[Ticket #4202] Working points, lines and planes

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Pauvres_honteux
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[Ticket #4202] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Pauvres_honteux »

Since creation and coupling of points, lines and planes doesn't work satisfying or at all or different depending on workbench as it stands now. I'd like to propose a fresh start as per this list for the coding savvy person:

PS. Naming shall be made intuitive. Ask here first what we mere mortals think of naming these "thingies". I guess most of this already exist but need renaming and an "just-works" and an graphical consistency overhaul. Preferably this shall be done as pop-up windows to make room for more 3D real estate. Think triplus "GLASS".

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Point-datums (short: point)

- point as coordinates with respect to the file coordinate system or a user created ditto.
- point as child of another point in the file coordinate system or a user created ditto.
- point as U-V-coordinates in a plane with respect to an already existing point on that plane.
- point as U-V-W-coordinates above/below (W being the plane normal) the plane with respect to an already existing point on that plane.

- point as coordinates in/on a surface with respect to file coordinate system or a user created ditto.
- point as U-V-coordinates in/on a surface with respect to an already existing point on that surface.
- point as U-V-W-coordinates above/below (W being the surface normal) a surface with respect to an already existing point on that surface.

- point on line of any shape or form with respect to the file coordinate system or a user created ditto or an already existing point on that line, including its endpoints.
- point as an tangency extrapolation(both directions) of a line of any shape or form at an already existing point on that line, including its endpoints.

- point/s between two other points, via a relative value between 0 and 1.
- points repetition on an arbitrary surface in a rectangular or polar pattern.
- point on extrema for a surface with respect to file coordinate system or a user created ditto, NOT with respect to the surface U-V coordinate system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Line-datums (short: line)

- line between two already existing points.
- line as coordinates with respect to the file coordinate system or a user created ditto.
- line as coordinates with respect to another point with respect to the file coordinate system or a user created ditto and/or the other point as zero.
- line as U-V-coordinates or file coordinate system or a user created ditto in a plane with respect to an already existing point on that plane.
- line as an angle with respect to another line/curve(tangent) or file coordinate system or a user created ditto in a plane with respect to an already existing point on that plane.
- line following a surface curvature (geometry on support) with respect to file coordinate system or a user created ditto on a surface with respect to an already existing point on that surface.
- line as a direction with respect to file zero coordinates or user defined coordinate system (may be in a plane/ on a surface) with respect to a point on that plane/surface.
- line bisecting two curves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plane-datums (short: plane)

- plane as an offset from file coordinate system or a user created ditto or other planes.
- plane through a point and paralell to already existing plane.
- plane angled to another plane with respect to a rotation axis of choice.
- plane through three points.
- plane through two straight lines.
- plane through a straight line and a point (not on the line).
- plane through planar curve.
- plane normal to arbitrary curve of choice and through a point on that curve.
- plane tangent to arbitrary surface through a point on that surface.
- plane via equation.
- plane/s between two other paralell planes, via a relative value between 0 and 1.
Last edited by Pauvres_honteux on Sat May 08, 2021 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Vincent B
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Vincent B »

something like workfeatures wb? :roll:
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Pauvres_honteux
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Pauvres_honteux »

GlouGlou wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 7:03 pm something like workfeatures wb? :roll:
I've made you a file to play with:
Point_Line_WorkFeatureDev.FCStd
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Vincent B
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Vincent B »

you can get the objects dynamic.
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RatonLaveur
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by RatonLaveur »

These days i apply to Freecad the following rule:

If I can think of it, someone probably already did code it.

WorkFeatureWB seems like what you need. Although what use case would require the user to setup their coordinates manually I cannot fathom. That really does not sound like parametric design intent.
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Pauvres_honteux »

Then it's just the rest to be done.

See Loft improvement - Part design for inspiration.
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Pauvres_honteux
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Pauvres_honteux »

Any coder interested in starting to clean up this basic stuff?

That is, making a single icon to click on which in turn launches a pop up window containing everything needed to create, for example a point. Another window for creating a line and so on.

The point, line or plane produced shall be super simple to utilize as an argument in any function needing that input.

When this is done, all other creating methods can be ditched/replaced with this one. This shall/will be the one-stop-shop for creating points, lines and planes. No more scattering around with different ways of creating these really fundamental features.
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Zolko
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by Zolko »

RatonLaveur wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:08 pm If I can think of it, someone probably already did code it.
yep, all these things exist already and are called Datum objects. They come with the PartDesign workbench, although they should be the basic building blocks for all FreeCAD designs, and what you want to use is their mapping mode. What you are asking for here is not a feature request — it exists — but an UI/UX update to group these existing features differently.

And I agree with you, these very powerful features are mostly unknown and hidden. For no reason I can think of.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
chrisb
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by chrisb »

There was a post with some macros for creating datum geometry outside of PartDesign, alas, I cannot find it.
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Re: [Feature requests] Working points, lines and planes

Post by chrisb »

Just after finally writing my previous post I had the right idea for searching ...
In this post in the german forum are some macros for DatumGeometry in other WBs.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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