The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

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Rocketmanbob
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 14, 2021 7:56 pm

The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Rocketmanbob »

Hello Veteran FreeCAD users, I thank you in advance for assisting this noob :D

OS: Windows 10 Version 2009
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.24276 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-19
Hash: a88db11e0a908f6e38f92bfc5187b13ebe470438
Python version: 3.8.6+
Qt version: 5.15.1
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)


I am trying to lay out some floorplans to manipulate and I keep having the same problem. I build them using line segments. I snap each segment to the end point of the prior one (or at least I think I am doing that lol). Anyway, often I've noticed that the drawing looks screwy and, when I go back and look at the line segment data, more than half the time the size is not the distance I originally entered!

I'm using arch mode and being careful about the length and vector data I enter in the dialogue box for each line segment. Can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong? This is maddening, and slowing me down a lot...

Also, is there a way to change the assist grid size? It might be easier and faster if I could make the grid appropriately sized for the project I'm working on, instead of postage stamp sized in the center. lol

Thank you again for your assistance with this
chrisb
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You can set the grid size in the Draft preferences.
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heda
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by heda »

I think you have to describe a bit better your workflow and how it happens.

one thing that "drives me mad" when entering line segments in draft is when the mouse goes to the 3d view and overwrites any typed values in the dialogue. keeping the mouse pointer away from the 3d view does the trick for that.

it would be nice if the dialogue for entering line segments had a checkbox for ignoring 3d view coordinates, and while we are at it - a button to reset all coords would be nice as well.
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Kunda1
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Kunda1 »

Perhaps create tickets for such requests?
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Syres
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Syres »

heda wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 8:31 pm it would be nice if the dialogue for entering line segments had a checkbox for ignoring 3d view coordinates, and while we are at it - a button to reset all coords would be nice as well.
Copy you're existing src\Mod\Draft\DraftGui.py and src\Mod\Draft\draftguitools\gui_lines.py files so you can put them back if needed and replace them with those attached below. It's a rough UI that I cobbled together and once polished would need to be made consistent across the other Gui tools.

OS: Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601: SP 1)
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.24840 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 131cdd1e4ec5e1cc1ddd1ccce4435fe23dee68cf
Python version: 3.8.6+
Qt version: 5.15.2
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.0
Locale: English/United Kingdom (en_GB)
Attachments
DraftGui.py
(106.3 KiB) Downloaded 27 times
gui_lines.py
(15.62 KiB) Downloaded 31 times
Rocketmanbob
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 14, 2021 7:56 pm

Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Rocketmanbob »

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll give some of them a try.

I switched to draft mode and had a little better luck, but still started to get anomalies after just a few segments were drawn. Maybe this series of pictures will help illustrate the problem


1.jpg
1.jpg (178.55 KiB) Viewed 1202 times
This is the data for the line I keyed in


2.jpg
2.jpg (190.55 KiB) Viewed 1202 times
Surprisingly, this is what I got back


3.jpg
3.jpg (197.15 KiB) Viewed 1202 times


Even more curious, though I had endpoint snap on, it doesn't appear to be connected to the endpoint of the previous line.

Any advice you might give me would be appreciated. I'd really like to start using this CAD program
Thanks again
Syres
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Syres »

Rocketmanbob wrote: Sat May 15, 2021 2:41 pm Even more curious, though I had endpoint snap on, it doesn't appear to be connected to the endpoint of the previous line.
From Edit>Preferences>General>Units tab, what are your settings? Here's my test settings (I use the Standard Metric normally):


UnitsSettings.jpg
UnitsSettings.jpg (32.94 KiB) Viewed 1179 times
heda
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by heda »

not sure what specifically is throwing you off, but hang in there - after a while making lines will cease to appear to be random
draft has the notion of workplane (Draft_ToggleGrid), if that one is off - it typically feels like fc is throwing you curved balls.

using shift once you have one point of a line will lock it in vertical or horizontal (it locks in the direction that is closes when you press it, if not the intended one just release the shift key and move the mouse closer to where you want it to be and press/hold shift again)
this works great with snap and makes it easy to align things and control lengths of lines.

if you are using angles, I think you have to check the checkbox for angle, and also press enter after having entered an angle.
(this one could actually be it...)

when you have a general direction of a line in the 3d view if you hit h-key it will lock that direction, and it is only length that is adjustable in the 3d view after that (angle you can alter in the input field).

you know when you "snap", since then it is a white dot in the 3d-view, if the white dot is not there - there is no snap.

hope it helps.
Syres wrote: Sat May 15, 2021 12:05 pm Copy you're existing...
cool, now I just need to figure out how to get this working with an appimage installation - so far I have not been able to do it.
maybe it is not possible?
heda
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by heda »

found a way, there is an option with --appimage-extract that allows one to exchange/edit python files.

gui looks great!!
resetbutton.png
resetbutton.png (27.35 KiB) Viewed 1133 times
the code changes seems to have put making lines by clicking in the 3d view out of play (or it was just on my box).
Syres
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Re: The line dimensions I entered are not always correct in the drawing!

Post by Syres »

heda wrote: Sat May 15, 2021 8:15 pm the code changes seems to have put making lines by clicking in the 3d view out of play (or it was just on my box).
You can tick/untick the checkbox between points, so if you wish to snap the first point the end of an existing line but then specify a length in Y only, just untick the checkbox after the snapped first point and type in the Y coordinate pressing Enter/Return through Y & Z to accept.

I'm struggling to just turn off the mouse positions without switching off the mouse interpretations as a total. The code that deals directly with this is in the gui_lines.py. You see the changes here https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comp ... 6:patch-17 if you want to have a play on your system to refine it to your needs.
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