Tutorial free CAD desen baza

This tutorial aims to teach FreeCAD beginners a few basic features through an example. After covering the basics in the User hub, you will be able to
model a first part step by step.
We will cover in this tutorial in particular:

 Using Part Design workbench, tracing the sketch.

 Using Pad and Pocket features.

 Changing color and transparency.

 Moving the part manually.

 Displaying reference dimensions in the sketch.

 Editing one or more dimensions.

 Using external geometry feature and using a reference plane to centre a hole.

Using Part Design workbench, tracing the sketch

Create a new document and switch to the Part Design workbench using either the workbench selector (labelled 6 in the linked image) or by
going to the View → Workbench menu. FreeCAD will start with toolbars at the top, the combo view to the left and the 3D view at the right.
Create body:

Press Create body. Note: do not confuse the Body, which icon is blue, with the Part container which icon is yellow. In the Model tab under the
Combo View sidebar, a new object labelled "Body" appears under the document label, which is currently "Unnamed" since we haven't saved our
document yet. The Body is a container in which Part Design features are sequentially arranged to form a single solid. It contains its own reference
axes and planes. It will be highlighted in light blue in the Model tree, which means that it is active, that is to say that we can edit the elements it
contains as well as add new elements to it. If it's not highlighted, double-click it or right-click and select Toggle active body in the contextual menu. In
front of the Body label, there is a blue icon identical to the one above, and an arrow or a plus sign, depending on your operating system. Clicking on
the arrow or plus sign in front of Body expands its content. At this point, it only contains an element labelled Origin. In front of this Origin is also an
arrow or plus sign. Click on it to expand its content. It reveals the aforementioned reference axes and planes as shown in the image below:

The newly created active Body with its content expanded.

The Origin is greyed out, which indicates that its content is not visible in the 3D view. You can make Origin's content visible in the 3D view by
selecting Origin and pressing the spacebar on your keyboard. Origin will now show black in the tree. Press the spacebar again to hide its content in
the 3D view. Click again on the arrow or plus sign in front of Origin to collapse its content in the Model tree.
Before we continue, let's take the opportunity to rename the Body.
Rename body:
In the Model tree, click on the Body with the right mouse button. Select Rename and type a name, for example "Body part1" and press Enter to
validate.
Create sketch:
We will now trace the sketch which defines the general shape of the part. A sketch is a diagram describing a profile to be applied to a feature in order
to produce a shape. It can be either "positive" or "additive", like a pad for example; or "negative" or "subtractive", like a pocket.
Here, since the part's general shape is regular along the Y axis, we will create the Pad along this axis.

Press New sketch. The Combo View now switches to the Tasks tab and displays the Select feature dialog. This dialog expects the selection of a
plane to which to attach our sketch, and lists the available planes. Select XZ_Plane (Base plane) and press OK. The interface now changes, the
Sketcher now takes over and its toolbars appear above the 3D view. We find ourselves on the XZ plane of the body to trace the sketch.
To aid with sketching, set the following options in "Edit controls" in the Tasks panel to the left:

 Show grid: checked

 Grid size: 10 mm

 Auto constraints: checked

We will trace the following sketch:

Let's start with the first segments:

Select the Line tool. Click on the origin point, first making sure that a small red dot appears besides and to the right of the mouse pointer. Click
next on the X axis about 10 squares to the right or at about 100 mm. If the segment is not exactly 100 mm at this point, it does not matter, we will later
give it a fixed dimension that will constrain this length.
Do the same for the other segments, try to aim at the points that you have created which must light up in yellow. Which means that these points will be
coincident. You should get pretty much this:
Note the small red lines above and beside the segments you have drawn: these are horizontal and vertical constraints. Your lines are forced to stay
either horizontal or vertical. Note also the symbol in the form of a small arc on the left: it means that the point is fixed to the Z axis.
Now pick different line segments with the left mouse button and while keeping the left button pressed, drag the mouse to try to move them: some are
free, others not.
Applying constraints:
At the top of the combo box, in the Tasks panel, you can read the number of degrees of freedom of the already sketched elements: it must be about 6,
the objective of the constraints is to reduce the number of degrees of freedom to 0.
The slanted line should be free to rotate at this time: we will give it an angle constraint to fix it.

Click on the slanted line, then the bottom line; once selected these lines will turn dark green; then click the Constrain internal angle icon.

Enter a value of 30°. Both lines have a fixed angle now. The constraint was created to the left of the sketch; with the mouse, move it inside the profile.

We will now constrain the bottom line with a dimension: select it then click on Constrain horizontal distance.
Enter a value of 100 mm. The vertical line on the right now aligns exactly with the grid's 10th square to the right of the origin.

