Center of circle relative to edge.

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aapo
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by aapo »

domad wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 6:02 pm The programmer does his job even if he is not a chemist or an expert in economics or a mechanic or an architect or an engineer etc., he follows the directions of those who work in the field.
I think it should be pointed out, that in this case the programmer does not do his/her job, in the literal sense. FreeCAD is largely a volunteer project, so there are no jobs there. Thus, the chemist, economics expert, mechanic, architect or engineer needs to become a hobbyist programmer in order to orchestrate the development, as the programmer is the one who develops the stuff he/she is interested of in a volunteer-based project.

That said, as a user, I've noticed that providing development ideas and submitting bug reports is a good way to get the developers interested. However, these ideas need to be a) well described and concrete, and b) catch the interest of the developers. Sometimes, I've suggested ideas or sent bug reports, and nobody has been interested, and that is good as it is the nature of volunteer development project. But sometimes, the ideas or requests I've submitted have caused rapid development, especially in TechDraw workbench, which I've been glad about. And, in the end, if I'd want some generally unpopular option or function really really badly, I could try to program it myself because the source code is there, after all. :D

I bring this to support my thesis: http://www.mechanicalblender.org/static/reference.html

I hope I have been correct in supporting my thesis.
I greet you and the whole community again and invite you to a constructive discussion on the subject.
I cannot help but notice that "MechanicalBlender" seems to have a similar problem of lack of coders, as the latest changes in the repository appear to be a few years back. I think that the idea of always snapping objects together is actually quite a good one, but implementing it FreeCAD-wide (or even just into TechDraw) would require a lot of changes, and it'd be quite hard to persuade any developer to do the work. Unless, if you'd be prepared to program it yourself, or hire someone to program it for you.
jmaustpc
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Re: Center of cirlce relative to edge.

Post by jmaustpc »

RSA wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 11:08 am Hello everyone . So in order to eliminate a possible problem on my work PC I downloaded version 0.18 onto my laptop at home . This problem still persists even on a different PC . Both run windows 7 could this be a possible reason ?
Do not attempt to open files created in FreeCAD 0.19 TechDraw, in the older FreeCAD 0.18, as they will mostly sort of work, but none of the new features will work and you will get other unexpected behaviours. You can't expect something to work in an older version when it did not exist back when it was created. So unless you have a very specific reason why, then just move to 0.19 and forget the now pretty much out of date 0.18.

RSA wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 1:54 pm Hey everyone ,so I have tried out all the suggestions relating to my original post . I have installed version 0.19 and its great . However I still cannot dimension the center of a cirlcle relative to a edge as in the image posted by @chrisb . I also noticed that I am unable to dimension the point on the circular edge relative to either horizontal , vertical lines or another point . ArcCenterMarks=true is enabled . When I click on circle center and then a edge or vice versa i get a INCORRECT SELECTION MESSAGE . Thanks everyone for all the help so far .
Note: - from here on I am only talking about FreeCAD 0.19
Do your circles/curves look like this?
Screenshot_20200828_094008.png
Screenshot_20200828_094008.png (7.41 KiB) Viewed 1129 times

If so go to the tree view, select your TechDraw "page", then click on the "data" tab at the bottom in the property editor and ensure that "keep updated" is "true"
Screenshot_20200828_094123.png
Screenshot_20200828_094123.png (19.46 KiB) Viewed 1129 times
Then click on the "view" within that "Page" in the tree view, select its "View" tab and ensure that "Arc Centre Marks" is set to "true"
Screenshot_20200828_094242.png
Screenshot_20200828_094242.png (27.15 KiB) Viewed 1129 times
Then you can select the centre mark for dimensioning etc.

Jim


OS: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (KDE/plasma)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.
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vanuan
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by vanuan »

What would be the workflow? Something like this?

1. Select circle
2. Select edge
3. Press distance dimension

What if the edge is circular too? Should it be allowed to move dimension across the edge?
Or should it rather calculate the minimal distance and be glued to that?

If no minimal distance and is required and no movement needed, it's reasonable - determine which edge is a circle, draw a line across the circle center perpendicular to the other edge, subtract circle radius.

I'm not sure what's the issue. Maybe there are some edge cases (no pun intended) I'm not seeing ?

