Can't select point behind a constraint

[tobiasBora]

Hello,

I'm new to FreeCad, and I'm having some troubles to select a point behind a constraint (it tries to select the constraint instead of the point, see red box):

s.png (103.52 KiB) Viewed 931 times

If I draw a selection box, then it select both the point and the constraint, which does not have the intended effect.

Any idea how to solve that issue? It's quite annoying because I can't do anything without selecting that point. I'm using FreeCad 0.19 from NixOS and here is my file

f.FCStd

(6.21 KiB) Downloaded 31 times

.

Thanks!

BONUS: also, I'm quite curious: if I move the point right below the one I can't select (it has constraint 15 on it), instead of just moving the below shape, it moves the whole figure, changing the shape of the above one (and while I move, the changing is ). Is i

[Bance]

Did you try to zoom in?

The sketch is constrained together, constraint 15 is vertical from a point on both shapes, so are some others.

Version info should be posted as described in the link at the top of the page, like this:-

OS: Linux Mint 20.1 (XFCE/xfce)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.
Build type: Release
Branch: unknown
Hash: 2599d67c2bd41a5f051b994b6da7890a2b4ecc4c
Python version: 3.8.5
Qt version: 5.12.8
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.5.1
Locale: English/United Kingdom (en_GB)

[tobiasBora]

Thanks for your answer. I did try to zoom in but it was not enough. But I found a trick: disable on the left panel the constraint, select, and enable it again. Not very practical, but works. Also, when I enabled it back, it moved a bit the constraint so now I can select it

Also, what's the issue with having constraint between multiple sketches? I do want to ensure that lines between both shapes are parallel, and aligned properly, my final shape being:

b.png (77.36 KiB) Viewed 896 times

Ok, thanks, here is it!

OS: NixOS 21.03 (Okapi) (KDE//nix/store/m2djqy9r7fqc0nbfbbnhn957l0b77y4f-desktops/share/xsessions/plasma5)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.Unknown
Build type: Release
Python version: 3.8.7
Qt version: 5.15.2
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.0
Locale: French/France (fr_FR)

[Bance]

It's not an issue for me!

You asked why both shapes moved together, well that's what constrained means, fixed.

I'm glad you sorted out the selection issue, did you change the pick radius or anything else in the preferences? Because I have no problem selecting the point by any method.

[tobiasBora]

It's not an issue for me!

Do you mean that when you open the file you don't have this superposition, or that the workaround I proposed is not too annoying?

You asked why both shapes moved together, well that's what constrained means, fixed.

Oh, sure. But because there are several degrees of freedom, there exist different ways to update the above shape... And I think that the current method does not really gives the most "intuitive" transformation since it modifies a lot the shapes instead of simply translating the object. To be fair I guess it's hard to precisely define intuitive, but maybe there is a way to make it more intuitive. For example, is it possible to define a mode in which the solver first tries to do uniform translation of points, and if it's not possible then it starts to move the points one by one ? Or for example, to be allowed to move at once all selected points.

-- EDIT -- Oh, I realized that if I select the edge instead of the point, the move is more natural. I guess that what happens is that I put a vertical constraint between the points, and that somehow when I modify the position of one point it also tries to modify the position of the other point linked with this vertical constraint.

I'm glad you sorted out the selection issue, did you change the pick radius or anything else in the preferences? Because I have no problem selecting the point by any method.

I did not change anything in the preferences no, I installed FreeCad maybe last week, and I just played twice with it. I'm not even sure how to modify it.

[00001000bit]

FreeCAD also gives you the ability to manage constraints across two "virtual spaces" so you can more easily work with them. https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Sketcher_SwitchVirtualSpace
BUT
If you don't select ANY constraints and toggle the virtual space button, it effectively hides ALL the constraints from the view. This might be useful if you quickly need to access things and constraints are getting in the way.

In your layout, the button is to the far right.

switchVirtualSpace.png (9.26 KiB) Viewed 843 times

[tobiasBora]

Thanks a lot for the tip!