Defeaturing Tools: how to edit a STEP model (parametrically)

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polymer
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by polymer »

There should be a Filter for selecting points, Lines, faces or solids.
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by wmayer »

freecad-heini-1 wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:47 pm My new video concerning the new defeaturing tool from the Part workbench:
https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/w ... d8e6783872

I tried to use PeerTube, not bad for the first test.
The video is in German language.
The face selection panel is fixed now, i.e. the label no longer "explodes" when too many items are selected.
And there is now a stand-alone command for box selection of faces (see Part menu). This is a WIP and the long-term goal is marry its functionalities with the box selection of the core system (see Edit menu).
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by freecad-heini-1 »

wmayer wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 5:48 pm
freecad-heini-1 wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:47 pm My new video concerning the new defeaturing tool from the Part workbench:
https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/w ... d8e6783872

I tried to use PeerTube, not bad for the first test.
The video is in German language.
The face selection panel is fixed now, i.e. the label no longer "explodes" when too many items are selected.
And there is now a stand-alone command for box selection of faces (see Part menu). This is a WIP and the long-term goal is marry its functionalities with the box selection of the core system (see Edit menu).
Hi Werner,
thank you so much. Great to see how fast Freecad can be improved!!!
What a great community with great people.
Best regards
Wilfried
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saso
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by saso »

I remember we had discussion about this selection tool already a few times. Additionally it would be good to have a filter for different types of objects selection (vertexes, edges, faces, solids) this could be done in a similar way as the snap filters (like this, it is also quite common in other programs). I would however suggest we brainstorm a bit on this, maybe we can come up with some even better ways to do it. A few ideas to start:

- pre-selection trick, instead of (or additionally to) having some extra buttons to set the filters, we could do it with a pre-selection (would maybe help for working faster), for example if one would like to select with the selection box only edges, one would pre-select one edge and then the selection box would select only edges. If one would like to select faces one would select one face and then the selection box would select only faces, if one would like faces and vertexes one would pre-select a face and a vertex and then the selection box would select only faces and vertexes,...

- paint-select, if one would hold down a key (for example control or shift) and hold down the left mouse button while moving the mouse then all the elements that would get touched would get selected (similar as if you would paint), this is not related to box select, but it would also need to have some sort of filters for what type of object would get selected.

- tangent-select, a common and useful tool is also to select all object tangent to the selected object, for example, one would select an edge and hit the tab key (or have a button for it) and all edges tangent to the selected one would get selected, same if one would select a wire (all tangent wires to it would get selected) or a face (all tangent faces to it would get selected),... I guess you cannot have tangent points :roll:

- I remember also your suggestion to have the option to select only visible objects or also invisible (for example in the case of box select to select only faces visible to the user from the current view orientation or to also select back and inner faces).

- For box select it is of course also common to have it work so that if you drag the mouse from the left only object that are fully inside the box get selected and if you drag the mouse from the right all the objects that are touched by the box get selected.

- Ideally one should be able to use the different selection tools together and be able to add to current selection and/or remove elements from it.

Generally this selection tools are quite useful in many different cases so probably they could have their own default toolbar, for example (tools on this toolbar) box select, paint select, tangent select and few filters...?
Last edited by saso on Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:41 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by saso »

wmayer wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 5:48 pm The face selection panel is fixed now, i.e. the label no longer "explodes" when too many items are selected.
And there is now a stand-alone command for box selection of faces (see Part menu). This is a WIP and the long-term goal is marry its functionalities with the box selection of the core system (see Edit menu).
+1
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by chrisb »

wmayer wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 5:48 pm The face selection panel is fixed now, i.e. the label no longer "explodes" when too many items are selected.
And there is now a stand-alone command for box selection of faces (see Part menu). This is a WIP and the long-term goal is marry its functionalities with the box selection of the core system (see Edit menu).
Thanks!
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by saso »

Here is a suggestion to implement the above ideas without making any new icons and toolbar...

The pre-selection trick should be useful to both box select and paint select and I am guessing that it might not be that hard to implement :| so this way we could workaround having to implement the different filter buttons similar to those for snap.

Paint select idea is in a way very similar to how the add-remove to selection works at the moment when one hods down the control key, the only difference with paint select would be that one would not have to click every time to add to selection but just drag the mouse around, so what if paint select would be activated by simply holding down control+shift+left mouse button and I am guessing that this would actually also not be to hard to implement :roll:

Tangent select could be done as suggested above, by selecting and element and pressing the tab key, but I guess this could be a bit more work to implement except if someone does not already have some code to search for connected tangent objects... :)

The include invisible elements or not function probably makes sense only for the box select (for paint select it would probably be preferred to always select just the visible elements), so maybe it could be done by holding down the alt key while doing box select?

However, even if we do no special selection toolbar it would be IMO good to add the box select tool icon next to the measure distance tool in the default view toolbar...?

Update: after thinking a bit more about the paint tool I realized it would probably be mostly useful for face selection, I guess it does not make a lot of sense to is it for point / vertex selection, so maybe paint select does not even need the filter system...
Last edited by saso on Sun Aug 05, 2018 8:06 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by freecad-heini-1 »

saso wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 8:46 pm Tangent select could be done as suggested above by selecting and element and pressing the tab key, but I guess this could be a bit more work to implement...
This tool still exists in the path workbench.
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Re: Defeaturing Tools: first attempt (how to edit a STEP model)

Post by saso »

freecad-heini-1 wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 8:50 pm
saso wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 8:46 pm Tangent select could be done as suggested above by selecting and element and pressing the tab key, but I guess this could be a bit more work to implement...
This tool still exists in the path workbench.
Right, the loop selection! Similar and also useful, but I guess it does not work on faces like the tangent select would work... :|

How do you feel about the other ideas? IMO they could be simple to use but quite powerful.
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