Ambiente de trabajo Borrador
El módulo Croquizado 2D está en desarrollo, y es un módulo bastante experimental para añadir funcionalidad básica para dibujo 2D en FreeCAD. Está escrito completamente en Python, y nos sirve también para mostrar hasta qué punto se puede extender FreeCAD usando únicamente Python, sin siquiera tocar el código fuente.
Actualmente no es realmente utilizable para el trabajo de producción, pero ya contiene un par de funciones básicas de trabajo. Pruebelo libremente, a su aire, y denos sus opiniones como una retroalimentación en discussion page
El entorno Croquizado 2D está disponible en la lista de entornos. Al activarlo, aparecerán dos barras de herramientas. Una barra de herramientas «clásica», que contiene los comandos usuales de croquizado que aparecen a continuación, y una barra de herramientas "especial" que no tiene iconos de herramienta en ella, pero que es utilizada por las diferentes funciones para mostrar sus controles. Sobre esa barra de comandos, también puede cambiar cosas generales, como el color de la línea actual y su anchura. Como anotación al margen, la barra de comandos (y, en mi humilde opinión, la interfaz de QT, en su conjunto) se ve mucho mejor si se elige el "estilo" cleanlooks en las preferencias generales de FreeCAD ...
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
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
See the Draft API page for a complete description of the Draft functions that you can use in scripts and macros
