Changing selected faces in a pad/pocket operation

[wavexx]

Hi everyone. Using freecad 0.19.1.

I have a solid with two holes as a result of some operation. I then select the two flat faces inside the hole to extend them throughout the solid (pocket -> through all). No problems here.

During design at some point I want to change which faces of my solid are pocketed (let's say I want to remove one existing face and pocket only one). How do I do that?

When I edit the pocket I can modify the type/depth, however I cannot modify the face selection.
In the property editor I see in "Sketch based / Profile" the face list, however I cannot see any way I can modify this.

I would have expected to see a face selection editor of sorts, like we have for fillets.
Am I missing something?

[Shalmeneser]

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[freedman]

During design at some point I want to change which faces of my solid are pocketed (let's say I want to remove one existing face and pocket only one). How do I do that?

You have to break this into two operations, i.e. sketch and feature..

When I edit the pocket I can modify the type/depth, however I cannot modify the face selection.
In the property editor I see in "Sketch based / Profile" the face list, however I cannot see any way I can modify this.

Each operation is typically a Sketch then make a feature with that sketch.

[chrisb]

You got trapped by the topological naming problem. If you reference generated geometry such as faces and change something in a previous step, then the face may well be changed and appears all of a sudden in a different position.

[wavexx]

I'm aware of the topological naming issue and various work-arounds, however I believe my question was quite a bit more specific and model-agnostic. I'm trying to understand the limits, not to fix a model.

Ignoring completely topological naming, Is it possible to change the face selection at all in an existing pocket operation? It's just a parameter of the operation afterall.

I also have a related question: would it be possible to work this around by substituting a pocket operation with a new one? Logically, this would work as follows: Set the tip on the solid before the pocket, pocket again, move the graph references from the old pocket to the new one, remove old pocket.

[papyblaise]

no it doesn't work like that,
it's like in real life: if you drilled a hole in wood by mistake, you can stick a plug on it, if it is in metal you can just so much to weld an insert
so to plug a hole, you have to erase all the operations that follow and change your pocket
or else you add a Pad to give material

[chrisb]

Is it possible to change the face selection at all in an existing pocket operation? It's just a parameter of the operation afterall.

It's usually not the pocket that is attached, it is the underlying sketch, and you can change its attachment. You cannot change the face if the pocket is applied directly to a face.

would it be possible to work this around by substituting a pocket operation with a new one? Logically, this would work as follows: Set the tip on the solid before the pocket, pocket again, move the graph references from the old pocket to the new one, remove old pocket.

You can do that (and you simply could have tried it), but it may of course change references for subsequent steps.

[wavexx]

You can do that (and you simply could have tried it), but it may of course change references for subsequent steps.

Exactly. I can remap sketches easily enough, but not all steps. For example, a pocket followed by another pocket on the same face cannot be reassigned because of the same issue.

If I see the graph as it is, I'd like to move all references from one pocket operation to the new one, before removing the old.

[wavexx]

no it doesn't work like that,
it's like in real life: if you drilled a hole in wood by mistake, you can stick a plug on it, if it is in metal you can just so much to weld an insert
so to plug a hole, you have to erase all the operations that follow and change your pocket
or else you add a Pad to give material

This is not real life. A pad or pocket attached to a face doesn't necessarily change the topology of the object. If the pad doesn't intersect other geometry or the pocket doesn't go through the whole object, then it's equivalent to a face move operation after refinement.

I'm approaching freecad with a lot of experience with low-level parametric modeling (I'm using cadquery among others). I'm quite familiar with the topological naming issue at a lower level. I'm having issues manipulating the tree of operations really, not producing the results I want.

[freedman]

wavexx wrote
During design at some point I want to change which faces of my solid are pocketed (let's say I want to remove one existing face and pocket only one). How do I do that?

Are you asking: can we select different features in the tree and turn them on/off individually? The answer is no, at least in standard modeling. The model tree is a single thread, in PartDesign.
Edit: I guess you could delete just the feature and leave the sketch.