How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

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FC-1
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How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by FC-1 »

Hi,

First of all, thanks for FreeCAD. I'm really impressed with this program, and love the workflow 8-)

As you've guessed from the title, I have the question : How do we 'Shear' a Sketch in FreeCAD?
I'm planning some custom lettering, and it will need to be sheared in order to make it italic.

Any advice on how to do this would be appreciated!
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wandererfan
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by wandererfan »

I don't think there is a Gui command to do a shear transformation.

You could make a custom font in Fontforge, then use Draft.ShapeString or Part.makeWireString.

In Python, you could use TopoShape.transformGeometry/transformShape with the appropriate matrix.

wf
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quick61
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by quick61 »

FC-1 wrote:Hi,

First of all, thanks for FreeCAD. I'm really impressed with this program, and love the workflow 8-)

As you've guessed from the title, I have the question : How do we 'Shear' a Sketch in FreeCAD?
I'm planning some custom lettering, and it will need to be sheared in order to make it italic.

Any advice on how to do this would be appreciated!
Hi FC-1, Welcome to FreeCAD and the forum,

What I would do would be to use a program like Inkscape to manipulate my text the way I want it and then save as SVG and import the file as geometry into FreeCAD, extrude it if I needed a 3D solid and go from there. Here is a quick example of doing just that and cutting the sheared text from a Part > Cube.
ShearedTxt.png
ShearedTxt.png (9.93 KiB) Viewed 2911 times
Inkscape is a good program to have along side FreeCAD. Most of FreeCAD's icons were/are made with Inkscape and it works great for converting drawing and are into geometry, sense it is a vector graphics program.

Mark
This post made with 0.0% Micro$oft products - GOT LINUX?
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bejant
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by bejant »

FC-1 wrote:I'm planning some custom lettering, and it will need to be sheared in order to make it italic.
Hi FC-1, do you want to create a new font from scratch or do you want to use an existing font for your custom lettering? If you can use an existing font for your custom lettering, try using the Draft WB > ShapeString tool:
Image
Wiki page: Draft_ShapeString
FC-1
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by FC-1 »

Thanks all for the suggestions, but none would work for me.

I'm torn because I don't like switching programs all the time, but what I really like about FreeCAD is the abillity to specify and work with it's constraints system. Take the capital letter 'T' for example. Before I shear it, the vertical stem might be 1.0 in width, but after shearing, the width of that stem becomes narrower. In FreeCAD, using the constraints system, I could constrain the width of the stem before I shear, ensuring the width of the stem keeps it's width. But without being able to shear, it's pointless me even working in FreeCAD because shear is something used a lot in CAD, I use it myself a heck of a lot.

It's hard to believe a CAD program exists without the ability to shear, I've never known it before, but apparently FreeCAD is such a program, so I can't use it. I have no room to complain, I realise that, but nevertheless I hope they add the ability to shear sketches in the future, because lack of shearing is quite a serious limitation for a CAD program.

I'll just have to check back now and then and hope they add shearing.
Thanks again.
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NormandC
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by NormandC »

FC-1 wrote: But without being able to shear, it's pointless me even working in FreeCAD because shear is something used a lot in CAD, I use it myself a heck of a lot.
I've been working with CAD for almost 20 years and I've never heard of a shearing function in any of the CAD software I've used. In fact I have no clue what you mean by shearing.

So please do not assume that because you desperately need it everybody does.
FC-1
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by FC-1 »

NormandC wrote:I've been working with CAD for almost 20 years and I've never heard of a shearing function in any of the CAD software I've used. In fact I have no clue what you mean by shearing.
I find it positively absurd that you can work with CAD for 20 years and not know what shearing is :shock:
NormandC wrote:So please do not assume that because you desperately need it everybody does.
Please do not assume that all designers are as unaware of vital CAD functions as you have just proven yourself to be. The function is not there, therefore I can't use the program, therefore the only option I have is "to check back now and then and hope they add shearing".

Which is exactly what I said :roll:

My post was written in plain English and was easy to comprehend, but your completely pointless rant has added nothing useful to the discussion. Please refrain from doing this in the future.
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DeepSOIC
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by DeepSOIC »

shear-a-sketch.png
shear-a-sketch.png (26.82 KiB) Viewed 2820 times
shear-a-sketch.FCStd
(4.34 KiB) Downloaded 42 times
Now the question is - who's going to bother writing a feature :P
ickby
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by ickby »

Most likely there is a missunderstanding here. I'm also not aware of any mechanical CAD that provides shear tools, for example solid works (one of the most used ones out there) provides stretch and scale, but not shear: http://help.solidworks.com/2015/English ... ls_top.htm

FC-1 could you explain your background? I suppose you come from the artistic or 2d side of CAD tools? I could imagine a shear ool to be usefull there.
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Re: How do we Shear a Sketch in FreeCAD?

Post by FC-1 »

Cool stuff, DeepSOIC!
And doesn't that green-coloured username suggest that you should write it? :mrgreen:
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