TechDraw DraftView

ActiveView

ArchView

TechDraw

Description

The TechDraw DraftView tool inserts a view of a selected Part-based or Group object into a drawing page. Unlike the standard View tool, views created with this tool are handled by the Draft Workbench, and specially designed for showing 2D objects. See Notes.

Draft elements like circles and arrays imported into a TechDraw drawing page

Usage

1. Optionally rotate the 3D view. The camera direction in the 3D view determines the initial value of the DataDirection property of the View.
2. Select one or more objects in the 3D view or Tree view. A separate view will created for each object.
3. If there are multiple drawing pages in the document: optionally add the desired page to the selection by selecting it in the Tree view.
4. There are several ways to invoke the tool:
   • Press the Insert Draft Workbench Object button.
   • Select the TechDraw → Views From Other Workbenches → Insert Draft Workbench Object option from the menu.
5. If there are multiple drawing pages in the document and you have not yet selected a page, the Page Chooser dialog box opens:
   1. Select the desired page.
   2. Press the OK button.

Options

• Creating a DraftView of a layer will recursively handle all objects found in that layer. The View is updated automatically when the contents of the layer changes
• There is no hidden line removal. Each face found in the handled object(s) will simply be projected along the Direction vector, no specific action is taken when faces overlap
• The Draft View also supports all Draft objects that are not Part-based, such as dimensions and texts
• Color, line width and line pattern can be specified in the properties. Line patterns can be fine-tuned by directly giving a stroke-dasharray value, such as 3,5
• Projected faces are filled with the face color

Notes

The DraftView is rendered within the Draft Workbench, therefore TechDraw has limited control over its appearance. You may need to make changes within Draft to get the representation you want.

Properties

See also: Property editor.

A Draft View, formally a TechDraw::DrawViewDraft object, has the properties that are common to all View types. It also has the following additional properties:

Data

Draft view

• DataSource (Link): The Draft object to be displayed.
• DataLine Width (Float): The width of the lines, independently of the scale.
• DataFont Size (Float): The size of all texts appearing in this view (texts and dimensions).
• DataDirection (Vector): The projection direction to use.
• DataColor (Color): The color of lines.
• DataLine Style (String): A line style to use for this view. Can be Solid, Dashed, Dashdot, Dot or an SVG line pattern like 0.20,0.20.
• DataLine Spacing (Float): The spacing between lines to use for multiline texts.
• DataOverride Style (Bool): If true, line color, width and style of this view will override those of the rendered object.

Drawing view

• Data (Hidden)Symbol (String): The SVG code defining this symbol.
• DataEditable Texts (StringList): Substitution values for the editable strings in this symbol.
• DataOwner (Link): Feature to which this symbol is attached. introduced in version 1.0

Scripting

See also: Autogenerated API documentation and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The New Draft tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following functions:

dv = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.addObject('TechDraw::DrawViewDraft','TestDraft')
dv.Source = myDraftbject
rc = page.addView(dv)

ActiveView

ArchView

TechDraw

TechDraw

• Pages: Insert Default Page, Insert Page using Template, Update template fields, Redraw Page, Print All Pages, Export Page as SVG, Export Page as DXF
• Views:
  • TechDraw views: Insert View, Insert Broken View, Insert Section View, Insert Complex Section View, Insert Detail View, Insert Projection Group, Insert Clip Group, Insert SVG Symbol, Insert Bitmap Image, Share View, Turn View Frames On/Off, Project Shape
  • Views from other workbenches: Insert Active View, Insert Draft Workbench Object, Insert BIM Workbench Object, Insert Spreadsheet View
• Stacking: Move view to top of stack, Move view to bottom of stack, Move view up one level, Move view down one level

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• Dimensions: Insert Dimension, Insert Length Dimension, Insert Horizontal Dimension, Insert Vertical Dimension, Insert Radius Dimension, Insert Diameter Dimension, Insert Angle Dimension, Insert 3-Point Angle Dimension, Insert Area Annotation, Create Arc Length Dimension, Insert Horizontal Extent Dimension, Insert Vertical Extent Dimension, Create Horizontal Chain Dimensions, Create Vertical Chain Dimensions, Create Oblique Chain Dimensions, Create Horizontal Coordinate Dimensions, Create Vertical Coordinate Dimensions, Create Oblique Coordinate Dimensions, Create Horizontal Chamfer Dimension, Create Vertical Chamfer Dimension, Insert Balloon Annotation, Insert Axonometric Length Dimension, Insert Landmark Dimension, Dimension Repair, Link Dimension to 3D Geometry

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• Hatching: Hatch Face using Image File, Apply Geometric Hatch to Face,
• Annotations: Insert Annotation, Add Leaderline to View, Insert Rich Text Annotation, Add Cosmetic Vertex, Add Midpoint Vertices, Add Quadrant Vertices, Add Centerline to Faces, Add Centerline between 2 Lines, Add Centerline between 2 Points, Add Cosmetic Line Through 2 points, Add Cosmetic Circle, Change Appearance of Lines, Show/Hide Invisible Edges, Add Welding Information to Leader, Add Surface Finish Symbol, Add Hole or Shaft Tolerances

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• Extensions:
  • Attributes and modifications: Select Line Attributes, Cascade Spacing and Delta Distance, Change Line Attributes, Extend Line, Shorten Line, Lock/Unlock View, Position Section View, Position Horizontal Chain Dimensions, Position Vertical Chain Dimensions, Position Oblique Chain Dimensions, Cascade Horizontal Dimensions, Cascade Vertical Dimensions, Cascade Oblique Dimensions, Calculate the area of selected faces, Calculate the arc length of selected edges, Customize format label
  • Centerlines and threading: Add Circle Centerlines, Add Bolt Circle Centerlines, Add Cosmetic Thread Hole Side View, Add Cosmetic Thread Hole Bottom View, Add Cosmetic Thread Bolt Side View, Add Cosmetic Thread Bolt Bottom View, Add Cosmetic Intersection Vertex(es), Add an offset vertex, Add Cosmetic Circle, Add Cosmetic Arc, Add Cosmetic Circle 3 Points, Add Cosmetic Parallel Line, Add Cosmetic Perpendicular Line
  • Dimensions: Insert '⌀' Prefix, Insert '□' Prefix, Insert 'n×' Prefix, Remove Prefix, Increase Decimal Places, Decrease Decimal Places

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• Miscellaneous: Remove Cosmetic Object

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• Additional: Line Groups, Templates, Hatching, Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, Preferences

User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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• Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
• Workbenches: Std Base, Assembly, BIM, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Material, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Points, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework

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• Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

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• Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub