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I'd mainly be interested in adding some basic functions I've found lacking in comparison to Catia. The reason I ask is I'm interested in contributing to FreeCAD. So, reformatting my question a bit, is there a reason Sketcher and Draft aren't based on one another? Like would it be to FreeCAD's benefit if Sketcher was based on Draft (or vice-versa) or would that mess up other features?
#FREECAD DRAFT PLUS#
Sketcher just needs to let you make/analyze constraints as well, so in my mind Sketcher should just be Draft plus some extra features. I mean ultimately both workbenches do the same thing, they let you make 2D geometry. It seems odd to me that in FreeCAD the two workbenches would be completely different libraries (apparently written in different languages too), instead of using the same library applied in two different ways. That is I could constrain sketches drawn on 2D drawings just like the sketches I'd base by 3D geometry on and any feature available in Draft was also available in Sketcher. When I used Catia and Solidworks at my work (I'm a mechanical engineer) I noticed that the feature set between Sketcher and Drafting work benches were identical. So basically the draft workbench is for making AutoCAD style 2D but can't be constrained, which is what we'd want for anything we extrude into 3D shapes.īasically I was curious about why Draft has so many more features than Sketcher. Oh I see, I was thinking that the Draft workbenches Dimension command and the green constraint buttons were equivalent to buttons on the Sketch workbench that actually create constraints. If you want to make a 3D model use Part Design (which currently means Sketcher too), and Part workbenches. The Draft workbench is generally used to create items in 2D, but many of the Draft workbench tools (Clone, Shape2DView, Upgrade, Downgrade, and others) are handy to use on things created in other workbenches. When we close Sketcher the Constraints disappear until we Edit the Sketch again. In Sketcher, the things that look like dimensions are actually Constraints used to define the parameters of each Sketch, and Constraints are only visible when we Edit the Sketch. Sketches are used to create solids by: Padding them into solids Pocketing them to remove portions of previous solids, Sweeping to create a solid along a path, Lofting to create a solid that transitions in shape from one Sketch to another and also for other operations. But these individual models can be copied, arrayed, etc as can Features of that model (Pads, Pockets, etc). Sketcher is used now as a portion of the Part Design workbench, meaning it is most appropriately used in the process of creating a 3D model of one item. It would be helpful to know what you're trying to accomplish before providing an answer because it may seem confusing to you without us knowing that info beforehand. Greetings rm446, welcome to FreeCAD and to the Forum!