TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

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M4x
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TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

Hey everybody,

I'm creating drawings of an assembly using TechDraw. Unfortunately, some operations are "too much" for my system and it basically freezes when I'm trying to create specific TechDraw_DetailViews. I've used some Draft_ShapeStrings to add engravings and such, that might be hard to calculate.

This is a screenshot of the view in 3D which I'm talking about.
Snip macro screenshot-4ee58b.png
Snip macro screenshot-4ee58b.png (4.42 KiB) Viewed 900 times

Do you know a viable way to create detail views using another software? For example exporting the drawing as an SVG and using Inkscape to create the detail views. I'm not limited to Inkscape, that's why I'm not directly heading over to the Inkscape forum.


OS: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (ubuntu:GNOME/ubuntu)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.22665 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: b0d7850406e046f3b7a8cd5da261e7d54df6bd99
Python version: 3.8.6
Qt version: 5.12.9
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.4.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)

Thank you very much!
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M4x
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

I've figured out that it's not a big deal to add a view at a size which equates to the scale of the detail view I'd use. I can export this view as an svg and clip it using Inkscape. If nobody comes up with a better idea, I'll build this drawing using Inkscape like described and "assemble" my drawing using two exported FreeCAD pages.
jmaustpc
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by jmaustpc »

If your model is very complex and consequently slows FreeCAD to a crawl, I have in the past finished the model the created a Part WB simple copy. Then you could copy paste just the finished simple copy into a new document, and create the techdrawing views from the simple solid.
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

That's a good idea too, I'll try it. Thank you very much!
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

jmaustpc wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:27 am If your model is very complex and consequently slows FreeCAD to a crawl, I have in the past finished the model the created a Part WB simple copy. Then you could copy paste just the finished simple copy into a new document, and create the techdrawing views from the simple solid.
I've tried that (but stayed within one document). It's definitely faster / more responsive in general. But sill unusable regarding TechDraw_DetailViews (took me around an hour to create a TechDraw_DetailView).

I'll keep your suggestion in mind and I'm sure I'm going to use it in the future, maybe even to create other drawings regarding my current project.

Thank you very much! I'm not going to add a "solved" to the thread title yet to see if someone comes up with another idea I could try.
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by jmaustpc »

M4x wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:14 pm I've tried that (but stayed within one document).
That defeats the purpose, you have to use a different document and depending on your hardware even make sure all other documents are closed.
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M4x
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

Oh, okay I didn't know that. I thought the copy would make it easier to calculate and that's it. I'll try it again (following your advice more closely this time).
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

Update: I've tried it again with only the copy in a single document opened. It took me 48 minutes of waiting / load time to drag the detail view to the "correct" position. Something I haven't seen so far: FreeCAD moves the circle of the detail view a bit upwards (between placing it [thick green outline] and showing me the result [thin black outline]). Therefore I'd have to position it under the location I really want to position the view. Is this something I should report in a separate topic?

Regarding the original question: Since the time to calculate the stuff around the detail view is very long, I've to stick to Inkscape for this particular drawing.

edit:
Here are my system details (hardware)
  • manufacturer - Lenovo
  • model - x201t
  • CPU - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU L 640 @ 2.13GHz
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Re: TechDraw - Create Detail views using Inkscape (for example)

Post by M4x »

Another Update: I had to make some changes to the assembly and tried the Part SimpleCopy method again. To setup and arrange all the detail views, I've turned the "KeepUpdated" off for the TechDraw page. I've done a recompute afterwards and this worked for me! Took around 20 minutes to compute.

Thank you very much!
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