Reusing sketches (again)

[RandomPipeBender]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to construct something out of steel tubing. I made a sketch and would now like to pad it to various length using the part design workbench (similar to this user: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58333)

I scrolled through that post and was able to do it as suggested with a shape binder, a sub-object shape binder and the cloning tool from the draft workbench. I don't really understand the implications of using a shape binder over a sub-object shape binder and using the cloning tool from a different workbench also seems dubious.

I found a third way, simply padding the sketch when a new empty body is activated:

phpBB [video]

However the message

Code: Select all

PartDesign::Pad / Pad001: Links go out of the allowed scope

in the report view makes me question if this is a sane way of doing it.

So my questions are:
- What's the canonical way of doing this?
- What's the difference between using a shape binder and a sub-object shape binder
- Is the method shown in the video sane? a bad idea?

Thanks in advance!

[chrisb]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

- What's the canonical way of doing this?

Using a ShapeBinder

- What's the difference between using a shape binder and a sub-object shape binder

In this case it's the same. In general the SubShapeBinder has its own (non hidden) placement and can bind more than one object.

- Is the method shown in the video sane? a bad idea?

Sane: no; bad idea: yes. You must not directly reference things crossing the body border without a (Sub)ShapeBinder.

[RandomPipeBender]

Thanks. That was most helpful!