FreeCAD for Beginners #3 Offset Sketches and Datum Planes

not the last anymore 👍(edition)

When I sketch something and make sure it's fully constraint and I close the sketch, it does not appear. I just see a blank screen. Is there something I might be doing wrong? I mean other than toggling visibility on and off, because I tried that already.

I was looking for a method of how to draft an offset plane in freecad like in fusion 360 and found your tutorial. Thank you!! Freecad currently is all programmer thinking mode that a lot of method was burried inside the parameters, but I understand, it couldn't be better for a free open source software.

I also like the pace although I am not a beginner. My problem is, I need to work with sketches that are not orthogonal, and I am struggling to get that to work. I tried rotating the sketches, and I also tried creating planes and rotating them but the sketches keep jumping to a new position when I click OK. Also, when working in one plane, I need to refer to a point on a sketch in another plane so I can join the lines up, but I dont know how to refer to those other points because they use a different coordinates. Can you help please?

I would add I have tried on 0.19.1, 0.19.3 and I get the same thing

I am using freeCAD 0.20.2 I have tried to add the box to the drawing. when I go to sketch the plains
are there but the X-Z plain is not on my fish and I click it all I see is the X-Z plain not the bottom of the fish. I cannot figure out how to get the X-z plain to show on the fish. I have tried this several times redrawing and starting over. HELP please Richard H Wiggins

I enjoy you videos, they are great for learning Free Cad. A question: During you parametric table video, you mention that you would probably model the legs as a separate part and then assemble. How would you do that but use the same spreadsheet with all of the dimensions for the legs and the table top? Do you have a video that demonstrates that?
Thanks

Might be worth mentioning that the sketcher menu icoms can be placed down the RH side of the screen. This holds the full list & makes them easy to find amonst all the icons

Just as great as a reminder about offset sketches and datum planes, thanks again Ian!

I've been following this series to the letter, with one window on the video, while I perform the operations in my FreeCad 0.20 version, in another window. If I don't get the same result, I back up. I've redone the "fish" at least 6 times already. But now I have an issue that I can't seem to fix. In the 3rd episode, where you add the rectangle in the XZ plane, you select the Pad (in Model view), then add a sketch. YOURS puts Sketch 001 directly inside the Pad "path", under the previous sketch. Mine, ALWAYS puts it under the Part path. I'm doing something wrong in between but I don't know what. I have screen prints to show what my model view looks like. Any ideas? After having Freecad for about 3 years, I decided to actually figure out how to use it. I come from a Visio 2D environment.

I'm a beginner in FreeCAD so bare with me. Since you offset the datum plane it is not fully parametric anymore (every time you edit the original sketch you have adjust the offset of the datum plane as well). If you edit the original sketch to move the bottom of the fish down the datum plane will stay there so the new feature won't be attached to the lower side of the fish. It will be on its side. So my question would be how do you attach the datum plane to the bottom of the fish so when you edit the original sketch it will move the datum plane as well?

Very helpful video. Thanks.

I like the "Start" workbench when FC first loads. But, I also like to begin work with the "Part Design" workbench. For the best of both worlds, try this: In Preferences, switch "Auto load module after start up" back to "Start." Load the "Start" 'bench. Then, click the little gear in the upper right of the "Start" screen. Near the bottom, you will see "Switch workbench after loading." I chose "Part Design."

when I completed the shape on video 2 at the end you told me to put a 10mm pad onto the shape which I did. but now I can't get to the sketch design showing the dimension since the shape is solid grey

Nice video. I have one question: Is it possible to draw lines that snap into the previous sketches structures? Instead of just setting that distance by typing numbers.

Thanks a lot for this video! This helped me solve a problem I was having where even though I was selecting the face I wanted and pressing sketch, it was not actually setting the sketch on that face. Using a datum plane combined with offsetting that datum plane helped me sketch on that face. Thanks so much!

Very good tutorials and I am learning progressively. How do I place the list window on the left mine is above the sketch. Thank you.

I enjoy the pace of your videos. I watched several series on FreeCAD and yours is about the right pace for me. On other videos I end up rewinding a lot to fully catch what they clicked on. Appreciate the effort you put into this. I'm a retired Navy Veteran and a retired Software Engineer and always wanted to get into CAD. I've learned how to 3D print, but want to be able to create my own models for Flight Sim hobby. Keep up the great work!

Really helpful. Thanks.

Must Use Boolean feature to combine the two Pads. Simply moving one object to be imbedded into another object is poor form.

Your Problem: Inserting one object into another and leaving them that way creates a problem with 3D printing parts needing strength through integral integrity. When you join two objects by just inserting them into each other - as the two or more objects print - they are printed as separate objects. They print as discrete separate entities close together. There is poor strength this way. Watch a part print. You can see the co-joined have distinct outlines. The print will not be a single object. This shows a poorly designed CAD entity.

OK for trinkets, few toys, art - junk. Not Quality. [Disclaimer: Been there. Done that. Learned from experience.]

I've found difficulties when trying to apply this to a sketch often finding that it's better to do this using the body that owns the sketch instead.

Is there anything wrong with doing it that way rather than on the sketch itself?

Very nice. Finally somebody that understands how to teach to a beginner rather than just demonstrate basic functions.

Could the hole in the second body be put in at an angle and be pocketed through both bodies.

Hello Thank you for your great work doing this tutorial I appreciate a lot your videos. I have a question: could you or somebody tell me why could be the reason that I'm getting more constrains to solve for example when I'm doing the first sketch circle in the Datum Plane I have to solve 3 instead of 2 as shown in your video.

This has really been helpful, but I'm stuck on one thing... After creating the sketch on the datum plane you add the circle and constrain it without specifying anything that locks the circle in the horizontal axis. When I walked through this video my circle was not fully constrained but I couldn't fix the horizontal motion of the circle. How did you do that?

those tutorials are soo helpful idk what im gonna do

Hey, Thanks for making this video series. I have a problem and new. When I go from a sketch (constrained and saved) and use Revolution or Pad everything disapears. This doesn't happen most of the time. I'm hoping, I'm just doing it wrong and there is a simple fix. I have only tried those so far. Undoing the Revolution doesn't make it come back. I can't delete it and start over. It's just gone. The sketch is still there but it super small.

I have a question, and dont know if this is the right place to ask? In Catia I never used scketches to make solids. I made my solids with a point in space, then line or lines referenced from that point to then make a surface. Then used the surface to make a solid which I could then use for booleans. Is this possible in FreeCAD?

You might answer this in a future video because I just started going through the playlist but if you set that one sketch to be 39.99 mm placement, won’t that detach the piece from the main body of the fish? Don’t we need all the parts to be a solid body if we are going to mill this from a piece of metal?

I understand why one might or might not use Datum Planes. The questions are:
- Why would I want to resize the datum plane?
- Since the Sketch can be any size, is the size of the Datum Plane a visual reference?
- If not a visual reference, how would a sized Datum Plane impact the tool or other Sketches?

Thanks again for the clarity of your presentation and the follow up support for questions.

A fantastic set of videos.

Man, if I could leave more than 1 like I would, this helped me heaps.

Thanks.

When I go to select a point. The points are so small I select the line? How do I enlarge the point size, zooming in does not help. Thanks

Thanks for this series I'm upgrading from sketchup for the better meshes for 3D printing. Still a learning curve but not as vicious as blender.

The attachment offset adjustments makes no sense at all to me. Your first example adjustment shows you changing the Z value, but the sketch is actually moving along the Y axis (as made evident by the axis 'gadget' in the bottom right of the screen...it would have helped to have the axial planes displayed on screen, too, as it would have made it clearer what's going on).

Can someone please explain this weirdness to me...it's been driving me nuts for days whilst trying to learn this stuff.

I'm appreciating a more linear approach. When you are teaching basics I get confused losing continuity when the one teaching tries include other approaches an features. THANKS A TON (metric of course)

I've tried all of the pointer styles, but they all appear pretty much identical. I like the style you're using, but can't find it. I currently just have it set to CAD. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

Hi, I am getting stuck when you change the axis on the datum plane. I get a box coming up with ( you selected geometries which are not part of this active body. Please define how to handle those selections. If you do not want those references, cancel the command) thats as far as I can go. Any help would be much appreciated and keep up the good work..Thank you.

Thanks very helpfull 👍🏼

Excellent lessons! Thank you very much!
Greetings from Mexico.

I have been using FreeCAD almost as I would pencil and paper but am seeing that I need to change my way of thinking about the object I am drawing. You are showing me the way. Now I just need to get some practice in.

Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge :-)

why did you modify the sketch's attachment value to manually offset it inatead of sketching directly onto the wanted face?

creating a cube whose geometry intersects another body's is bad practice, you should have booleanned the two pads or done something different

how can I use a datum plane to create two parts? Like a base geometry which kicks off 2 related flat parts (with holes) which can be used for the path workbench?

Hi There, when I select the first plane(XZ) my existing part disappears, any ideas on whats going on?