I don't have all the details but I took the original and downgraded it a couple times in Draft and then converted to skech. I did in fact get an offset of the original and now have a sketch I can use in Part design. No parametrics of coarse but I could use it to make a lid.

You can get a good offset using "make a thick solid" (see pic) in Part design. If you then select the offset line and do some magic (probably in Part) you could get an offset sketch.

In sketcher; draw any polygon with the polygon tool, then do a window select of the entire polygon and click "toggle to construction mode". What was a blue circle with a white polygon is now a white circle with a blue polygon. We now have constrained control points. If you do a polygon to ...

I think since the icons are associated with line colors the developers decided to freeze the colors.

This is one of those situations where I do some things outside of Part Design. I made the helix in Part and the array in Draft. I made the pad sketch a bit smaller than the helix so the lines are easier to see.

This issue might be handled best using datum planes. If you place a sketch or multiple sketches on a datum plane then it can be attached to different faces. Datum planes can also be reversed on a face.

Duplicate a sketch (don't copy dependency), notice the number. Click on a face, select "map to face", assign the sketch number. Then use external geo to constrain. Here is post that might make things more stable, not sure about lofts yet. https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&...

I use revolve anytime something is round. You can control drafts and radius in the sketch which is the best approach IMO. You have complete control if thickness around the radius both inside and out. You can also revolve only 210 degrees like this one to look inside during design.

Unless I'm missing something, you can select a sketch, edit->duplicate selected object, then map that sketch to a new face. The way I understand the question, the duplicated sketch is complicated but you did not say it needs to be parametric.

You can also duplicate sketch and feature together.

In case anyone is following this; I have been creating many sketches on my loft. I thought I had to put datum planes on a face but I guess that isn't true all the time, only when the face is a complex shape, mapping sketches to a face works fine if the face is flat. I also found that a copy and past...