Let's set the overall height to the profile by selecting the highest point on the left then the origin point. Click on constrain vertical distance, enter a
value of 50 mm.
Do the same for the horizontal length of the sloped line with another 50 mm vertical distance constraint.
Move the dimensions away from the profile for better visibility. You should now have something like this:
Notice that the number of degrees of freedom reduced to 2. These are the ends still open.
Tracing the arc

Click on Arc, position the center at approximately x = 80 y = 30; then click to define the first starting point of the arc on the upper horizontal line's
right end point; then click to define the end of the arc to the right vertical line's upper end point (make sure the points are highlighted in yellow before
clicking).

Give the radius a radius constraint: select the arc, then click on Constrain radius then enter a value of 20 mm.

Now let's make the arc tangent to the lines it's connected to: select the arc, then the top line, then click on Constrain tangent. A Constraint
substitution message appears, click OK. Do the same for the tangent constraint on the other side of the arc.
We proceeded in two stages to create the sketch, but we could also have traced the profile completely before constraining it fully.

Fully constrained sketch:

If you worked well, you should get this:
The sketch has become green, which means that it is fully constrained. There is no longer any ambiguity, everything is perfectly defined. This is
confirmed by the solver message at the top left. Also note that the center of the arc has moved slightly, indeed giving these last three constraints,
FreeCAD has calculated the true position of the center.
If your sketch is not yet green, one or more points are not coincident (2 points can be superimposed yet not be coincident). Make a small window

(capture window) around a point to select, and create a Coincident constraint. Note: don't mistake the Coincident constraint for the Sketcher
Point; while their icons are very similar, the latter has a larger icon; it adds a lone point in the sketch.
Proceed in the same way with all the points.

If your sketch is still not green, verify that all lines (but the slanted one) have either a Horizontal or Vertical constraint, and add if necessary.

Using Pad and Pocket features

Click on Close in the Tasks tab, at the top left corner. We automatically exit the Sketcher workbench, and the Part Design workbench is activated
again. The Combo View switches back to the Model tab. If you left your Body part1 expanded, you will see a new Sketch element below Origin, and
nested under the Body.
At this point, let's save our document. Give it a name (for example "tutorial1", or any name that you find relevant). It is good practice to save your
document often, for example after completing a sketch or a feature.

Click on Axonometric view then Fit all, which gives a centered 3D isometric view.

Click on Pad, enter a length of 30 mm; check the Reversed box to reverse the direction of the Pad. Click OK, the shape is completed. In the
Model tree, a Padobject (that we call feature) appears instead of the Sketch. In fact, it has claimed Sketch, since it is based on it; clicking on the arrow
or plus sign in front of Pad to expand it will reveal the Sketch underneath, which was automatically made hidden (its label is grayed out).
Note that the shape created forms a solid.

Creating the hole

Click on the top (square) side of the part and click the icon to create a new sketch. FreeCAD creates a new sketch attached to this face. So we
are on a plane parallel to the absolute plane XY, but offset in height from the height of the piece, i.e. 50 mm.

You can switch the 3D window to an axonometric view or stay in top view . At any time, you can return to Sketch view (the view is oriented to

face the sketch plane) using the Sketcher ViewSketch icon.

Note that the origin of this new sketch is that of the body. They may be different, but here are confounded with the absolute origin.

With the Circle tool, click roughly in the center of the face and make a circle of any radius.

Select the circle then create a Radius constraint, enter a value of 5 mm.

Select the center of the circle then create a Lock constraint; double-click on the horizontal dimension and enter -65 mm (here we indicate a
position relative to the origin of the sketch). Do the same for the vertical dimension (-15 mm). The circle takes its correct position and the sketch
becomes green, indicating it is fully constrained:
Close the sketch; in the Model tree, a new Sketch001 object has appeared below Pad. While Sketch001 is still selected, click on Pocket.
Pocket is a feature called "subtractive", it removes material from our part, here in the form of a cylinder since the sketch is a circle. Set "Through all" to
completely cut the part. Press OK to complete. In the Model tree, a new element labelled Pocket appears at the bottom of the Body part1, and claims
Sketch001.

Changing color and transparency

It is possible to change the color of the part, it is often useful to distinguish a part among others. The transparency of the piece can also be modified,
which is useful for visualizing its internals.
Select the Body part1 body and go to the lower part of the Combo View, click on the View tab; locate the Shape Color property; you may need to use
the vertical scroll bar to the right to find it. You can also widen the Property column: hover your mouse pointer over the separating line between
the Property and Value headers; when the pointer turns into a double-sided arrow, press and hold your left mouse button and drag sideways, then
release. In the right column, click on the gray square, which opens the Select Color dialog. Pick another color then click OK. Next, again in the View
tab, change the value of Transparency, for example to 50 and press Enter to complete (0 = totally opaque, 100 = totally transparent).
The hole is now visible inside the part. This is often useful for seeing the hidden or internal faces of the model.
You can also vary "Line Color" and "Line Width" to change the line thickness and the color of the part outline.

