Feature request: Layers on Sketcher

[chrisb]

If you need layers your sketch is too complicated. make another sketch with another feature. Pro/Engineer used to propagate the 7-7-7 rule (thanks freecad-heini-1 for bringing to our attention) which says a sketch should

- have no more than 7 elements
- have no more than 7 dimensions
- take no longer than 7 minutes.

It is widely agreed in the FreeCAD community that nowadays these numbers can be raised, but the idea of simple sketches is worth some more thoughts.

[ckl6767]

Sorry to throw in, with my two cents penny..
One of the advantage to work with several layers, is for example to have one layer only with constructions lines.
For example, in the following sketch, above the Blue Lines, there are white lines, but no way to distinct it, nor to hide the Blue (construction lines)

Capture.PNG (69.61 KiB) Viewed 338 times

[vocx]

One of the advantage to work with several layers, ...

There is something like this already. In the task panel, you can find the "Elements" section which can be used to filter the types of elements, "All", "Normal", "Construction", "External". You can't hide the geometry, but you can select the geometry that you want. You can also change the rendering order in the "Edit controls" section.

I am not against having actual layers in the Sketcher, however, at the same time, I don't think it's very difficult to use at the moment. Sketches shouldn't be extremely complex. Having sketches with many details, and with hundreds of constraints is in general bad practice.

[ckl6767]

Oupps, I havent' been aware of this trick ...
Trying to create my front door I faced some difficulty on the sketcher.
Searching on the Forum, I came across this topic

What I nevertheless observed, is that it is not possible to view only the selected parts.

Capture.PNG (52.73 KiB) Viewed 318 times

Is that the expected behavior ?
or
an Issue with FC I'm using ?
Version: 0.19.18831 (Git)

Thanks in advance

[vocx]

...
What I nevertheless observed, is that it is not possible to view only the selected parts.
...

...to filter the types of elements, "All", "Normal", "Construction", "External". You can't hide the geometry, ...

No, you cannot hide and show only some types.

[ckl6767]

No, you cannot hide and show only some types.

This is really pity .
All is there in the "Elements", picking the selected one, should only show the selected one.
Would be so helpful, and shouldn't cost a lot of effort (I'm supposing .. )

[chrisb]

It is not recommended to make sketches too complicated. So I don't see a need for such functionality. If you have the feeling you want to hide something it is a good indicator that your sketch became too complicated. A new layer is like adding a new sketch.

[ckl6767]

This is meaning, that I might use several sketches to create on element ?
Is that also the case for a Windows.
I didn't find.

Also, as highlighted above, when construction lines and lines overlaps, it is difficult to distinguish the right one.

If you think it is not a good idea, I have to leave with that.

[saso]

hiding different elements in the sketch would IMO be ok to have, it is already possible to hide the constraints and it is the "normal" workflow of how everything else can be shown/hidden in FreeCAD. but I would say that for sketcher this should work only inside the sketcher to help the user in creating the sketch, so to say if one hides some elements of the sketch, then when closing the sketch all the elements should be visible again. with other words, this functionality should only help the user while working inside the sketch, not controlling the actual sketch geometry (and other geometry that depend on the sketch) outside the sketch.

[vocx]

hiding different elements in the sketch would IMO be ok to have, it is already possible to hide the constraints ...

I agree. It seems the required pieces to hide and show only some elements are there, but somebody has to go into the code and do it.