v0.18 Thread 6 - Regular Feature Requests

[wandererfan]

Summary
These items appeared on the surface to be isolated regular feature requests. After sorting it appears that we have at
least a few "subclumps" - 6a) Part changes 6b) Part Design changes 6c) Sketcher. It may be possible to combine some of these items into work efforts that could be handled by one developer - perhaps a GSOC student.

Prompting Items
18 All Kunda1 Address TODO/FIXME in code base
34 All galou_breizh Include workbench version numbers in FCStd file
47 All efyx Double click scroll wheel = zoom all (models, sketch and TD)
53 All GeneFC Full support for non-metric units in the GUI
3 Draft damian parse a set of lines, wires, and symbols, and create a linear diagram with nodes
33 Export? plgarcia Adding the capability to export the model as a script.
28 FEM bernd upgrade SMESH (also Mesh,PartMesh?)
63 FEM Matael include topolgy optimization tool
17 Part efyx Model section view
36 Part Joyas "reset coordinates" tool, allows to make two rotations without mixing them
38 Part Joyas mirror and fuse tool
39 Part Joyas skew transform tool
42 Part GlouGlou Improve texture mapping for every faces and every parts.
2 Part Design chrisb more comfortable way of selecting and deselecting edges etc. for sweeps and the like.
57 Part Design Matael Allow mirror of mirror
59 Part Design Matael allow PD sketches to be offset (as in Sketcher)
60 Part Design Matael allow new sketch at angle to existing sketch
10 Sketcher Mark Szlazak Speed up the geometric constraints solvers with better feedback about issues if possible.
13 Sketcher ArminF line joining/splitting, line knots for editing
16 Sketcher efyx offset, section plane, snapping to parts, constrains under right click, “are you sure” on ESC
48 Sketcher Matael show portions of sketch as fully constained, even if entire sketch is not
49 Sketcher Matael allow constrain arcs by diameter as well as radius
55 Sketcher reox spcify inner/outer angle for Angle Constraint
58 Sketcher Matael polyline – keep subtool active (line, arc,perpendicular,...)
70 Sketcher DeepSOIC add parameter value constraint (point on curve)
71 Sketcher DeepSOIC add continuity constraints: Coincident (G0)->Tangent (G1)-> matched curvature (G2)->G3 and so on.
72 Sketcher DeepSOIC add multisegment length constraints
73 Sketcher DeepSOIC expression powered constraint (e.g. a constraint that ties values of two blue constraints).
75 Sketcher Joel_graff Sketcher should have a slope constraint for line segments.
30 Start yorik New start WB (maybe not based on HTML/webkit/webengine)
37 Surface Joyas More surface tools. join various surfaces in a single one. Convert to solid.
1 TechDraw wandererfan Find a solution for creating page templates that doesn't require the author to be a whiz at inkscape and hand editing svg.
4 Third Party Kunda1 FreeCAD gitproject versioning via git

[freecad-heini-1]

Sorry, but I was a bit late with my feature request / wish. Here you can find my list:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 57#p215757

I guess I was too late with my topic. Sorry about it.

There is one more feature request / wish, a 3d bspline curve tool editable like discussed in this thread:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 96#p204896

Great to have this thread for wishes and requests. Here are some wishes from me.

Sketcher workbench:
1. A Text-tool for to place, scale, rotate, define and dimension text. Different font types has to be found by the system like in Inkscape, Libreoffice or other software, that the user does not need to find the path on his own on his computer.
2. Use-edge tool. It's a bit similar to the external edge refence tool, but if you choose an edge it's not needed to redraw it. Combined with a clever edge finding tool (all tangent edges gives a edge chain).
3. Use-edge with offset, the same thing as two, but with an offset in minus or plus or both direction.

PartDesign
1. A shapebinder with two different options, first use absolute coordinate position, second use the actual position like chrisb wrote here:

Let ShapeBinder be aware of the placement of Part; at least as an option.