Manually move the part

Go to the View menu and select Toggle axis cross. These are the absolute axes. You should see in the 3D view, the 3 axes X, Y, Z in red, green and
blue. This landmark will help us to orient ourselves in space. This landmark is fixed and immutable, it is either the view that rotates or the object that
rotates in this space.
Select the Body; at the bottom of the Combo View on the left, you can see this (the Data tab needs to be on the foreground, you may need to click on
the Data tab to make it visible):

Click on the three small dots (if they don't appear, click on the Placement field), this opens a new dialog in the Tasks panel. Using the arrows you can
vary the position and angles of the part. It is actually the position of the body (so its origin) that moves in space, the orientation of the 3D view does not
change.
Another method: in the Combo View, select the Body and click on the right button of the mouse, then select Transform. A view like this appears:
Hold and drag the cones along the axes or the spheres to move the body in all directions.
Validate. Then reset angles and coordinates to 0.

Displaying reference dimensions in the sketch

It may be useful to know the dimensions of some parts of the sketch, from the internal calculation of FreeCAD. It can be used just for reference, or use
them later to set other dimensions for example.
In the Model tree, if necessary expand Body part1 then Pad to show the first Sketch. Double-click on it (or right-click and select Edit sketch in the

contextual menu) then click on Toggle Constraint. (Note: depending on your computer display resolution, this icon may not be visible. At the right
end of the Constraints toolbar, you may find a » button. Click on it to expand and access collapsed icons.) From now on, we can create reference
dimensions rather than dimensional constraints: they will be blue and will have no influence on the shapes of the sketch from which they come, they
are calculated automatically.
You can display these dimensions for example:
We can see for example that the arc has a length of 20 since it's tangent with the edges.
We can also see that FreeCAD calculates the left face (50-50xTAN 30 °), as well as the distance dimension of the axis of the arc with the origin.

Editing one or more dimensions

During modeling, you can vary the dimensions of the model. It's very simple: for the thickness of the piece, double-click Pad, then enter a new value,
40mm for example. In the lower part of the combo view, you can change this value as well. Validate, the shape of the object has changed.
Do the same for the total length of the piece: double-click on Sketch, then double-click on the 100 mm dimensional constraint, change it to 110 mm
then validate.
We can see that the piece was enlarged, but the hole is no longer centered in the middle of the top face. That's because it has been constrained to the
sketch origin. Which does not necessarily correspond to what one would like, the hole should remain in the center, whatever the size of the face.

Center the hole

First method using external geometry.
Edit again the sketch of the hole and erase its horizontal and vertical distance constraints.

Then click on External Geometry.

We will now create two lines in the sketch, but extracted from a shape (or feature) external to this one and previously defined: that of the Pad.
Click on a vertical edge at the top of the part. For example, the edge slope side.
A new magenta line will appear above the edge. Repeat for the other edge, on the rounded side.
We can now use these lines (and especially their end points) to centre the circle, however we must add two construction lines: for example the
diagonals.

Click on Construction Mode, we switch to construction mode: the lines will be blue and will be discarded outside of the sketch editing mode.
They will allow to fix the center of the circle. Create the diagonals in the same way that you drew the first lines. Make sure all points are coincident.

Then select the center of the circle, then the two blue diagonal lines and click on Point on object, the circle must be centred at the intersection of
the diagonals, that is at the center of the face. The sketch must be green, completely constrained (it is essential). Note that besides the radius of the
circle, it is no longer necessary to create dimensional constraints.
Leave the sketch, we see that the circle is well centred. (The pocket feature was not deleted, but modified). If you change the dimensions of the part
again, the thickness or the length, the circle will remain centered on the face.
Avoid construction lines:

It is often possible to avoid creating construction lines. You can edit the sketch again, erase the construction lines and use a Symmetric
constraint between the two opposite vertices of the external geometry lines and the centre of the circle (select points in this order):
We get exactly the same result for the position of the hole. In fact, thanks to the constraints available in the Sketcher workbench, there are many
possible methods. This example shows that it is often better to choose the simplest method, thus limiting the number of objects created as well as the
errors that might result.
Second method using a datum plane.
Here is another, faster method that is possible since version 0.17: the use of a datum plane and its attachment.

