Feature request thin element for Part and PartDesign workbench

[freecad-heini-1]

Hi,
I'm looking for a tool called thin element like PTC Creo has. I hope my translation from German to English is correct with thin element or thin feature.
The wall tool from the Arch workbench comes close to what I'm looking for. Only symmetric hight, minus or plus / switch direction and two direction with different hight over he middle are missing.

Please let me explain it's function.

thin_element.png (37.56 KiB) Viewed 4573 times

1. create an open or closed sketch
2. select the thin element tool, now you have the possibility to create a thickness left- or right- or center to the sketch. The wall tool has this possibility. Next type in the hight. I wish to improve the Arch wall tool a bit to extrude in minus or plus direction, in two directions and symmetric.

I hope that this is no big thing, because the Arch wall tool has 95% of my needs.

Best regards
Wilfried

[Jee-Bee]

I'm looking for a tool called thin element like PTC Creo has.

Is that the tool inside the extrude a sketch and give give the extrude a thickness at the same time?? That would be a great feature to have inside FC!!

[saso]

Can you maybe find on youtube or show this functionality in creo? IMO this should indeed be an option on the extrude / pad tool of the part / part design WB.

https://youtu.be/6wqNcyhOzqA?t=161
https://youtu.be/-LwG1dowJUA?t=242 ?

Note that the BIM, Arch, IFC workflow tries to upgrade the sort of generic geometry objects (solids, surfaces,...) that are common for general parametric cad in to a sort of higher level objects that have additional properties from the building construction industry, so a wall object represents a real wall, same as a door, window, slab,... In short, it is IMO simply not the most "clean" way to model if you use the wall tool for this.

[Jee-Bee]

https://youtu.be/-LwG1dowJUA?t=242 ?

This was what i meant thanks Don't now what the amount of work is to add this... But it is a great improvement of the part design WB!!

[freecad-heini-1]

https://youtu.be/-LwG1dowJUA?t=242 ?

This was what i meant thanks Don't now what the amount of work is to add this... But it is a great improvement of the part design WB!!

Yes, that's the tool I meant, thicken a sketch. But Creo can only thicken left or right not center like the Arch wall tool. Extrude hight symmetric (center) or two directions with different value, and if its possible to type in a different value for left and right. Then it would be the perfect tool, better than Creo.

[freecad-heini-1]

Ping

Hi Yorik,
today I turn to you for a feature request for a tool "thicken a sketch".
The tool would fit well to the Part and PartDesign Workbench.
The Arch Wall tool is very close to that, so I guess it won't be much work to extend this tool and give it to the workbenches mentioned above.
Extrude hight symmetric (center) or two directions with different value, and if its possible to type in a different value for left and right. Then it would be the perfect tool, better than Creo.
Please, please please, help Freecad to get such a tool.

Thank you very much and best regards
Wilfried

[vocx]

...
Extrude hight symmetric (center) or two directions with different value, and if its possible to type in a different value for left and right. ...

You can create two Arch_Walls using the same base line or sketch. One can be extruded in one direction, and the other in the opposite direction. Then you'd get that symmetric behavior that you want.

As for the left or right distance, that's probably also possible, but a bit more of work.

[paullee]

Ping

Hi Yorik,
today I turn to you for a feature request for a tool "thicken a sketch".
The tool would fit well to the Part and PartDesign Workbench.
The Arch Wall tool is very close to that, so I guess it won't be much work to extend this tool and give it to the workbenches mentioned above.
Extrude hight symmetric (center) or two directions with different value, and if its possible to type in a different value for left and right. Then it would be the perfect tool, better than Creo.
Please, please please, help Freecad to get such a tool.

Thank you very much and best regards
Wilfried

Before @Yorik would comment, just want to mention ArchWall can 'thicken' a sketch. And each edges can be thickened with different widths (with limitations mentioned in posts)

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=37708

And you want some kind of 'offset' e.g. from z-direction / normal direction, and extrusion 'symmetrically' 'forward / backward' along its normal direction?

Since not difficult but just a seldom usecase in Arch, I was thinking to have different height for each edges of the wall, in addition to different width. Just extremely busy diffculty to have more time to work on new features / fixing known bug / limitation atm.

Please explain your typical usecase probably with some hand sketches?

[freecad-heini-1]

Hi Paulee,
I get the impression that you've only read my feature request superficially. Please read Saso and Jee-Bee's answer and watch the Youtube videos they posted. Arch Wall is a great fit for Arch, with some minor changes it could become a very useful tool for Part and PartDesign. First of all it would have to be changed from meter to millimeter. As far as depth in both directions is concerned, you don't need it for walls, for ribs, bridges or edges of plastic, casting or sheet metal parts it can be very helpful and saves the designer some effort. Arch Wall already exists and the desired changes are not that big.
I hope this is understandable.
In other cad systems like Solidworks, Creo, Catia and Siemens NX they call such a tool "thicken a sketch". They don't have such tools just like that.

Many greetings
Wilfried

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[paullee]

I get the impression that you've only read my feature request superficially. Please read Saso and Jee-Bee's answer and watch the Youtube videos they posted. Arch Wall is a great fit for Arch, with some minor changes it could become a very useful tool for Part and PartDesign. First of all it would have to be changed from meter to millimeter. As far as depth in both directions is concerned, you don't need it for walls, for ribs, bridges or edges of plastic, casting or sheet metal parts it can be very helpful and saves the designer some effort. Arch Wall already exists and the desired changes are not that big.
I hope this is understandable.
In other cad systems like Solidworks, Creo, Catia and Siemens NX they call such a tool "thicken a sketch". They don't have such tools just like that.

No problem, just have a glance at the youtube, and should be able to understand what you are conceiving.

Not difficult indeed. What 'parameters' you want to to name those additional control / features?

And with the link I show you, you may note FC ArchWall can even control 'thickness' of each segment of Wall - if Creo etc. do not have a similar Wall, they do not have Wall with different wall thickness based on a single Sketch.


And just comes in to my mind, currently ArchWall support Sketch based on Straight Edge, Arc, Circle... but not at the moment, spline / bspline.