Here is a made-up test file of a device with a front plate and simple artwork. I really like the visual impact colored 2D artwork has in the 3D view in larger scenes.
Try to rework the graphics to match moving the right hole 10mm upwards. Then I think the benefit of the suggested improvements is a bit more obvious.
Draft has snap points that do not adhere and no rectangle select. One change and many other lines must be corrected. The outer line should be 5mm, but its not. It will vary with distance. To get a correct line size, today each line must be replaced with a filled rectangle, each above rectangle must be replaced by 2 offset rectangles and upgraded to a face. Same for arcs, or splines. If any of those needs to change it gets quite complex. Now imagine a more realistic case with circular scales 0-10 with lines in 0.5 intervals like a volume knob on a stereo amplifier... Thats why I think outlines are no solution and real line widths are needed. As this really is a trivial example everything in there should really be only very few clicks.
- TestProject.png (17.65 KiB) Viewed 801 times
The file is the best way I found so far to use Draft to make things like that. I'd love to get suggestions for improvement.
You can use the project to see the disapearing lines issue (see below)
The project has 3 files. One is the assembly using Asm3 workbench. The other a dummy for a device and the third for the part with the artwork. You open the "TestFileDraftWb_Asm.FCStd" and it will load the others automatically. In the file "TestFileDraftWb.FCStd" is the PartDesign body with the artwork.
The design uses layering which 4 layers with different graphical settings like text color or line widths.
catman wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:08 am
- Draft has display problem in Assemblies. Some test and lines do not appear. I need to upload a test showing this
- Switching visibilty in some cases exclude objects (at least when layers are involved).
I think I found the cause of trouble I had with these. One workaround is already in the file. I cleand up all dependency errors, so the effects of the second bullet point can not be seen in the file.
First seems common: dependency graph erors. Somehow (I can not reproduce it yet) when I am editing parts they suddenly start behaving strange. Feels like they fall "off" the workplane by loosing some invisible property. At least in the dependency graph the part shows a red line. Such parts are invisible in the assmbly and they also not covered by the visibility switch with <space> (thats how I detect them). Maybe one possible cause is that I have tried to connect lines to wires. That did not quite often not work when shapes were not added. I had things like lines that were moved when I moved by moving a totally different line. Trying to recover I also used Upgrade/Downgrade a lot. Maybe somewhere there is the root cause of trouble.
However, I could repair the dependency graph issues by drag/drop them in the tree out of their layer and back. Sometimes I had to do it a few times, mostly it works directly. I think this is a very nasty bug waiting for someone to be able to fully reproduce it.
The other issue is Z-fighting. Open the "TestFileDraftWb.FCStd" file and select the proxy workplane. All artwork is gone. If you rotate the part a tiny bit its back. With zooming out the lines will vanish in the assembly view as well.
The problem is a missing z-Offset. The most natural way to define the workplane (select a face and click the workplane button) does not allow to set an offset. And its quite tedious to modiy all parts later.
The workaround I used is to put all Draw object to a Part contains. Adding here 0.1mm in Z brings the artwork back and resolves most zoom issues as well.
A imho perfect future solution could be a new feature: an optional workplane object. It would have a transformation and can be mapped or remapped like a sketch. It has a width and height and quick access to the grid properties which is bould by the width and height settings. The difference to the normal workplane is that the z-coordinate is always 0. You can not by accident loose parts outside the working plane. Its helpful when its clear that all drawing must be done in a single plane anyway. No more loosing parts to other z-levels by accident.
My suggestion would be to add information to the wiki. Maybe we should add a section "Usage".
* "strange behaviour": This was causing many issues in my files. I'd say its bugs yet, talk about how to "check the dependency graph", how to detect faulty parts and how to recover. Any other way to recover?
* "Vanishing lines": tell about obvervations, solve by "offset" and what to do to add it later. Suggests Part Container.
* SVG ougtput. List the issues (even when fixed because older versions have them)
* "line width" For people coming form othr Vector tools the info about no scaled line width
I have seen that people became quite upset by me just adding content, so I mostly stopped it (I'm aware my text are longer than most). So I am prepared to wite somthing, but Draft WB people, please say if you have special wishes, Won't write without comments.