A simple question

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charles1954
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:10 am

A simple question

Post by charles1954 »

I just switched from Liebrecad to Freecad. Hoping the adjustment time won't be to long. I use my cad program for many different things and sincerely hope I don't out grow Free cad. I am currently working on a project to build a cigar box guitar. I am going to be using my cnc router to make some special joinery that I want to use. I will then use the laser engraver to decorate the box components before final assembly and finishing. I don't think I will be using the 3D capabilities of freecad for this project. I just need an outline of the perimeter of the box starting from the coordinates X=0 Y=0. I assumed that creating a blank template, with the work space defined to the same size as my material would be a good starting point. I started to work through the tutorial on setting up a template in Inkscape, but quickly came up with many questions. If I just need to start with a fixed drawing size, with no borders or title block, do I even need to create a blank template? I tried to get back to the template tutorial, but couldn't find it again. It talked about editing the completed svg file in a text editor. This was to allow Free cad to use the template file. I know there were some lines that were mandatory. There were other lines that had to be added or changed to let Free cad avoid areas outside of the border region, as well as avoid the title block. Still more lines to add or edit to allow the user to have both editable text, and static text in the title block. I wasn't sure if these lines were mandatory or not. If mandatory what X and Y values do I need to put in these lines to make the working space the same as my material size? That is about all I can remember from the tutorial. I am going to look at all the tutorials under the drafting and sketching header. I also found the tutorials for cnc and 3D printing. I will get to that as soon as I am able.

Thank You for your assistance
Charles
chrisb
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Re: A simple question

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I guess by "Template" you mean a TechDraw template? If so, then this is the most uncommon start into FreeCAD I have seen here. You start where the modeling usually ends: with a drawing on paper.

I would rather recommend to start from the other end, with learning how Sketcher works. Then you can continue later with 3D stuff. In the Tutorials section of the wiki you find tutorials about Sketcher, an in-depth tutorial can be found here. To get a further idea what FreeCAD is about I would recommend to work through the PartDesign tutorials too, even if you don't need them yet.

Please note that Path workbench can generate 3D Paths, but its capabilities are rather designed for 3D than for 2D, so that some functions like Profile will not work with your 2D sketches.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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pl7i92LCNC
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Re: A simple question

Post by pl7i92LCNC »

Hi
i think you are more interestet in the inlays and sound outlet shapes
so
as you get it from a image you shoudt black out the shape as of a graphics like GIMP(free),Photoshop....
then just vectorize it inside INKSCAPE (free)
and import/open this svg to freecad

there are multiple ways to do this things
its the same way people go for plasma CUTshapes

one of my YT targets this as special (all Free Software)####THERE are others that give you some more impression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_02d3X7u6wY
chrisb
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Re: A simple question

Post by chrisb »

pl7i92LCNC wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 6:25 am one of my YT targets this as special (all Free Software)####THERE are others that give you some more impression
Please note that this is the FreeCAD forum and not a general video promotion platform.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
charles1954
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Re: A simple question

Post by charles1954 »

Thank you both for the reply. It made sense to me that I should go through the tutorials, before getting started on any projects. I started with the Draft tutorials, and when I have those consepts firmly implanted in my brain will move on to the Technical drawing subjects. I ran into a little snag with the Draft tutorial. When I got to the section for adding a rectangle to the drawing it would not let me insert negative numbers in the taskview window. The circle and polygon work fine with centers at the origin (0,0,0). I have yet to find an explanation of the green circle with the check mark, that is at the end of each coordinate value entry box. Does it have a special significance ? I am going to check known issues about the negative number problem, but if you know what I am doing wrong please tell me. My design style and drafting style flow better when I can enter exact coordinates. I hate lopsided squares and rectangles. On my drawing so I could continue with the tutorials I entered all positive numbers for the rectangle. Looking at the data view for the rectangle the axis is (0,0,1). The position is (100,60,0). A height of 30. A length of 40. 1 column and 1 row. These are the correct values, but the rectangle still looks jagged and lopsided. I have my line width set to one pixel. Will increasing the line width give me a smoother view ?

