case, try activating 3d view first. As when I open the file, drawing view is active by default. As soon as I clicked Body, the view switched to 3d.

OS: Windows 10 (10.0)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.17803 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 89961a33d46063a43e9fb5b0308ca95d559eca94
Python version: 3.6.8
Qt version: 5.12.1
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: Russian/Russia (ru_RU)

[ahowe42]

Thanks for the comments. I just reinstalled, and now it is allowing me to activate a 2nd body. However, now I have a different problem. I've created a 2nd body, and created a new sketch in that body. When I open the sketch, before doing anything else, the sketch shows the part from the other body. Why would a new body inherit what is in an existing body, and how can I get rid of this? Thank you very much.

Banglebox.FCStd

sidepanels body has sketches from endpanels body

(59.34 KiB) Downloaded 13 times

[kisolre]

Those are different sketches and Sketch002 is empty.

Banglebox.JPG (96.61 KiB) Viewed 673 times

[bejant]

Hi Andrew, and welcome!

When I open the sketch, before doing anything else, the sketch shows the part from the other body. Why would a new body inherit what is in an existing body,

It doesn't, until you tell FreeCAD that you want a Sketch to inherit something. You're still seeing the model in the 3D view.

and how can I get rid of this?

Here are two common methods:
1. You can hide the Body completely by clicking the Body named End Panels in the history tree to select it, then pressing Spacebar to toggle its visibility to Off.

2. While in Sketcher, you can temporarily hide whatever part of the model is between you and the Sketch plane by clicking the Section View / Full View toggle tool:

With this method the view is restored when you exit Sketcher.


Not what you asked but when I open your newer file there are errors in Sketch, Sketch001, and Pad. The Sketches have Redundant Constraints (it would have been easier for you to simply create a Rectangle using the Sketcher Rectangle tool), and you should strive to make your Sketches become Fully Constrained.

20190824a.png (10.74 KiB) Viewed 638 times

I'm guessing that EndPanels is really the bottom?
You might want to check your units, otherwise this will be a very tiny jewelry box.

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Word size of OS: 32-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.18.1.
Build type: Release
Python version: 3.6.7
Qt version: 5.9.5
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

[chrisb]

1. You can hide the Body completely by clicking the Body named End Panels in the history tree to select it, then pressing Spacebar to toggle its visibility to Off.

I may add that this works only if the sketch you want to edit is in a different body and not in the obscuring one. If the body is invisible all sketches inside are invisible too, even in Sketcher edit mode.

[bejant]

I probably should have mentioned that, but didn't because I thought it was Sketch002 being edited and EndPanels was the Body obscuring the view.