Topological Naming & Sketches on Faces

[K0DPW]

Thanks all for your responses - I have fiddled around with FreeCAD in the past, then dropped it, now getting active again.

I guess the general concensus is to switch to realthunder's version.

I'll play with it for a while.

[drmacro]

Thanks all for your responses - I have fiddled around with FreeCAD in the past, then dropped it, now getting active again.

I guess the general concensus is to switch to realthunder's version.

I'll play with it for a while.

I test things there, I even compile it regularly.

I've found no reason to use it in my daily work.

[freedman]

Zolko wrote

K0DPW wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 10:36 am
The work around seems to be to always manually create a datum plane equal to the face.

the opposite: create first the datum plane where you want later the face to be, and make the pad up-to the datum plane. You can even put the plane at angle and it'll work. No toponaming problem and fully parametric.

I tried that approach and when I edited an early feature the datum plane got thrown about. Is there another thread where this is discussed at length?
Thanks

[chrisb]

You should work through the Basic Attachment Tutorial.

[Zolko]

Zolko wrote
the opposite: create first the datum plane where you want later the face to be, and make the pad up-to the datum plane.

I tried that approach and when I edited an early feature the datum plane got thrown about.

you have to create the datums referenced to other datums, not to some previously generated geometry. Datums are not magic.

What I do is to build my models using datums and sketches (what are often called "master sketches"), as these are (quite) immune to the TNP. I only do the geometrical design after this. This of course forces you to prepare your design harder as with the go-along-as-it-goes approach where you make up your mind on the CAD model. Actually, I always do my design first on paper before touching a CAD system.