Thank you all again.
Charles
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pl7i92LCNC
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Re: A simple question

Post by pl7i92LCNC »

can you please upoad the file so we see the problem you are facing
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wandererfan
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Re: A simple question

Post by wandererfan »

charles1954 wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 5:06 am I tried to get back to the template tutorial, but couldn't find it again. It talked about editing the completed svg file in a text editor.
If you eventually want to print 1:1 paper output, you can use any of the following as a starting point:
A1_Landscape_blank.svg
A2_Landscape_blank.svg
A3_Landscape_blank.svg
A4_Landscape_blank.svg
A4_Portrait_blank.svg
USLetter_Landscape_blank.svg

There isn't much to a blank template. This is A4_Landscape_blank in its entirety:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<svg
	xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"
	xmlns:freecad="http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Svg_Namespace"
	width="297mm"
	height="210mm"
	viewBox="0 0 297 210">
</svg>
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bejant
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Re: A simple question

Post by bejant »

charles1954 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:57 pm My design style and drafting style flow better when I can enter exact coordinates.
Hi Charles, and welcome to the forum! In the Draft WB while creating the rectangle it's usually easier to enter exact coordinates if you move the cursor out of the 3D view. You've discovered the Data tab, and even after a rectangle is made you can change its size from the Data tab.

charles1954 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:57 pm but the rectangle still looks jagged and lopsided.
I'll guess that your view isn't perpendicular to (in other words: normal to) the rectangle.

charles1954 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:57 pm I have my line width set to one pixel. Will increasing the line width give me a smoother view ?
No, because I don't think the problem is the line width.

charles1954 wrote: Wed Oct 16, 2019 5:06 am I just need an outline of the perimeter of the box starting from the coordinates X=0 Y=0.
Here are two rectangles, the black one was made in the Draft WB and the white one was done in Sketcher. I used the Data tab to move the white rectangle up to Z = 10 mm so the two rectangles aren't on the same (Z = 0) Plane. I don't think you need any sort of template, instead just try doing a File > Export of one of the rectangles to whatever file format you need.


20191017a.png
20191017a.png (37.4 KiB) Viewed 1593 times

20191017-rectangles.FCStd
(9.34 KiB) Downloaded 29 times

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (ubuntu:GNOME/ubuntu)
Word size of OS: 32-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.19.
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charles1954
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Re: A simple question

Post by charles1954 »

Well things are getting better now. I went back and opened my saved document for the tutorial. By the way I am working through the Draft Tutorial v0.16. I deleted my rectangle which was in the wrong place. I entered the numbers to match the tutorial, being careful to clear the input boxes of any text before doing so. I was also careful not to let my mouse pointer stray into the 3D view space. I now have the proper sized rectangle in the correct place. Progress! I also deleted the two arcs and lines.

There seems to be no issues with arcs or lines. However the tutorial wants you to fuse these four objects into a wire. The directions in the tutorial are not real clear. It reads like you should select one arc and one line and the fuse that pair first, then select the other arc and line and fuse that pair. You continue until all four objects are fused into a single wire. I have tried selecting them in various combinations, but never end up with a wire. It turns into a block. When selecting any of these entities in the 3D viewer I can select them individually, or holding down ctrl any combination of the four. If I select the block that was created in the tree it selects all four entities. A little awkward, but I can live with it. I am more concerned that the upgrade icon does not create a wire. I entered the coordinates for the two arcs manually. The two lines I used the snap feature to connect them to the endpoints of the arcs. This said the symmetry of the wire should have been perfect. I am wondering if the upgrade function not needing to make any adjustments to complete the path around the object simply upgraded it to a higher status then wire.

As far as my uneven lines go I did check the position of the view. It was looking straight down on the top. I realized that I didn't care for the 1 px line width, so I set that to 3. It didn't correct the uneven lines, however I went looking in the preferences file and in the 3D tab of display settings found the anti aliasing setting and changed it to line smoothing. Magic, no more uneven lines.
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bejant
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Re: A simple question

Post by bejant »

charles1954 wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:08 am I am working through the Draft Tutorial v0.16.
I guess it's this one?
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Draft_tutorial

charles1954 wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:08 am However the tutorial wants you to fuse these four objects into a wire. The directions in the tutorial are not real clear. It reads like you should select one arc and one line and the fuse that pair first, then select the other arc and line and fuse that pair. You continue until all four objects are fused into a single wire.
I agree that the directions are unclear, and to me they are wrong. I edited that portion of the tutorial just now; I hope it's clearer.

To fix the file you posted: In the Draft WB select Block in the history tree and press Spacebar to hide it. Select Wire from the history tree (this should also de-select Block) and click the Draft WB > Downgrade tool (blue arrow pointing down) to Downgrade the Wire into Edge and Edge001. Repeat for Wire001 to Downgrade it into Edge002 and Edge003. Select Edge from the history tree, then press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking on the other 3 Edges to add them to the selection. With the 4 Edges selected, click the Draft WB > Upgrade tool to Upgrade the 4 Edges into a Wire.


charles1954 wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:08 am I went looking in the preferences file and in the 3D tab of display settings found the anti aliasing setting and changed it to line smoothing. Magic, no more uneven lines.
Glad you found that, I hadn't thought that anti-aliasing setting was causing the problem.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.1.
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