align circles equidistant to one line

[rascalito]

Hello!

Newbie question here.
I started with Freecad for less than a week.

I have started a design and it works just fine, but I'm doing the hard way. For instance,
just suppose I want to draw 10 circles at the same distance of the base line (I'm in the xy
plane, so in this case the base line is y=0. Say 10 mm from that baseline.
I use parametric spreadsheet, so the 10mm is in the spreadsheet, and I'll call it Cy.
So for each of the circles, what I basically do is:
- Click the circle
- Click the baseline
- Select the "I" tool to set the distance
- Select the small icon when choosing parameters
- Enter the choose <spreadsheet>.Cy
Then do that for all the points.

Is there a way to do that more efficiently? For example, select all the points, and tell the system
that they are at the same distance from the baseline, and then set this distance only once.

Thanks for any hint.

Pascal

[chrisb]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You should prefer geometric constraints over dimensions. From what I understad you want 10 circles and all are at the same distance of the y-axis. Then you should align them vertically and set the dimension of only one of them.

[chrisb]

Here is an example. If the 10 circles have all the same distance from each other, you should consider using a linear pattern.

[TheMarkster]

You could have a construction line between each circle, each construction line constrained to the center above and below. Then set them all equal to each other. One constraint of one construction line length would control the distance between circles with one variable.

Snip macro screenshot-b7ad81.png (71.9 KiB) Viewed 2347 times

If preferred you could also have a constraint of the distance from the first circle to the last and use that instead of the distance between circles.

This is good if you know you will need 10 circles, but if that number might change, then consider using a linear pattern on the pad/pocket and just have one circle.

[M4x]

Depending on what you're trying to do, it may be a good idea to only create one circle and use PartDesign_LinearPattern. Overall, I think you should work through the basic tutorials in our wiki

[rascalito]

Hello!

Thanks for your reply! And for all the other replies.

You should prefer geometric constraints over dimensions.

Agree! Therefore my question. I was setting distances one by one, and the result is that I have
n times the same dimension in the sketch.

and all are at the same distance of the y-axis. Then you should align them vertically and set the dimension of only one of them.

Exactly. Well, it's the x axis, therefore I was defining the Cy dimension, but you get the idea.
The problem I have is: how to align them. Don't forget that I'm an absolute beginner. What tool do I click?
Oops, I just did it again and it worked (i.e. select all the centers and press the horizontal bar icon).
Not sure why it didn't work when I tried this morning. Sorry for the mess.

Now I'm also interested in having equidistant circles, and this time all what I tried fails.
I tried selecting all the centers and click a few tools in the toolbar, nothing does what I want.

By the way, what's the meaning of the numbers, why 4 in a row?
I noticed that if I set circles equal, it looks like the attachment from TheMarkster.
= 36, I can understand it as "same as circle 36".
= 37, 27, 36... , would similarily mean same as those circles, but why those circles only?
There are either too many or not enough, but why 4 except at the beginning?
I would understand with one number only (same as my neighbor) or with n-1 numbers
(same as all the others), but why 4?

Pascal

[chrisb]

Some answers are already given in the previous posts. You get multiple constraints displayed in a row in 3D view, if the line or circle or arc is equal to not only one but to multiple others.

[GeneFC]

The problem I have is: how to align them.

I do something like this quite often. I select all the centers of the circles and click the "Constrain Vertically" icon in the toolbar.

At that point create a single dimension of any center from the y-axis. That will cause all the circles to move to the requested dimension.

Gene

[M4x]

Could someone give me a usecase where this is preferred over a linear pattern or something like that?

[Shalmeneser]

Sketcher_RectangularArray