drilling arcs

[rmu]

I'm relatively new to FreeCAD and Path module, but I wondered why it is possible to specify "points" as drill-targets, but not the center of Arcs? The obvious use case is drilling pilot-holes for some other tool that does not like to cut in the center. Also, models imported via DXF or STP often contain arc-segments instead of circles, those can not be drilled easily it seems.

[sliptonic]

This can be added to the manual selection process. It won't be part of the automatic selection though.
Added issue #3147

[roivai]

I was thinking about this when I worked with PathDrilling some time ago. I don't know why I did not implement it. Probably laziness

I will look into this.

[roivai]

I think that is done, selecting an arc edge and adding it to the list should now be supported on my branch: https://github.com/pekkaroi/FreeCAD/tree/drilling_arcs

Could you please check if it makes sense and I can create a PR.

[Konstantin]

Drilling in arc center is a must. But please don't forget to add to this one more thing: if I select Arc and something else, like on attached picture, then center must be calculated somewhere in widest area between arcs wall and another side. Hard to imagine all usecases, but I had such problems before.

[roivai]

Drilling in arc center is a must. But please don't forget to add to this one more thing: if I select Arc and something else, like on attached picture, then center must be calculated somewhere in widest area between arcs wall and another side. Hard to imagine all usecases, but I had such problems before.

That would be excellent, but I think it is very difficult to create such an artificial intelligence which would guess the place where the user wants to drill based on multiple edges/faces. For example. If you have selected two adjacent edges which both are arcs: do you want to drill centers of both arcs or the widest point in the shape formed by those arcs? Like you say, imagining all the use cases is hard.

[chrisb]

Of course can this be done, but as roivai said, it is not simple. You would have to calculate something like the center of mass of the pocket - something for the anti-matter path workbench .

Let's do other things first with easier achievable greater benefit to the user.

[Konstantin]

That would be excellent, but I think it is very difficult to create such an artificial intelligence which would guess the place where the user wants to drill based on multiple edges/faces. For example. If you have selected two adjacent edges which both are arcs: do you want to drill centers of both arcs or the widest point in the shape formed by those arcs? Like you say, imagining all the use cases is hard.

In theory, you should find the place, where biggest circle fits between selected faces and then it's center. But I am not a programmer, I'm just theorising.
[EDIT}
Even cooler, if walls goes not strictly vertical, it might not work. Better to look for biggest cilinder.

[sliptonic]

Drilling in arc center is a must. But please don't forget to add to this one more thing: if I select Arc and something else, like on attached picture, then center must be calculated somewhere in widest area between arcs wall and another side. Hard to imagine all usecases, but I had such problems before.

That would be excellent, but I think it is very difficult to create such an artificial intelligence which would guess the place where the user wants to drill based on multiple edges/faces. For example. If you have selected two adjacent edges which both are arcs: do you want to drill centers of both arcs or the widest point in the shape formed by those arcs? Like you say, imagining all the use cases is hard.

I agree. Arc centers are unambiguous. Keep It Simple!

I would still like to see the ability to pick an arbitrary point as a location though. The user shouldn't have to add a vertex just to select it as a location. He should be able to click 'add point' and then click a spot on the model to add those coordinates to the list. This can be easily added with the draft snapper getPoint() function. See PathProfile line 400 for reference

[roivai]

I would still like to see the ability to pick an arbitrary point as a location though. The user shouldn't have to add a vertex just to select it as a location. He should be able to click 'add point' and then click a spot on the model to add those coordinates to the list. This can be easily added with the draft snapper getPoint() function. See PathProfile line 400 for reference

This would be a good addition. I'll try to implement this. Just tried to play with the getPoint(). I got the dialog to appear, but all I got from that was a Segfault..