[It already exists, sorry for the unnecessary noise!]Feature request: named measurements on sketch (non-constraining)

[indrek84]

I tried to search the forum about this topic but didn't find anything.

It would be nice to have non-constraining measurement tools on sketch.
Basically these buttons, but instead of me writing the constraint value it auto-fills it with current measurement:

Screen Shot 2018-08-29 at 10.06.16.png (22.24 KiB) Viewed 1008 times

Sometimes I need to use an angle or length of an edge but it doesn't make sense to use that value as a constraint. I just want to give it a name that can be used on another sketch. For example if I sketch a rectangle but also want to give named value to the length of the diagonal of that rectangle.

[chrisb]

FreeCAD has this: Click the icon. That turns the so called datum constraints blue and you can apply them to show measures.

[indrek84]

Thanks! This is EXACTLY what I wanted. Sorry, I should have found it myself. Now it seems so obvious.

[dbecad]

Thanks! This is EXACTLY what I wanted. Sorry, I should have found it myself. Now it seems so obvious.

Note that if you create a blue/non constraining measure, to name it (for example to use it as a parameter in another sketch/object) you can't double click on it to just change the name: it will switch back to red/constraining. This might be an issue if it over-constrains your sketch and the solver might not let you do it...
The work-around to put a name on it is: you will have to go in the left panel with all the constraint list, select the measure and press F2 (or right-click/Rename ) to rename it without changing its nature.
Cheers
-dbe

[indrek84]

Thanks! You probably saved me from lots of frustration. I didn't notice it before that it changed to constraint after double-click.

[dbecad]

saved me from lots of frustration

No worries, that details did frustrate me before i found the work around, that's probably a missing feature, maybe I should submit a request.

Oh and you seem to imply it in your first mail, but for sake of completion these blue datum measures cannot be use in the same sketch as it would create a dependency loop. Basically they are computed once the solver has run and cannot therefore be used as input to the solver...
So you have sometime to build master sketch to get these quotes then use them in a different sketch.

Cheers
-dbe

[indrek84]

Yes, this is fine that it can't be used in the same sketch. In the same sketch the equality constraint should be enough.

[chrisb]

In the same sketch the equality constraint should be enough.

It doesn't cover all cases - e.g. there is no equality for angles - but these exceptions are very rare.