Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

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Piero69
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Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by Piero69 »

@abdullah @paddle @NewJoker @Jee-Bee

i feel useful that in sketcher the dimensional constraints (horizontal, vertical and distance) could work also on circle/arc giving the relative dimension between the centres.

In complex sketch or sketch with big radius would be enough to select the arc instead to go around looking for the centre point, and in general is a faster way to design.

what do you think?
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jnxd
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by jnxd »

I don't think this particular one makes sense. A "concentric" constraint being analogous to "coincident" makes sense, but setting distances of centers by selecting circles somehow doesn't go sound right UI-wise. I'd say if there is so much demand for such tools, there should be a modifier such that clicking an "edge" selects it's "center" (like, say, alt+click or such).
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paddle
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by paddle »

Piero69 wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 5:51 am i feel useful that in sketcher the dimensional constraints (horizontal, vertical and distance) could work also on circle/arc giving the relative dimension between the centres.

what do you think?
We have discussed before about enabling distance constraint between circles. But the idea was not to simply apply distance between the center of the circles, but to apply distance between the circles themselves (which is the same as distance between centers - radius of both).

I think distances between circle/arcs edge make sens. But applying the distance between their center wouldn't be the best.

However distance between circle edges requires more work as it needs to make a specific constraint. Good news is, someone is actually working on that. Bad news is that there's no news of it for more than 6 months. Hope it's still going on. I need to find the original post.
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NewJoker
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by NewJoker »

paddle wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:07 am I think distances between circle/arcs edge make sens.
Yes, that would be very useful since now you have to add points to edges, constrain them properly and only then you can apply the dimension. Being able to dimension the offset between circles/arcs without having to add points would significantly reduce the amount of work.

paddle wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:07 am Good news is, someone is actually working on that. Bad news is that there's no news of it for more than 6 months. Hope it's still going on. I need to find the original post.
You are likely talking about this: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/5439
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by chrisb »

paddle wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:07 amBut the idea was not to simply apply distance between the center of the circles, but to apply distance between the circles themselves (which is the same as distance between centers - radius of both).
Would this constraint work only on concentric circles? Everything else seems rather cumbersome.
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pathfinder
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by pathfinder »

Is there an advantage for making it a native constrain, rather than it being essentially a macro that builds an underlying structure with construction lines and existing constraints, kind of like n-gons, rectangles and slots are handled?
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Re: Sketcher dimensional constraints (H. V distance) working also on circle/arc

Post by Jee-Bee »

I don't want to say it don't make sense... I personally never use it in sketcher, but i use it in a measuring tool!

This part of the response is more or less what i read in between the lines:
I like it if there is a bit more freedom when using certain constraints: for example select the circles and not the center points, or using 'point on object' constraint for making two lines collinear.
I'm not sure if this should be part of this topic or creating a separate topic. In the latter case feel free to mentione me...
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