Difficulty Aligning Parts

[chris s]

I have created two shapes, one is a 45 deg pipe bend, made using sweep of two shapes then cut. Another is a trumpet (ram pipe) using a profile rotated around axis. The idea was to then align the trumpet to the 45 deg face by moving the trumpet to make one assembly . But I could not find a way to align them. I tried using Draft WB and expected to pick up the centres of each object but it will not display a circle centre to snap to. Can anyone explain my error? File attached.

[easyw-fc]

I have created two shapes, one is a 45 deg pipe bend, made using sweep of two shapes then cut. Another is a trumpet (ram pipe) using a profile rotated around axis. The idea was to then align the trumpet to the 45 deg face by moving the trumpet to make one assembly . But I could not find a way to align them. I tried using Draft WB and expected to pick up the centres of each object but it will not display a circle centre to snap to. Can anyone explain my error? File attached.

A very simple method is through the Manipulator WB: Align Tool

aligner.gif (813.24 KiB) Viewed 436 times

[chris s]

Thank you. I dont have that WB available on mine (0.16 R6706). But I would like to know why the draft move doesn't work in my application. I made an effort to learn it and it fell at the first fence so to speak. Disappointing, and not good for the ego!

[easyw-fc]

Thank you. I dont have that WB available on mine (0.16 R6706). But I would like to know why the draft move doesn't work in my application. I made an effort to learn it and it fell at the first fence so to speak. Disappointing, and not good for the ego!

Please update your FC 0.16 to R6712 (which is the latest available with many fixes)
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases

The Manipulator WB is an external WB which can be installed through the Addon-installer or by copying the WB to the Mod folder as usual, also in FC0.16

For Draft Move, I'm sorry I cannot help because I don't use it often.

Maurice

[bejant]

But I could not find a way to align them. I tried using Draft WB and expected to pick up the centres of each object but it will not display a circle centre to snap to. Can anyone explain my error?

No problem here using Draft WB > Move along with Snaps to move and center the flat face of either the ell or the ram pipe to the other. You might want to make sure you don't have Draft Snaps toggled off, and have only Center snap enabled. I'm using Ubuntu so I have to press the Alt key to Snap but don't know if that might apply to you.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Word size of OS: 32-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.16.6712 (Git)
Build type: None
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: da2d364457257a7a8c6fb2137cea12c45becd71a
Python version: 2.7.12
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17


Edit: Not what you asked but you can add the inner circle to Sketch and make the ell in one go, avoiding the need for Cut.

[Willem]

Hi, Bejant already explained how the snap to center works, here you can see it in a video, I did it in wire frame mode so you can see that the snap works

phpBB [video]