It might be even simpler than that - use existing dimension from circle center to an edge and add some property to display radius, egde to edge or both.
RSA
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by RSA »

Hi Jim , thank you for your detailed description . All these settings are in place and I still have the same problem . In your example where have your 2 circles with point on the arc I am unable to dimesion these points ,when I choose 2 points be it on a arc or straight line I am only permitted to choose 1 . Same as center of a circle I can either chooose the cross or a edge not both . Really appreciate all the help given up to this point thank you.
jmaustpc
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by jmaustpc »

RSA wrote: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:45 am Hi Jim , thank you for your detailed description . All these settings are in place and I still have the same problem . In your example where have your 2 circles with point on the arc I am unable to dimesion these points ,when I choose 2 points be it on a arc or straight line I am only permitted to choose 1 . Same as center of a circle I can either chooose the cross or a edge not both . Really appreciate all the help given up to this point thank you.
use the same multi-select as most of FreeCAD uses, for example select first then hold ctrl key then select second, third, etc. Sketcher works differently but multi-select works like that in the rest of FreeCAD that I can think of just now.
RSA
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by RSA »

THANK YOU JIM !!!!! I dont know if I missed this in a tutorial . Christmas came early for me today . Have a great weekend and thank you again !!
jmaustpc
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by jmaustpc »

RSA wrote: Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:20 am THANK YOU JIM !!!!! I dont know if I missed this in a tutorial . Christmas came early for me today . Have a great weekend and thank you again !!
No worries! :)
I am glad we finally worked out what the problem actually was. :)
domad
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by domad »

The answer to "aapo" has been moved below with the quote.
Last edited by domad on Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
domad
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Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by domad »

aapo wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:25 pm
domad wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 6:02 pm The programmer does his job even if he is not a chemist or an expert in economics or a mechanic or an architect or an engineer etc., he follows the directions of those who work in the field.
I think it should be pointed out, that in this case the programmer does not do his/her job, in the literal sense. FreeCAD is largely a volunteer project, so there are no jobs there. Thus, the chemist, economics expert, mechanic, architect or engineer needs to become a hobbyist programmer in order to orchestrate the development, as the programmer is the one who develops the stuff he/she is interested of in a volunteer-based project.

That said, as a user, I've noticed that providing development ideas and submitting bug reports is a good way to get the developers interested. However, these ideas need to be a) well described and concrete, and b) catch the interest of the developers. Sometimes, I've suggested ideas or sent bug reports, and nobody has been interested, and that is good as it is the nature of volunteer development project. But sometimes, the ideas or requests I've submitted have caused rapid development, especially in TechDraw workbench, which I've been glad about. And, in the end, if I'd want some generally unpopular option or function really really badly, I could try to program it myself because the source code is there, after all. :D

I bring this to support my thesis: http://www.mechanicalblender.org/static/reference.html

I hope I have been correct in supporting my thesis.
I greet you and the whole community again and invite you to a constructive discussion on the subject.
I cannot help but notice that "MechanicalBlender" seems to have a similar problem of lack of coders, as the latest changes in the repository appear to be a few years back. I think that the idea of always snapping objects together is actually quite a good one, but implementing it FreeCAD-wide (or even just into TechDraw) would require a lot of changes, and it'd be quite hard to persuade any developer to do the work. Unless, if you'd be prepared to program it yourself, or hire someone to program it for you.
Hello "aapo"!
Thank you for your answer, but i certainly don't need morality lessons.
I invite you to reflect on Linus Torvalds' thought, this is what it says:

- It's not that i refrain from taking sides. It's just that i deeply blame anyone who tries to impose their morals on others. And you can replace the word "moral" with religion, computer faith, or more.
- As a technician, i know that technology doesn't transform a damn thing. Society is changing technology, not the other way around. Technology only sets the limits of what we can do and how much it costs us to do it.

These are words to be framed don't you think?

My support and commitment, in first person (i repeat, unfortunately, i am not a phyton programmer and i cannot become one now for many reasons), i assure you it goes beyond your rhetorical, scant and disrespectful comment, mine goes much higher and that is to make a "school" of thought and free culture (!) (not of morality!), promoting it so that public administrations, schools (at all levels) and in particular universities use the open and free software and support him in all senses!

