TechDraw Workbench/zh

Introduction

The TechDraw Workbench is used to produce basic technical drawings from 3D models created with another workbench such as Part, PartDesign, or Arch, or imported from other applications. Each drawing is a Page, which can contain various Views of drawable objects such as Part::Features, PartDesign::Bodies, App::Part groups, and Document Object groups. The resulting drawings can be used for things like documentation, manufacturing instructions, contracts, permits, etc.

Dimensions, sections, hatched areas, annotations, and SVG symbols can be added to the page, which can be further exported to different formats like DXF, SVG, and PDF.

TechDraw was officially included in FreeCAD starting with version 0.17; it is intended to replace the unsupported Drawing Workbench. Both workbenches are still provided in v0.17, but the Drawing Workbench may be removed in future releases. To keep up with TechDraw plans and developments, visit the TechDraw Roadmap.

FreeCAD is primarily a 3D modelling application, and thus doesn't have many 2D drawing tools, which are mostly included in the Draft and Sketcher Workbenches. If your primary goal is the production of complex 2D drawings and DXF files, and you don't need 3D modelling, you may wish to consider a dedicated software program for technical drafting such as LibreCAD, QCad, TurboCad, and others.

Pages

These are tools for creating Page objects.

• File:TechDraw New Default.png New Default: adds a new page using the default template.

• File:TechDraw New Pick.png New Pick: adds a new page using a selected template.

Views

These are tools for creating View objects.

• File:Techdraw-view.png New View: adds a 2D projection view of an object.

• File:Techdraw-projgroup.png New Projection Group: invokes a dialog to create many views of an object from multiple directions.

• File:Techdraw-viewsection.png New Section: adds a cross-section view of an existing view.

• File:Techdraw-viewdetail.png New Detail: adds a detail view of a portion of an existing view.

• File:Techdraw-annotation.png New Annotation: adds a text block to serve as an annotation.

• File:Techdraw-draft-view.png New Draft: adds a view of a Draft Workbench object.

• File:Techdraw-arch-view.png New Arch: adds a view of a Arch Workbench SectionPlane object.

• File:Techdraw-spreadsheet.svg Spreadsheet: inserts a view of a Spreadsheet Workbench sheet.

Clips

These are tools to create and manage Clip objects (clipped views).

• File:Techdraw-clip.svg Clip: inserts a clip group into a page.

• File:Techdraw-clipplus.svg ClipPlus: adds an existing view to a clip group.

• File:Techdraw-clipminus.svg ClipMinus: removes a view from a clip group.

Dimensions

These are tools for creating and working with Dimension objects.

Linear dimensions can be based on two points, on one line, or on two lines.

• File:Dimension Length.png New Length: adds a length dimension.

• File:Dimension Horizontal.png New Horizontal: adds a horizontal length dimension.

• File:Dimension Vertical.png New Vertical: adds a vertical length dimension.

• File:Dimension Radius.png New Radius: adds a radius dimension to a circle or circular arc.

• File:Dimension Diameter.png New Diameter: adds a diameter dimension to a circle or a circular arc.

• File:Dimension Angle.png New Angle: adds an angle dimension between two straight edges.

• File:TechDraw Dimension Angle3Pt.png New Angle3Pt: adds an angle dimension using three vertices.

• File:Dimension Link.png New Links: links an existing dimension to the 3D geometry.

Import/Export

These are tools for exporting pages to other applications.

• File:Techdraw-saveSVG.svg Save SVG: saves a page as an SVG file.
• File:Techdraw-saveDXF.svg Save DXF: saves a page as a DXF file.

Decoration

These are tools for changing the appearance of pages and views.

• File:Techdraw-hatch.png Hatch Area: applies a hatch pattern from a file to a face.

• File:Techdraw-geomhatch.png Geometric Hatch: applies a hatch pattern to a face using an Autodesk PAT specification.

• File:Techdraw-symbol.png New Symbol: inserts an SVG symbol into a page.

• File:Techdraw-image.png New Image: inserts a PNG or JPG bitmap image into a page.

• File:Techdraw-toggleframe.png Toggle Frames: turns on and off the frames and labels surrounding a view.

• File:TechDraw Tree Page Sync.png Redraw: The Redraw tool attempts to redraw a page without recalculating the 3D model. (This tool was removed in v0.18)

Additional features

• Hatching: explanation of the different hatching techniques.
• Line Groups: default weights can be assigned to various line types.
• Templates: the default templates defined for the drawing pages.