Start by erasing the "Pocket" function as well as the sketch of the hole. Select the top face and click Datum point: create a datum point in the
active body. The attachment mode chosen must be "Center of mass".
As the face is rectangular, its center of mass corresponds to the center of its diagonals. Validate, and a datum point is created.

Select the top face again and while holding down the CTRL key, select the point you just created in the Model tree, release CTRL and click
Datum plane. A reference plane is created with the origin of the point. Click OK.

It is now very easy to center the circle! Select from the Model tree or in the 3D view the plane you created, and click on Create a sketch, a
sketch is created with as origin, the origin of the plane. Then just trace the 5 mm radius circle on this origin, then validate (the sketch must be green
imperatively).
You get with "Pocket", as created previously, the hole and it will always be centered.
This tutorial is completed, save this file, you can have fun exploring various features. Change other dimensions, make other shapes, put other holes
on other faces, it is when making mistakes that we progress!
You can also continue with this other tutorial of a slightly more complicated part:
Basic Part Design Tutorial 017

2.

This tutorial introduces the new user to some of the tools and techniques used in the Part Design Workbench. This tutorial is not a complete and
comprehensive guide to the Part Design Workbench and many of the tools and capabilities are not covered. This tutorial will take user through the
steps needed to model the part shown in the image below using sketches.
This tutorial is based on Basic Part Design Tutorial by Quick61 with updates for v0.17.
A video of the whole construction is here: https://youtu.be/geIrH1cOCzc
( each section has its own split Video below )

Before You Begin

The Task
In this tutorial, you will be using the Part Design Workbench to create a 3D solid model of the part shown in the Drawing below. All of the necessary
dimensions to complete this task are given. You will start by creating a core shape from a base Sketch and then build on that shape, adding what is
known as Features. These features will either add material to, or remove material from the solid by use of additional sketches and accompanying
feature operations. This Tutorial will not use every feature and tool available within the Part Design Workbench, but should use enough to give the
user of this tutorial a basic foundation upon which to build their knowledge and skills.

The Part

Constructing The Part

Startup
First begin by making sure you are in the Part Design Workbench. Once there, you will want to create a new document if you have not done so
already. It is a good habit to save your work often, so before anything else save the new document, giving it any name you might like.
All work in Part Design begins with a Body. Then we will build the solid inside the body by starting with a sketch.

1. Click on Create new body to create and activate a new Body Container. Note: this step can be omitted. When creating a sketch, if no
existing Body is found, a new one will be automatically created and activated.

2. Click on Create new sketch. This will create the sketch within the just created body.

3. We need to define where the sketch will be attached. We will attach it to a plane from the Body´s Origin.

4. In the Tasks tab from the Combo view, select YZ_Plane in the list and press OK:

Note: it's possible that the OK button may not be visible if the side panel is not wide enough. You can make it wider by dragging its right border. Place
your mouse pointer over the border; when the pointer changes to a two-way arrow, press and hold the left mouse button and drag.
Once you click OK, FreeCAD automatically switches to the Sketcher workbench and opens the sketch in editing mode:

Create the sketch

Next you will want to use the Polyline tool and make a shape roughly like that in the next image. It does not need to be perfect as the final shape
is done with constraints. Once you have the basic shape, we will start applying the constraints. If you had Auto constraints on, some of these
constraints will have been applied automatically, if not, do the following.

1. Select the two horizontal lines with your mouse by clicking on them, and once selected, click on the horizontal constraint.

2. Select the vertical line on the right and then click on the vertical constraint.
 3. Select the start and end points of your polyline and click on the coincident constraint to close the polyline.

4. Select the bottom horizontal line and the right vertical line and apply and equal constraint.

5. Select either the horizontal or vertical line and apply either a corresponding horizontal or vertical distance constraint and give it a
value of 26 mm.

6. Select the top horizontal line and apply the horizontal distance constraint and give it a value of 5 mm

7. Select the lower right point, (vertice) of the horizontal line Origin and then the center point of the grid and apply the coincidence
constraint to fix your shape.

At this point you should have a fully constrained sketch as indicated by it changing color and the message shown in the Combo View. It should now
look just like the image below.

Now in the Combo View, click on the Close button to leave the sketch edit mode and select Pad from the toolbar or from the Part Design menu.
This will give you a Pad dialog in the Combo View. Using that dialog, first using the Type pulldown menu, select Two dimensions. Drawing presented
at the beginning of this tutorial says the part is 53 mm long. We do it by Padding our sketch both ways from the center plane to make up that distance
i.e. make the pad symmetric in relation of sketch-plane. The reason for is seen later when creating features. For now, given we want it to be 53 mm
long in total we will input 26.5 for Length, and 26.5 again for the Second length. Alternatively, you can provide a single length of 53 mm and click the
Symmetric to plane check box. Once that is done we now have our base solid upon which we will add additional features to construct our part.
A video of the steps used in this portion of the tutorial is here: https://youtu.be/cUyPnCMeTgg

Features with pocket and external geometry

Using the mouse or the view icons turn the model around so you can see its back. Once the back of the part is visible, select the back face by clicking
on it as seen in the next image.
After the face is selected, click on the New sketch icon in the toolbar or from the Part Design menu and that will map our next sketch to the back face

of the part. Now select rectangle tool and place a rectangle on the rear face of the part in a similar fashion as shown below. Now following the
steps listed, constrain the sketch.

