Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

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lesthegringo
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Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:46 am

Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by lesthegringo »

Hi all, I am very new (<1 day!) to FreeCAD, having worked with an old 32bit version of Solidworks for many years. To be frank I was happy with SW until it became clear that my projects were becoming too much (constantly giving 'running out of resource' messages) plus needing to use an old Vista capable PC that meant lots of other problems.

I realise that I will not be able to import my SW files, so have decided to start new projects on FreeCAD, and where I can import DXF files for the simpler components into FreeCAD, some from SW and some from QCAD.

However one of the immediate problems I am having is where I have the imported DXF file in a 'part design' workspace, and each line shows up as a shape. I have seen by searching on these forums that if you are in a sketch there is a icon that converts the selected line into construction lines, but whatever I do the lines all remain as shapes, and all the sketch icons are greyed out.

It's clear that there is a fundamental step I have failed to do, so what have I missed? Am I supposed to open the DXF in a different manner, or convert it once loaded?

Thanks with your help and patience with an old man!

By the way, version 0.18, and the file I am trying to make a fascia plate for attached (FreeCad File) with join geometry selected on the import settings

Cheers

Les
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MFCD fascia.FCStd
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chrisb
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You should upgrade to 0.19, there are tons of improvements in it. Then you should consider to export your SW files in Step format and import this to FreeCAD. These are almost like built in FreeCAD, except that the history is missing.

If you really want to go the DXF way, select the shapes and use Draft Draft2Sketch.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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papyblaise
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by papyblaise »

You should upgrade to 0.19, there are tons of improvements in it
since you said he has an old 32-bit Vista PC, there is only V18 to have a 32-bit compilation
we believe to save time by importing files from another source, but it is often unproductive, it is often faster to redo from zero
lesthegringo
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by lesthegringo »

Hi guys, thanks for the replies - I thought I had downloaded and installed the latest version, not sure what I clicked on to get the old version as I only installed it yesterday! Nonetheless, point taken and I will upgrade.

As for the PC, one of the moves to FreeCad was driven by the desire to be able to use a better (win 10 i7) based computer with 64bits. My old SW has served me well but I have to start to move to a more modern program to remove the limitations incurred by the 32bit only installation.

For the files, as I have over 5000 of my own files, some of which are hugely complex, whether I like it or not I will have to use the .step import method on a lot of them. The good side is most are set and need no modification, but there are some that will. It will be a toss up on those as to whether to re-do or import, but a big question is what I can do to modify them once imported - how much freedom is available?

Cheers

Les
chrisb
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by chrisb »

papyblaise wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:04 am a big question is what I can do to modify them once imported - how much freedom is available?
You can do everything with them - except changing the history. You can use PartDesign pads, pockets, lofts and sweeps, you can chamfer and fillet, you can use Part booleans and slicing, ...
You can even "defeature" such objects and remove e.g. some holes from an imported Step.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
lesthegringo
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Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:46 am

Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by lesthegringo »

Oh, thanks, that sounds good

I have been playing around with the draft2Sketch thing, but not with success so far - keep getting errors like 'creating pad from sketch failed'. Not sure why, I will have to keep plugging away at it.

There's a lot of difference in the two programs so I am going to have my work cut out transitioning across. For example, in SW when you radius two sketch lines, the radius is predefined, whereas I don't see that in FreeCAD. Also, when the wrong radius is produced, when I change it, it distorts the other lines it is connected to rather than just making a smaler radius. Oh well

I've attached a photo of what I have made with the SW files if anyone is interested

***EDIT**** Oops, can't attach the photo

Cheers

Les
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by adrianinsaval »

papyblaise wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:04 am
You should upgrade to 0.19, there are tons of improvements in it
since you said he has an old 32-bit Vista PC, there is only V18 to have a 32-bit compilation
we believe to save time by importing files from another source, but it is often unproductive, it is often faster to redo from zero
I think there is 32bit freecad 0.19 in the debian repos, it's probably better to use linux than windows vista at this point for security reasons (unless it's not connected to the internet) if win10/11 are not an option
lesthegringo
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by lesthegringo »

Hi all, to repeat, I WANT the 64 bit version, which is what I have, because Solidworks was constrained to 32 bit and I want to escape that.

I have FreeCad 0.19 installed on a 64bit Windows 10 PC

Cheers

Les
lesthegringo
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:46 am

Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by lesthegringo »

Hi again all; I suspect that as I am so new to all this that there is going to be a lot of posts in a very short time from me as I work my way through the basics.

First up I think that 'draft' mode seems to work better for me than Sketch mode - if nothing else things like the midpoint snap just does not work in Sketch mode, plus the snap toolbar disappears every time you exit the sketch, and you have to go and physically recheck it so it appears. Not that it seems to work anyway! If you choose midpoint and try to sketch an arc, it doesn't set the centre as the midpoint. Strange..

So in Draft mode I am starting to get some basic stuff done, and the snaps seem to work but have run up against a hard stop. The draft fillet absolutely does not work. I can select it, specify the radius, but when I click on the two intersecting or coincident lines to fillet, absolutely nothing happens. The first line goes green as I select it, then as I select the second one it goes green and the first line returns to black, and no fillet appears. I've looked at the wiki (https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Draft_Fillet) and folowed it, but it stubbornly refuses to play. Ditto for chamfer, and construction mode makes no difference.I assume I have some setting checked that is preventing it from recognising the command

So what have I done wrong this time?

Cheers

Les
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Making lines for construction on an imported sketch

Post by adrianinsaval »

I think you are mixing draft and sketcher, draft tools don't work inside sketches. Sketcher tools don't work on draft objects. And you might need to select the two lines using ctrl key before clicking the draft fillet icon and specifying the radius. Sketcher might be less comfortable than draft but the huge advantage it has is the use of constraints, depending on what you model and if you want to modify things later easily this could be a better workflow for you.
Also providing screenshots of the issue can make it easier to help you.
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