What you say does nothing but cause the opposite effect, that is to discourage those who approach FreeCad and in particular those coming from other applications (... ..program it yourself since the code is free ...) instead of giving high expectations, for example: "My effort as a programmer was great but i know that even for just one of you it was positive (!), This is my priceless reward for having contributed to increasing the interest in Freecad by promoting free software".

Having said that i tell you that your speech is off topic since you too do not express your thoughts on what the topic is: the "snaps" extended to any workbench including TechDraw would be a positive or negative fact for FreeCad (?), also explaining reasons.

I know very well (!) That the developers (maybe you are too) of FreeCad, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreCad, Blender, Meshlab, etc. are enthusiasts who program by sacrificing their free time:
- so remember and never forget it (!), even we, professionals, use our "free" time dedicating it to FreeCad (i assure you that it is not for "playing"!) and thus contributing to its development.

The reward of this effort:
The "satisfaction" of being aware of having increased our (programmers and users) cultural and professional background but above all elevated our thinking, therefore continuing to solicit new features does nothing but stimulate new challenges.

I wonder what would become of so many software (especially free and in particular Linux) if there were no users?
Here is the evidence, returning to Linus Torvalds, which makes you think:
- At a certain point, postcards began to arrive from different corners of the planet. I think it was then that i realized that people around the world were really using what he had created. (Sara Torvalds)
- You are lucky that you are not my student, you would not get a good grade for a project like this! (Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum)
I hope my English was decent…. good day
aapo
Posts: 615
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2018 6:41 pm

Re: Center of circle relative to edge.

Post by aapo »

domad wrote: Fri Aug 28, 2020 10:24 am I invite you to reflect on Linus Torvalds' thought, this is what it says:

- It's not that i refrain from taking sides. It's just that i deeply blame anyone who tries to impose their morals on others. And you can replace the word "moral" with religion, computer faith, or more.
- As a technician, i know that technology doesn't transform a damn thing. Society is changing technology, not the other way around. Technology only sets the limits of what we can do and how much it costs us to do it.


These are words to be framed don't you think?
I certainly agree with that. Linus is not afraid to say how it is. :D

Having said that i tell you that your speech is off topic since you too do not express your thoughts on what the topic is: the "snaps" extended to any workbench including TechDraw would be a positive or negative fact for FreeCad (?), also explaining reasons.
Well, I did say that the idea of "snapping" would be a good one in theory. And, I also believe that a possibility of "snapping" the dimensions would probably have solved the problem in the topic of the original post; namely first by the creation of a "floating" dimension, and then "snapping" the ends to the desired geometry points. It is a good idea, but the whole idea is unfortunately off-topic in this thread, because the functionality is yet to be programmed, and in this thread the discussion was about finding immediate solution to the problem of creating a dimension with the current version of FreeCAD TechDraw. Fortunately, the problem was that using multiselection was not intuitive for a new user, so it could be solved without any new code. Probably, this problem would be best solved with UI hints or documentation improvements, at least for the immediate future. With your suggestion, there would be no definite requirement of using multiselection (if I understood the idea correctly); but someone would first need to code it. It's the harsh reality.

I know very well (!) That the developers (maybe you are too) of FreeCad, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreCad, Blender, Meshlab, etc. are enthusiasts who program by sacrificing their free time:
- so remember and never forget it (!), even we, professionals, use our "free" time dedicating it to FreeCad (i assure you that it is not for "playing"!) and thus contributing to its development.
No, I'm just a fellow user and not a developer, at least for now. Although, I'm also a hobbyist programmer, that's why I suggested the same path for you. I also dedicate some "free" time for bug reports and testing in FreeCAD, and I sometimes also read the code. Thus, I fully agree with your idea of contributing to its development by means other than coding, because I try to do the same. :)

However, the harsh reality in the open-source world is that if you don't code, your ideas may or may not be forgotten depending on whether any of the developers are personally interested on them. There might be goals or roadmaps, but everyone is free to develop the things they are personally most interested in.

I hope my English was decent…. good day
In my opinion, perfectly understandable English. Although, English is not my native tongue either, so who am I to judge. Good day to you, too. :D
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