1. Select one of the horizontal lines apply a horizontal distance constraint and a value of 5 mm.
2. Select one of the vertical lines and give it a vertical distance constraint and a value of 11 mm.

3. Select External geometry tool

4. Select the upper right vertex of the face and click it so you are provided a point from the external geometry to link our sketch to.

5. Right click to end the External geometry mode

6. Select that point you just made available with the External geometry tool and then select the upper right vertex of the rectangle and click on
the coincident constraint. At this point the sketch should be fully constrained and look like the next image.
Once that is done, click the Close button at the top of the Tasks tab in the Combo View window, then select Pocket tool from the toolbar or Part
Design menu. Using this tool is the opposite of the Pad tool. As the Pad tool adds material to the part, the Pocket tool removes material from the part.
Both operations are called features. In this Pocket operation we want to select Through all from the type pulldown-menu and then click the OK button.

For the next operation, make sure that “Pocket” is selected in the Model tree view and once done, click on the Mirror feature on the toolbar or
from the Part Design menu. In the Mirror dialog in the Combo View, select Horizontal sketch axis from the Plane pulldown menu. Then click OK. The
Mirror feature works in this way because the base feature of our model was Padded both ways from the horizontal plane in the first operation with the
base sketch. If all has gone well, you should now have a part that looks like the image below after you orbit it around to the front.

A video of the steps used in this portion of the tutorial is here: https://youtu.be/wiGXV9G7mrM

Features with pad and external geometry

After taking a look, orbit back around and once again select the back face of the part and select that face to map the next sketch to.
Select New sketch and make a new rectangle in the manner similar to what is shown below in the next image. Then proceed to add dimensional
constraints to the rectangle.

1. Select a horizontal line and apply a horizontal distance constraint with a value of 16.7.
2. Select a vertical line and apply a vertical distance constraint of 7 mm

3. Using the External geometry tool, select the upper left vertex of the part face.

Now selecting the upper left vertex of the rectangle and the external geometry point, click on the coincident constraint to fully constrain the sketch.
Next we will click on the Pad feature and in the Pad dialog in the Combo View we want a length of 26 mm leaving the type as Dimension and then
placing a check on the Reversed checkbox. Using the Reversed checkbox will cause the Pad to go into the part instead of away from the part. This
operation provides with the following result.

Once again use the Mirror feature to get the second pad. First ensure that created Pad is selected in the tree view, then click on Mirror in the toolbar of
select it from the Part Design menu. We will repeat the operation we did for Pocket above and select Horizontal sketch axis from the Plane pulldown
menu.
A video of the steps used in this portion of the tutorial is here: https://youtu.be/Ido1owp8ubc

Feature with pocket and external geometry

At this point orbiting the part around to the front, we can see that our part is now starting to look like the part in the dimensioned drawing at the
beginning of this tutorial. Once you have the view of the front, click on the sloped face with your mouse to select the face we will use for the next
sketch.

Here we will use the rectangle tool and place a rectangle in our sketch and once having done so, apply the following constraints.

1. Select a horizontal line and a vertical line, and after both are selected, click on the Equals constraint.
2. Select either a horizontal or vertical line and apply a corresponding horizontal or vertical distance constraint with a value of 17 mm

3. Using the External geometry tool, select the top right vertex as shown in the image below.
Now using the dimensions from the drawing, apply the following constraints.

1. Select the external geometry point and the upper right vertex of the now square sketch and apply a horizontal distance constraint of 7 mm
2. Select the external geometry point and the upper right vertex of the now square sketch and apply a vertical distance constraint of 11 mm

The result should be as follows.

At this point if we were to simply Pocket this sketch, the resulting hole would be perpendicular to the sloped face that it is mapped to, and this is not
what we want.
We want the hole to be perpendicular to the back face, but it's projected dimensions are not the 17 mm x 17 mm dimensions that are given in the
drawing. Now we could do the math and calculate the dimensions needed, or we can use the tools provided in FreeCAD to make that projection for
us.
A video of the steps used in this portion of the tutorial is here: https://youtu.be/x4d5nZPWCLQ

To create pocket which has the sloped rectangle as it´s outlet, we draw a new rectangle on the rear side, using the projection of the sloped rectangle
as an external reference. Orbit the Solid around to see the rear face of the part once again and select the back face to map the final sketch to.