2. A mix between solids and faces / shells inside a body. Have a look at the Solidworks vid with the Tide bottle. It starts with curves, then faces, shell and at the end it results into a solid with thickness.
So part extrude has to include into the partdesign workbench, as well as ruled surface. For sweep and loft I wish to have the possibility to chose between solid or shell, like in the part workbench.
3. It must be possible to start a project in a body and the first features are not connected. For example a engine block. So that you have the freedom to start at different positions in the 3d area, and at the end it results in a single coherent solid. Or for example a table made out of one piece, but you start your design with the four legs.
4. Integrate the part shapebuilder fully parametric into the part-workbench
5. Thin object, later you type in a wallthickness in minus or plus or both directions and a depht. Imaigne you draw just a u shape in the sketcher.
6. Variable fillet / radius with three or more radius points. The points are moveable.
7. Full round fillet. It determines the max. possible radius between two edges and creates it.

Set colors, please add the possibility to set one or more faces transparency.

Improved selection tools for faces or edges behind a shape. Multi selection for curves / edges with recognice tangency. Box select tool for faces that see the faces in front and suspend faces behind.
The improved selection tools recognize tangent edges, the result is a edge chain. Or you select one edge in the middle, one start and one end and all inner edges will be selected, same with faces, one in the middle and some boundary and inside faces will be selected.

A extend tool for extend (stretch) one or more edges / curves and faces along direction as well as tangent in normal direction.

That's all for today.

[Matael]

57 Part Design Matael Allow mirror of mirror

related post: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 60#p215136

I have to questions :
-Is there a reason to not merge part and part design?
-Is there a reason to have different implementation or behaviour for the mirroring function between part and part design?

[wandererfan]

-Is there a reason to not merge part and part design?
-Is there a reason to have different implementation or behaviour for the mirroring function between part and part design?

@NormandC would do a better job of this, but...
- Yes. Two different styles of model building. PartDesign specifically builds unibody solids using a feature history based paradigm (sketches plus operations). Part is a Constructive Solid Generation paradigm (primitives + booleans).

- Also yes. PD mirrors a Feature in a Body. P mirrors a Solid in space.

[Matael]

ok, thx for your explanations.

So to get the behaviour I decribed in the whiteboard, 2 other ideas:
1) allow multiple selection for the "mirror feature" tool in PD, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it occurs quite often to have multiple features to mirror (for example a hole for a screw, and a pocket to hide the head of the screw). I think, that multiple selection could be allowed in the polar patern , linear patern and multitransform feature too.
2) create a tool that make the same thing than the mirror tool in the P WB, but instead of created an other "body" just added it to the construction tree, like a feature.
Expected behaviours for 2 could be :
- creating a mirror of the shape create a a mirror of a "snapshot" of the current shape so if the user create a pocket on the original shape, it will not be taken in count, allowing the user to create a "general and easy" geometry and after to specialize the result as he wants. (where the mirroring tool from P WB reproduce operations you could do later)
-adding the mirror result to the body, allowing to use the PD chamfer/fillet to work (wich is not the case of the P WB miroring tool)
- allow mirror of mirrors, etc

Do you think it could be a good idea?

[wandererfan]

1) allow multiple selection for the "mirror feature" tool in PD, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it occurs quite often to have multiple features to mirror (for example a hole for a screw, and a pocket to hide the head of the screw). I think, that multiple selection could be allowed in the polar patern , linear patern and multitransform feature too.

I'm not qualified to answer this one! You'd need a PD power user or maybe a PD developer like @ickby or @abdullah.

2) create a tool that make the same thing than the mirror tool in the P WB, but instead of created an other "body" just added it to the construction tree, like a feature.

Something like "Create simple copy" does?

[Matael]

2) create a tool that make the same thing than the mirror tool in the P WB, but instead of created an other "body" just added it to the construction tree, like a feature.

Something like "Create simple copy" does?

