Draft Workbench: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:06, 12 July 2010

The draft Module is a work-in-progress and quite experimental module made to add basic 2d drawing functionality to FreeCAD. It is written entirely in python, and is also intended to showcase how far you can extend FreeCAD entirely in python, without even touching the source code.

Currently it is not really usable for production work, but already contains a couple of working basic functions. Feel free to test, and give us a feedback on the discussion page.

The draft interface with the buttons toolbar and the function toolbar

The draft workbench is available in your workbenches list. When you activate it, two toolbars will appear; a classical toolbar containing the standard draft commands listed below and a special command bar that has no tool icon on it, but that is used by the different functions to display their controls. On that command bar, you can also change general things like current line color and width. As a sidenote, the command bar (and, IMHO, the whole QT interface) looks much better if you choose the "cleanlooks" style in FreeCAD general preferences...

Tutorial

For an in-depth explanation, read the Draft tutorial (work in progress), or read the quickstart section below to get you quickly on rails.

Quickstart

Not all Draft commands work well in 3D at the moment. So, the best thing to do is to put yourself in orthographic 2D view before starting to draw. To do that, open or create a new document, then press the O key (or menu view -> orthographic view) to switch to orthographic mode. Then press the 2 key (or menu view -> standard views -> top) to put you in top view. Now, you are ready to draw. You can also configure freecad (menu edit -> preferences) to always start in orthographic mode.

All draft commands follow more or less the same rules: Drawing tools will ask you to pick points on the screen or enter numeric coordinates, while modification tools will ask you to choose an object to work on first, in case no object is selected. In almost all commands, pressing the CTRL key will allow you to snap to existing points, SHIFT will constrain your movement horizontally, verically or in relation to an existing segment, and in some tools ALT will give you extra options such as creating a new object instead of transforming an existing one. The ESC key will always cancel the active command.

Some commands work in non-horizontal planes too, just make sure the Z coordinate is unlocked when drawing, and place yourself in the appropriate view. Below you will find a more complete description of all available tools.

Importing & exporting

These are functions for opening, importing or exporting other file formats. Opening will open a new document with the contents of the file, while importing will append the file content to the current document. Exporting will save the selected objects to a file. If nothing is selected, then all objects will be exported. Be aware that since the purpose of the Draft module is to work with 2d objects, those importers focus only on 2d objects, and, although DXF and OCA formats do support objects definitions in 3D space (objects are not necessarily flat), they won't import volumetric objects like meshes, 3D faces, etc, but rather lines, circles, texts or flat shapes. Currently supported file formats are:

Autodesk .DXF: Imports and exports DXF files created with other CAD applications
SVG (as geometry): Imports and exports SVG files created with vector drawing applications
Open Cad format .OCA: Imports and exports OCA/GCAD files, a potentially new open CAD file format

Template:Draft Tools

Common behaviours

Snapping: Allows to place new points on special places on existing objects
Constraining: Allows to place new points horizontally or vertically in relation to previous points
Working with manual coordinates: Allows to enter manual coordinates instead of clicking on screen
Copying: All modification tools can either modify the selected objects or create a modified copy of them. Pressing ALT while using the tool will make a copy
Construction Mode: Allows you to put geometry apart from the rest, for easy switch on/switch off
All newly created objects adopt current Draft color and width
The Draft module also has its preferences screen

API

Other languages:

(November 2018) This information may be incomplete and outdated. For the latest API, see the autogenerated API documentation.

These functions are part of the Draft Workbench and can be used in macros and from the Python console once the Draft module has been imported.

Example: </translate>

import FreeCAD, Draft

myrect = Draft.makeRectangle(4, 3)
mydistance = FreeCAD.Vector(2, 2, 0)
Draft.move(myrect, mydistance)

cut(FreeCAD.Object, FreeCAD.Object)

Description: Returns a cut object made from the difference of the 2 given objects. The original objects get hidden.

Returns: The newly created object

extrude(FreeCAD.Object, Vector)

Description: Extrudes the given object in the direction given by the vector. The original object gets hidden.

Returns: The newly created object

formatObject(FreeCAD.Object, [FreeCAD.Object])

Description: This function applies to the given target object the current properties set on the Draft toolbar (line color and line width), or copies the properties of a second object if provided. It also places the object in construction group if the construction button is pressed.

Returns: Nothing

fuse(FreeCAD.Object, FreeCAD.Object)

Description: Returns an object made from the union of the 2 given objects. If the objects are coplanar, a special Draft Wire is used, otherwise the final object is a standard Part fuse.

Returns: The newly created object

getDraftPath([string])

Description: Returns the user or system path where the Draft module is running from. If a subpath or a filename is supplied, the full path to the subpath inside the Draft module is returned.

Returns: A file path

getGroupContents(list)

Description: Scans recursively the given list for groups. If groups are encountered, their contents are appended to the list.

Returns: A list of FreeCAD Objects

getRealName(string)

Description: Strips the trailing numbers from an object name.

Returns: The stripped object name

getSelection( )

Description: Returns the current FreeCAD selection.

Returns: The current FreeCAD selection.

makeCircle(radius, [placement], [facemode], [startangle], [endangle])

Description: Creates a circle object with given radius. If a placement is given, it is used. If facemode is False, the circle is shown as a wireframe, otherwise as a face. If startangle AND endangle are given (in degrees), they are used and the object appears as an arc.