Select New Sketch from the toolbar or Part Design menu. Now in sketch edit mode, we do not see the sketched rectangle of the slope. To make
it selectable , we switch the combo view to model tab and select the last sketch made (Sketch003) on the sloped plane. Then using the spacebar,
make it visible. Next, select the mirror feature above (mirrored001) and again using spacebar, hide it. Then you should see the rectangle inside the 3D

View. You may continue to work with the model tab visible, or switch back to tasks tab. Using the External geometry tool, select the upper and
lower horizontal edges of the sloped rectangle.
 1. Select the upper left vertex of the rectangle and the upper left point of the external geometry and click on the coincident constraint.
2. Click on the lower right vertex of the rectangle and the lower right point of the external geometry and click on the coincident constraint.

And we should end up with this.

For the final step in this tutorial, close the sketcher window using close or fish editing from the context menu of sketch004 and then select the
Pocket feature from the toolbar or from the Part Design menu. From the Type pulldown select Through all and click the OK button.

At this point, you will see some lines which come from intersecting features. In this case the side block intersects with the base profile letting it appear
as a triangular block above the profile. To remove these lines, you can either switch on "refine shape" in your Part Design Settings or , to save some
processing speed and still have these lines while constructing, individually switch it on at each feature, which will create such lines. The Setting on
feature level can be done in the "data" tab of the feature. Set the refine property to TRUE to invoke refining.
3.

A daily-life problem
Electric toothbrushes rarely come with a head stand, while in a family you will often see multiple heads used with one body. Many people facing a
common problem lead us to a variety of solutions, as you can see on Thingiverse (200-800 projects are related to that). Here is the first answer and
how to design it.
This tutorial will take you through the steps needed to model the part shown in the image below using basic tools from the Part Design
Workbench (many of the tools and capabilities are not covered).
First idea : a plate

 From the start-page, select Part Design, or create a new document and select the Part Design workbench.

Create a sketch

 Click on New sketch. Either from the contextual task menu at the left, or the toolbar above or from the Part Design menu at the top.

A dialog prompts you to choose the sketch orientation and provide an offset.

 We will pick the XY Plane as shown in the image above (that orientation correspond to the common build plate of most 3D printers), then click
OK.
You now are facing the XY plane from above, and have access to the drawing tools.

 Click on Rectangle.
 Click to place a first point.

 Click to place the opposite corner.

 Press ESC or click the right mouse button to stop using the tool.

You now have a floating rectangle of unspecified dimensions.

 Click on a line of the rectangle, you now have access to the constraint tools at the right of the toolbar (depending of the size of your screen
you may need to drag them to the left in order to see them all)

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 80mm, click OK.

 Repeat with the other side of the rectangle, also 80mm.

You now have a floating square.

 Click on the lower left point of the square.

 Click on the origin of the XY plane (at the intersection of the two thick lines).

 Click on Coincident.

You now have a totally constrained sketch, as you are told by the solver on the left and the change of color. It is a good practice to always have a
totally constrained sketch.
An under-constrained sketch can leave room for unwanted change, if you modify something later on. On the opposite, an over-constrained sketch is
also not good. In that case the solver warn you of redundant constraints and you should remove some of them.

 To leave the sketch, click either on the "Close" button on the left, or the icon in the toolbar, or press ESC.
You now only see the square, and the contextual task menu on the left show you more options than before.

Create a pad

 Click on Axonometric among the standard views, to better see what will happen.

 Click on Pad.

 Enter 4mm and click OK.

Your sketch is now in volume !

Create a sketch on it
 Select the upper face
The color of the face change and you have more options in the contextual task menu.

 Click on New sketch. As a face was selected it will not ask you to choose a plane.

 Click on Circle, click to place the center, move the pointer and click to define the radius.
 Draw 4 circles on the pad (of any size)

 Press ESC or click the right mouse button to stop using the tool.
 Select the circles

 Click on Equal Length

Now the circles share the same radius.

 Click on External geometry.

 Click on the four sides of the square, it add lines, color magenta.
Theses lines will serve as reference to position the circles.

 Use Distance to position them at 20mm from the edges.

 Click on a circle

 Click on Radius and set it at 1,5mm.

 To leave the sketch, click either on the "Close" button on the left, or the icon in the toolbar, or press ESC.

Create a pad

 Click on Axonometric among the standard views, to better see what will happen.

 Click on Pad.

 Enter 25mm and click OK.

