No scaling in TechDraw Workbench

[RokiDokiCAD]

Hi,

I am really new in FreeCAD and learn by YT Tutorials right now. Here is something that does not work for me, even it looks really really simple on YT. I want to make a drawing out of my construction, which is just a 380mm x 580mm x 2mm plate with some holes right now. So I open the TechDraw WB, add a new page in A4 Format (blank). Then I choose the body and try to insert it via one of the two options, and what happens is, it inserts it, but always in 1:1 scale it seems. And as the viewing angle is always takes the last angle I had on the body.

I can't get it to scale down, I tried to choose a custom scale on the insert dialog, I tried all scale options I could find in the data area, nothing works. Also the only way to get the viewing angle I want (Top view on the plate) is to go back the part, adjust the angle there, then add it again to the page.... that cant be right. I also can't create any second view on the part, as the dialogs just do not do anything.

Any idea what my mistake is?



OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.4 (GitTag)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: 980bf9060e28555fecd9e3462f68ca74007b70f8
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)

[chrisb]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You can set an initial scale in the TechDraw preferences. As it hardly ever meets what I need I usually change it in Data properties of the page. You should upgrade to 0.19 if you use TechDraw as almost countless improvements have been made to that workbench.

I cannot help with the alignment (I have tried once for two hours or so to understand how it works and finally returned to the method you describe: turn the model before creating the TechDraw view).

Edit: Scaling works in 0.18 too as described above.

[drmacro]

Hi,

I am really new in FreeCAD and learn by YT Tutorials right now. Here is something that does not work for me, even it looks really really simple on YT. I want to make a drawing out of my construction, which is just a 380mm x 580mm x 2mm plate with some holes right now. So I open the TechDraw WB, add a new page in A4 Format (blank). Then I choose the body and try to insert it via one of the two options, and what happens is, it inserts it, but always in 1:1 scale it seems. And as the viewing angle is always takes the last angle I had on the body.

I can't get it to scale down, I tried to choose a custom scale on the insert dialog, I tried all scale options I could find in the data area, nothing works. Also the only way to get the viewing angle I want (Top view on the plate) is to go back the part, adjust the angle there, then add it again to the page.... that cant be right. I also can't create any second view on the part, as the dialogs just do not do anything.

Any idea what my mistake is?



OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.4 (GitTag)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: 980bf9060e28555fecd9e3462f68ca74007b70f8
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)

Beware, many tutorials can be confusing because they are done in older revisions.
Upgrade to 0.19
The view inserted is always the current orientation in the 3d view (except when using the insert standard multi-view, then it inserts the views you choose in the dialog)
Use the scale property on the view, after insertion.

[wandererfan]

Then I choose the body and try to insert it via one of the two options, and what happens is, it inserts it, but always in 1:1 scale it seems.

There are three places where Scale can be set. On the Page, on an Individual View and on a ProjectionGroup (all items in a ProjectionGroup get the same scale).

from TechDraw_PageDefault "Scale: Default scale for Views in this Page."

PageScaleProperty.png (24.97 KiB) Viewed 7435 times

from TechDraw_View
"ScaleType: "Document": use the Page's scale setting. "Custom": use a scale unique to this view. "Automatic": fit view to page. (1)
Scale: A view will be rendered on the page in Scale:1 ratio to the Source. (1)"

ViewScaleProperties.png (28.3 KiB) Viewed 7435 times

If you are changing the Scale on a View and it is not being applied, then the ScaleType is probably set to "Page".

And as the viewing angle is always takes the last angle I had on the body.

This is the default starting Direction of a View. If you select a Face on the Body, the starting Direction will be the normal of the selected Face. You can change it by modifying the Direction property.

from TechDraw_View: "Direction: this vector controls the direction from which you are viewing the object. +X is right, -X is left, +Y is rear, -Y is front (looking into the screen), +Z is up and -Z is down. So a Front view is (0,-1,0) and an isometric view is (1,-1,1). (1)"

ViewDirectionProperty.png (27.92 KiB) Viewed 7435 times

Set the Direction to (0, 0, 1) to see the object from above.

[chrisb]

Hi,
...

Would you mind quoting only the portions of the post you are directly referring to? That's much easier to read, and if we want to see the full post we can just follow the up-arrow link.
See also How to quote correctly.

[drmacro]

Hi,
...

Would you mind quoting only the portions of the post you are directly referring to? That's much easier to read, and if we want to see the full post we can just follow the up-arrow link.
See also How to quote correctly.

You've probably noticed I normally do. But on my tablet selecting text is a royal pita and that particular reply was done on my phone because the storm had knocked out my cable, so I only had 4G access.

[chrisb]

But on my tablet selecting text is a royal pita

I fully understand what you mean .

[vanuan]

Some ideas to improve UX:

[1] Open a dialog when creating a TechDraw page and let the user choose parameters: paper size, template, scale factor, etc
[2] Suggest automatic value based on the grid size (fit to grid)
[3] Set it to autoscale so that the scale changes to fit all the views on a page (fit to views)
[4] Provide defaults based on the preset (e.g. architectural: street, building, floor plan; part designer: assembly, large part, small part, vehicle, etc)

Of course, we must also consider that preferences are not a part of the document. While some should be.

[chrisb]

1) Most people work frequently or always in the same field of application. So please, no additional dialog.
3) I like this dpossibility though.

[cadcam]

dv+_drawing_view_increment_scale.FCMacro

(1.69 KiB) Downloaded 72 times

dv-_drawing_view_decrement_scale.FCMacro

(1.77 KiB) Downloaded 102 times

I am not sure if it is of any help, but most standards, e.g. BS8888, specify the scales that should be used
in any view. I have attached a couple of simple macros which fit my standard shortcut menomics, e.g. Drawing View Increase/+ and DV-. which allow specific views to be adjusted. I have some others in development that also allow the automatic stepping of the whole page and projection groups but I am having issues with redraw times that I am trying to solve. When done I can upload if thought to be useful.

Best Wishes