Yes, something like that tool, but with some differences:
supposing you have a pad(pa1) and a pocket(po1), you made a mirror. When modifying po1 for example, the shape generated thx to the "create simple copy like" (cscl) tool will be modified too. To say that, differently the cscl tool would depend of every operations made before, but will NOT take in count what could be done later.

(more, user should have the possibility to choose symmetry reference like in the PD's mirror tool)


If i'm not clear, i can make some screenshots to be more understandable

[Joyas]

36 Part Joyas "reset coordinates" tool, allows to make two rotations without mixing them

This is interesting, but if it is too difficult to add, it can be done with a 1×1×1 matrix.

PS: whit the new curves workbench I miss a "convert to solid" tool parametric. You start from a certain number of faces, and it combines into a single solid, but maybe this is relevant for that workbench.

[chrisb]

1) allow multiple selection for the "mirror feature" tool in PD, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it occurs quite often to have multiple features to mirror (for example a hole for a screw, and a pocket to hide the head of the screw). I think, that multiple selection could be allowed in the polar patern , linear patern and multitransform feature too.

It's all there. It's only the selection mechanism which is cumbersome: You have to switch to the tree, make the feature visible and select it then in the 3D view.

2) create a tool that make the same thing than the mirror tool in the P WB, but instead of created an other "body" just added it to the construction tree, like a feature.

This is there as well, it's the mirrored feature in Part Design

Expected behaviours for 2 could be :
- creating a mirror of the shape create a a mirror of a "snapshot" of the current shape so if the user create a pocket on the original shape, it will not be taken in count, allowing the user to create a "general and easy" geometry and after to specialize the result as he wants. (where the mirroring tool from P WB reproduce operations you could do later)

sorry I don't understand that one

-adding the mirror result to the body, allowing to use the PD chamfer/fillet to work (wich is not the case of the P WB miroring tool)

That's indeed not there yet.

- allow mirror of mirrors,

It's the MultiTransform. The original feature is the seleced one in the image

[Matael]

1) allow multiple selection for the "mirror feature" tool in PD, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it occurs quite often to have multiple features to mirror (for example a hole for a screw, and a pocket to hide the head of the screw). I think, that multiple selection could be allowed in the polar patern , linear patern and multitransform feature too.

It's all there. It's only the selection mechanism which is cumbersome: You have to switch to the tree, make the feature visible and select it then in the 3D view.

Do you think it could marked as something to do for V0.18? (maybe is there already a ticket about it)

2) create a tool that make the same thing than the mirror tool in the P WB, but instead of created an other "body" just added it to the construction tree, like a feature.

This is there as well, it's the mirrored feature in Part Design

yes indeed if multiple selection (even if i didn't success to do it) is available, but maybe could it be interresting to have a button to select "all previous features" . (I used it like this quite often)

Expected behaviours for 2 could be :
- creating a mirror of the shape create a a mirror of a "snapshot" of the current shape so if the user create a pocket on the original shape, it will not be taken in count, allowing the user to create a "general and easy" geometry and after to specialize the result as he wants. (where the mirroring tool from P WB reproduce operations you could do later)

sorry I don't understand that one

I described the same behaviour that you could have if you use the PD mirror feature on all previous steps

-adding the mirror result to the body, allowing to use the PD chamfer/fillet to work (wich is not the case of the P WB miroring tool)

That's indeed not there yet.

This point is already ok with PD's mirror tool. I really don't know if PD's fillet/chamfer should be on a mirror created on P WB.

- allow mirror of mirrors,

It's the MultiTransform. The original feature is the seleced one in the image

Wonderfull !
But there is still a problem IMHO, you can't select a shape generated by a multitransform or PD's mirror tool wich can be limitating

To sum up what the idea seems to lead to:
-increase mirror (and multitransform too )multiple selection
-add a button "select all previous features"
-allow transformation (multitransform, mirror) of shape from an other transformation (for example : make it possible to make a mirror of a multitransform, or a mirror of a mirror)

Idea which can be discussed :
-allowing PD's chamfer to work on a shape generated in P WB (but i think allowing that would break the P WB philosophy)