You have the basic shape, it just need final touches.

Rounding the corners

 Holding CTRL click on the vertical edge at each corner to select the four of them.

Don't hesitate to help you by switching the display mode (just at the left of the Axonometric View) between Wireframe and Wireframe and
shadow.

 Click on Fillet.
 Set the radius at 20mm.
Much better.

Making it more robust

We need to add material at the base of the cylinders to make them less prone to snap. Because of the printing orientation these small surfaces will be
fragile at the junction with the base.

 Select the circles at the base of the cylinders

 Click on Chamfer.
 Set it to 2mm.
Chamfer the edges

 Select the face under the base, add a Chamfer of 0,5mm.

The first layer of plastic is often being squashed a little too much, this will compensate that and save you time in cleaning the model. If the first layer is
ok that will make it only nicer

 Select the edges at the border of the upper face (holding CTRL ).
 Add a Chamfer of 1mm. This one is only aesthetic.

Tadaa !

Export as a .STL

 In the Combo View on the left, select the tree view instead of the contextual task menu, click on the last feature (the chamfer).
 Now you can select "Export..." from the File menu at the top left, and select the file format .STL.
 Just print it :-)

Inspiration
The above model make a good starting point to use FreeCAD, but as a toothbrush head stand it have its flaws : due to the print orientation and small
surface the sticks are prone to break.
Inspired by the variety of solutions other people came up with, we will make this second version which will be much better.

Don't worry it is often needed to go through several revision for an idea (e.g. : once the prototype on the picture was used, we added more space
between the heads so that they should not touch).
In this second part you will also learn to use more tools, like the powerful Linear repetition.

Second idea : a band

 Create a new document and select the Part Design workbench.

Create a sketch

 Create a New sketch, on the XY plan.

 Draw a Slot
 Click to place the first center

 Move to define the length and radius

 Click to set the second center.

You now have a floating slot of unspecified dimensions.

 Click on one of the horizontal line of the slot

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 75mm, click OK.

 that's for a 3 head stand, count 25mm for each, if you want more
 Click on one point of the horizontal line
 Click on one point of the other horizontal line

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 29mm, click OK.

 Draw a Slot around the first slot.

 Make the centers of the second slot coincident with the centers of the first slot with Coincident.

 Click on one point of the horizontal line of the first slot

 Click on one point of the nearest horizontal line of the second slot

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 3mm, click OK.

 To make the sketch fully constrained
 Click on the lower left point of the second slot

 Click on the origin of the XY plan

 Click on Coincident

 To leave the sketch, click either on the "Close" button on the left, or the icon in the toolbar, or press ESC.
Create a pad

 Click on Axonometric among the standard views, to better see what will happen.

 Click on Pad.

 Enter 30mm and click OK.

Create a sketch on it
 Select the upper face
 Create a New sketch. As a face was selected it will not ask you to choose a plane.

 Draw an Hexagon
 Click to place the center

 Move to define the radius

 Click to set
 Click on an edge of the hexagon

 Click on Horizontal

 Click on the center of the hexagon

 Click on the horizontal line of the XY plane

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 15mm, click OK.

 Click on the center of the hexagon
 Click on the vertical of the XY plane

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 10mm, click OK.

 Click on the blue circle of the hexagon

 Click on Radius

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 8mm, click OK.

 To leave the sketch, click either on the "Close" button on the left, or the icon in the toolbar, or press ESC.

Create a hole

 Click on Axonometric among the standard views, to better see what will happen.

 Click on Pocket.

 Select to the first in the dropdown menu and click OK.

Linear repetition
 In the Combo View on the left, select the tree view instead of the contextual task menu, click on the pocket feature.

 Click on LinearPattern.

 Set the length at 55mm and occurencies at 3, then click OK.

Create a sketch on it
 Select the inner face
 Create a New sketch. As a face was selected it will not ask you to choose a plane.

 Click on Circle, click to place the center, move the pointer and click to define the radius.
 Click on the center of the circle
 Click on the horizontal line of the XY plane

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 15mm, click OK.

 Click on the center of the circle

 Click on the vertical of the XY plane

 Click on Distance

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 10mm, click OK.

 Click on the circle

 Click on Radius

 A dialog prompts you to set a dimension. Enter 3.5mm, click OK.

 To leave the sketch, click either on the "Close" button on the left, or the icon in the toolbar, or press ESC.
Create a pad

 Click on Axonometric among the standard views, to better see what will happen.

 Click on Pad.

 Enter 4mm and click OK.

Linear repetition
 In the Combo View on the left, select the tree view instead of the contextual task menu, click on the pad feature.

 Click on LinearPattern.

 Set the length at 55mm and occurencies at 3, then click OK.

