creating a drawing from a model

[kootzie]

I'm trying to get my wheels on using FreeCad for architectural drawings
so I just grab a random part that appears in the startup page of conda 0.19 - the engine block
I use TechDraw to choose an ANSi B template and then insert some views
Initially I get told a view can't be created
Then I monkey around and add a compound view something or other and get squares
I monkey around a bit more and get a few circles

I change the view to FRONT and attempt to add another view and get error messages

Seems I have to fight for every inch, or mm
Just doing basic stuff, freecad keeps giving me the F-inger

[GeoffG]

Hi kootzie,

Firstly, you need to include all the FreeCAD version details so people can help you better. See: http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2264

I'm trying to get my wheels on using FreeCad for architectural drawings
so I just grab a random part that appears in the startup page of conda 0.19 - the engine block
I use TechDraw to choose an ANSi B template and then insert some views
Initially I get told a view can't be created
Then I monkey around and add a compound view something or other and get squares
I monkey around a bit more and get a few circles

I change the view to FRONT and attempt to add another view and get error messages

Seems I have to fight for every inch, or mm
Just doing basic stuff, freecad keeps giving me the F-inger

Secondly, the description of what you've tried isn't particularly helpful either, but that said, what you're trying to do is achievable. I'm not exactly sure what you did but this is what I did:

1. Opened the engine block drawing
2. Switched to the TechDraw workbench
3. Created a new AnsiB page
4. Clicked on the Engine Block in the Model view
5. Clicked on Insert View and inserted the first view
6. Clicked on Insert Compound view and inserted all the views - I did scale down the views so they'd all fit on the page

The attached screenshot shows what I got from the steps above.

Also, you might find this video useful - https://youtu.be/TnYMfpdNQoo. It was recorded using FreeCAD 0.18.

OS: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (KDE/plasma)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.23756 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 9c6e9184930a52b165a0b7274e3a45d1006bfe67
Python version: 3.8.6
Qt version: 5.12.5
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: English/Australia (en_AU)

[kootzie]

cool, thanks
I see that the specific piece I have "selected" gets added to the layout
but not in the orientation in the model view

Model view is isometric but the views in the layout are all side views
I can't figure out how to rotate or change orientation or resize the views on the page
I see the icon for insert view in page, but no matter what orientation is in model view
it inserts a side view
I can drag them around

Is it possible to get rid of the dots at line junctions ?
Seems like a very unusual default style...

[chrisb]

Is it possible to get rid of the dots at line junctions ?
Seems like a very unusual default style...

It is the quite natural default style to add dimensions, which usually is the next task after placing views on the page. The dots don't appear on a pdf created from the page and can be toogled in the preview with "Turn View Frames On/Off".

[kootzie]

I revisited this engine block thing - trying to put several views on an ANSI B page

I selected a bunch of faces/solids/pieces on the standard isometric view I get when first opened
using Techdraw | Insert view

All I ended up with was an end-on upsidedown view

I never discovered the secret Masonic handshake required to generate several customized views and to change perspective within those windows

[jmaustpc]

Look at my screen shot, see the properties "Direction" and "Xdirection" of the View object? they are what defines its rotation. If you want to know how, experiment or read the wiki.

By default TechDraw attempts to take the orientation from the current view angle when the TD View was created, but you can just edit it by editing those proerties. For Isometric you want x=0.58 y=negative 0.58 (-0.58) and z=0.58

If you select an item (or multi-select items, ctrl key) from the treeview then it works as expected. If you select from the 3d window then you will in some cases (depending on view angle) get unexpected results.

Read the wiki first, for most things your answers are explained there.

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