Sketcher workbench inside Techdraw

[PaFe]

Hello! I really like the lastest Techdraw improvements, it is now possible to do much more. The recently added drawing tools for center lines and others are very useful for a proper drawing. Yet, I would like to suggest an idea that, in my opinion, should increase the workbench power without, hopefully, too much programming.
Would it be possible to include the sketcher workbench also in techdraw to add sketches on drawings? In some other CADs this feature is already available (I mean, exactly the same sketcher used for 3D parts, also on drawings) and it is often useful to make tricks on drawings (reference lines, snap dimension in places, make adjustments, etc.). Sketches could be snapped on drawing views.
Moreover, sketcher in the future could also be used to draw section lines or detail zone on views.
What do you think about? Is that possible or too difficult in programming?

OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.16687 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: Italian/Italy (it_IT)

[chrisb]

No matter how difficult it is to implement, I'm not very happy with this idea. It sounds to me rather like some 2D drawing program.

[PaFe]

No matter how difficult it is to implement, I'm not very happy with this idea. It sounds to me rather like some 2D drawing program.

Sketches on TechDraw should not be intended to be used alone, obviously. But there are situations where they can help a lot.
Imagine to develop a 3D model for a support for something cylindrical. Then you need to make the technical drawing of this support. Maybee you want to show how your cylindrical object takes place on the support. This, on the drawing, consists to draw a simple circle in a view (maybee in a different linestyle or color), and you can save a lot of time, if modelling the cylindrical object isn't the focus or you need to view only the general dimensions.
This simple example is a very common situation in technical drawing wit 3D CADs, but sketches on a drawing from 3D model are useful for many more cases.

[Vincent B]

Would it be possible to include the sketcher workbench also in techdraw to add sketches on drawings?

It's already implemented. Select the sketch and insert it on the sheet.
With 2 windows, you can draw the sketch and see the result simultaneous.

[PaFe]

Thank you, I didn't know! I will try soon!

[PaFe]

I've tried, that is very interisting and it is good to see that technically is possible. A deeper integration, with constraints directly on Techdraw views, could be very useful as said

[wandererfan]

What do you think about? Is that possible or too difficult in programming?

Off the top of my head, it sounds like a lot of work. Sketcher "paints" with a different technology(Coin3d) than does TechDraw(QGraphicsScene). So, at the very least, all the low level drawing primitives (make a line, make a circle, etc) would have to be redone.

Probably have to separate the solver part of Sketcher from the UI too.

Not saying it couldn't be done or that Sketcher's drawing tools wouldn't be useful on top of a drawing, but it would eat up a lot of development resources.

[wandererfan]

It's already implemented. Select the sketch and insert it on the sheet.
With 2 windows, you can draw the sketch and see the result simultaneous.

That's pretty slick. I wonder if there's a way to "glue" a Sketch on top of a View and have them stay in sync?

Another reason to have constraints show up on a sketch view in TD.