Preferences

• Preferences: preferences for the default values of the drawing page such as projection angle, colors, text sizes, and line styles.

Scripting

The TechDraw tools can be used in macros and from the Python console by using two APIs.

• TechDraw API
• TechDrawGui API

Limitations

• TechDraw drawings and its API are not interchangeable with the Drawing Workbench and its API. It is possible to convert Drawing Pages to TechDraw Pages using a Python script (moveViews.py).
• It is possible to have both TechDraw and Drawing Pages in the same FreeCAD document, as each page is completely independent from each other.
• There are minor differences in specifying editable texts in SVG templates compared to the Drawing module. In TechDraw the scaling of the SVG document affects the position of the editable text fields. See the forum discussion TechDraw templates scale for more details.
• Do not cut, copy and paste TechDraw objects in the tree view as this generally does not work out well.

Tutorials

• Basic TechDraw Tutorial: introduction to creating drawings with the TechDraw Workbench.
• Creating a new template: instructions to create a new page template in Inkscape for using with the TechDraw Workbench.

Start Workbench

Test Framework Workbench

Index

TechDraw

• Pages: Insert Default Page, Insert Page using Template, Redraw Page, Print All Pages
• Views: Insert View, Insert Active View, Insert Projection Group, Insert Section View, Insert Complex Section View, Insert Detail View, Insert Draft Workbench Object, Insert Arch Workbench Object, Insert Spreadsheet View, Insert Clip Group, Share View, Project Shape
• Stacking: Move view to top of stack, Move view to bottom of stack, Move view up one level, Move view down one level

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• Decorations: Hatch Face using Image File, Apply Geometric Hatch to Face, Insert SVG Symbol, Insert Bitmap Image, Turn View Frames On/Off
• Dimensions: Insert Length Dimension, Insert Horizontal Dimension, Insert Vertical Dimension, Insert Radius Dimension, Insert Diameter Dimension, Insert Angle Dimension, Insert 3-Point Angle Dimension, Insert Horizontal Extent Dimension, Insert Vertical Extent Dimension, Link Dimension to 3D Geometry, Insert Balloon Annotation, Insert Axonometric Length Dimension, Insert Landmark Dimension, Adjust Geometric References of Dimension
• Annotations: Insert Annotation, Add Leaderline to View, Insert Rich Text Annotation, Add Cosmetic Vertex, Add Midpoint Vertices, Add Quadrant Vertices, Add Centerline to Faces, Add Centerline between 2 Lines, Add Centerline between 2 Points, Add Cosmetic Line Through 2 points, Add Cosmetic Circle, Change Appearance of Lines, Show/Hide Invisible Edges, Add Welding Information to Leader, Add Surface Finish Symbol, Add Hole or Shaft Tolerances

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• Extensions:
  • Attributes and modifications: Select Line Attributes, Cascade Spacing and Delta Distance, Change Line Attributes, Extend Line, Shorten Line, Lock/Unlock View, Position Section View, Position Horizontal Chain Dimensions, Position Vertical Chain Dimensions, Position Oblique Chain Dimensions, Cascade Horizontal Dimensions, Cascade Vertical Dimensions, Cascade Oblique Dimensions, Calculate the area of selected faces, Calculate the arc length of selected edges, Customize format label
  • Centerlines and threading: Add Circle Centerlines, Add Bolt Circle Centerlines, Add Cosmetic Thread Hole Side View, Add Cosmetic Thread Hole Bottom View, Add Cosmetic Thread Bolt Side View, Add Cosmetic Thread Bolt Bottom View, Add Cosmetic Intersection Vertex(es), Add an offset vertex, Add Cosmetic Circle, Add Cosmetic Arc, Add Cosmetic Circle 3 Points, Add Cosmetic Parallel Line, Add Cosmetic Perpendicular Line
  • Dimensions: Create Horizontal Chain Dimensions, Create Vertical Chain Dimensions, Create Oblique Chain Dimensions, Create Horizontal Coordinate Dimensions, Create Vertical Coordinate Dimensions, Create Oblique Coordinate Dimensions, Create Horizontal Chamfer Dimension, Create Vertical Chamfer Dimension, Create Arc Length Dimension, Insert '⌀' Prefix, Insert '〼' Prefix, Remove Prefix, Increase Decimal Places, Decrease Decimal Places

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• Export: Export Page as SVG, Export Page as DXF
• Additional: Line Groups, Templates, Hatching, Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, Preferences

User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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• Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
• Workbenches: Std Base, Arch, Assembly, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Points, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Start, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework, Web

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• Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

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• Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub