datum plane creation is unintuitive

[uwestoehr]

When you create a datum plane then you must already have created a body beforehand...

Many thanks! This make it much more clear. Since I have now Wiki access to write the a2plus documentation, am I also allowed to transfer things I learned here directly to the corresponding Wiki page?:
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDesign_Plane

I wonder if, to avoid confusion, when the user selects an object having a local coordinate system that is different than the world coordinate system, a secondary X,Y,Z axis indicator should also appear in the lower right corner (next to the existing world X,Y,Z indicator) that shows the local X,Y,Z axes of the selected item? When the object is de-selected this secondary indicator disappears.

That would be very helpful.

[bejant]

Since I have now Wiki access to write the a2plus documentation, am I also allowed to transfer things I learned here directly to the corresponding Wiki page?:
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDesign_Plane

Sure!

[uwestoehr]

am I also allowed to transfer things I learned here directly to the corresponding Wiki page?:
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDesign_Plane

Sure!

Done.

[Pauvres_honteux]

... transfer things I learned here directly to the corresponding Wiki page:
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDesign_Plane

Reading that page gave me hickup on this sentence "A datum plane is only sensible when there is at least a body."

Shouldn't it read: "As of now [todays date] sadly enough, datum planes can only be created inside a body."?

[Pauvres_honteux]

Other than that I totally agree with you about the wording used in everything involving placement and especially this "Z-axis is always in the direction of movement".

I would suggest the following:
For offsets there are ONLY two direction, one way or the opposite way, with respect to its origin.
This is how we humans think of an offset in general, i.e. it shall be reflected accordingly in the UI.
Further, we (the users) would, eagerly, like to se this visually in real time in the 3D view port.

Even further, I'd like to ask the coders if it would be possible to create a general, realtime, preview "thingie" easy to use for all programmers anywhere in the code?

[HarryGeier]

It´s very easy :

phpBB [video]

harry

[uwestoehr]

Many thanks for your help and the fruitful discussion. As result the Wiki page was improved and for the remaining proposal I created issue #3836.

[bejant]

To view any local coordinate axis in Part Design, select a Plane or a planar Face and click this icon (in the Part Design Helper toolbar, next to the Create Datum Plane icon):


https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/PartDes ... nateSystem

It's in my 0.18 version of FreeCAD but not in 0.17.


OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Word size of OS: 32-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 32-bit
Version: 0.18.15780 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: f94e76c1116ec3b818961ff65131b3d86fa5b95e
Python version: 2.7.15rc1
Qt version: 5.9.5
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

[run_the_race]

Hi
Nothing more simple, When you select "New sketch", you have a small window that appears to choose in which plane (XY, XZ, or YZ) you also "Offset": if you type 5 the new plan will be 5mm at above the origin

If you have a number of sketches, that all need to be at the same height, you want to specify that height in one place (one source of truth), not everytime you make a sketch. Yes you could use spreadsheets, but would be ideal if you could set a plane in the XY 5mm above origin. I also can't figure this out and thats why I'm reading this thread.

[run_the_race]

It´s very easy :

phpBB [video]

harry

This is very helpful thank you!! . Its easy when you know how. This is not something the majority of people can figure out. As a newb, its a strange concept that to make a plane offset from the origin, it *has* to be linked to an existing object. I kept thinking there is no object I want to link it too!!! Intuitively you would think it does not need to be linked to anything, and that's where most of us are caught out.