Draft
 Select the side of each round pads

 Click on Draft.
 Set the draft angle at 40°.

 Click on "Neutral plane" and select the face on which the sketch is drawn.

 Tick "Invert the draft direction".

We could have used a chamfer to do something similar, but the draft is more appropriate in this case.
Chamfer = left / Draft = right

Finitions
 Holding CTRL select the bottom and top faces.

 Add a Chamfer of 0,5mm.

Perfect !

Export as a .STL

 In the Combo View on the left, select the tree view instead of the contextual task menu, click on the last feature (the chamfer).

 Now you can select "Export..." from the File menu at the top left, and select the file format .STL.
 Print it instead of the first version or to replace it if it eventually broke ;-)
4.

Product design is originally a commercial term, but in the 3D world, it often means modeling something with the idea to have it 3D-printed or, more
generally, manufactured by a machine, for example a 3D printer or a CNC machine.
When you print objects in 3D, it is of ultimate importance that your objects are solid. As they will become real, solid objects, this is obvious. Nothing
prevents them from being hollow inside, of course. But you always need to have a clear notion of which point is inside the material, and which point is
outside, because the 3D printer or the CNC machine needs to know exactly what is filled with material and what is not. For this reason, in FreeCAD,
the PartDesign Workbench is the perfect tool to build such pieces, because it will always take care for you that your objects stay solid and buildable.
To illustrate how the PartDesign Workbench works, let's model this well-known piece of Lego:

The cool thing with Lego pieces is that the dimensions are easy to obtain on the Internet, at least for the standard pieces. These are pretty easy to
model and print on a 3D printer, and with a bit of patience (3D printing often requires much adjustment and fine-tuning) you can make pieces that are
totally compatible and click perfectly into original Lego blocks. In the example below, we will make a piece that is 1.5 times bigger than the original.
We will now use exclusively the Sketcher and PartDesign tools. Since all the tools from the Sketcher Workbench are also included in the Part Design
Workbench, we can stay in Part Design and we will not need to switch back and forth between the two.
Part Design objects are fully based on Sketches. A Sketch is a 2D object, made of linear segments (lines, arcs of circle or ellipses) and constraints.
These constraints can be applied either on linear segments or on their endpoints or center points, and will force the geometry to adopt certain rules.
For example, you can place a vertical constraint on a line segment to force it to stay vertical, or a position (lock) constraint on an endpoint to prohibit it
to move. When a sketch has an exact amount of constraints that prohibits any point of the sketch to be moved anymore, we talk about a fully
constrained sketch. When there are redundant constraints, that could be removed without allowing the geometry to be moved, it is called over-
constrained. This should be avoided, and FreeCAD will notify you if such a case occurs.
Sketches have an edit mode, where their geometry and constraints can be changed. When you are done with editing, and leave edit mode, sketches
behave like any other FreeCAD object, and can be used as building blocks for all the Part Design tools, but also in other workbenches, such
as Part or Arch. The Draft workbench also has a tool that converts Draft objects to Sketches, and vice-versa.

 Let's start by modeling a cubic shape that will be the base of our Lego brick. Later on we will carve the insides, and add the 8 dots on top of it.
So let's start this by making a rectangular sketch that we will then extrude:
 Switch to the PartDesign Workbench

 Click on the New Sketch button. A dialog will appear asking where you want to lie the sketch, choose the XY plane, which is the "ground"
plane. The sketch will be created and will immediately be switched to edit mode, and the view will be rotated to look at your sketch orthogonally.

 Now we can draw a rectangle, by selecting the Rectangle tool and clicking 2 corner points. You can place the two points anywhere, since
their correct location will be set in the next step.

 You will notice that a couple of constraints have automatically been added to our rectangle: the vertical segments have received a vertical
constraint, the horizontal ones a horizontal constraint, and each corner a point-on-point constraint that glues the segments together. You can
experiment moving the rectangle around by dragging its lines with the mouse, all the geometry will keep obeying the constraints.
 Now, let's add three more constraints:
 Select one of the vertical segments and add a Vertical Distance Constraint. Give it a size of 23.7mm.

 Select one of the horizontal segments and add a Horizontal Distance Constraint. Make it 47.7mm.

 Finally, select one of the corner points, then the origin point (which is the dot at the crossing of the red and green axes), then add a
Coincident Constraint. The rectangle will then jump to the origin point, and your sketch will turn green, meaning it is now fully constrained. You
can try moving its lines or points, nothing will move anymore.

Note that the last point-on-point constraint was not absolutely necessary. You are never forced to work with fully constrained sketches. However, if we
are going to print this block in 3D, it will be necessary to maintain our piece close to the origin point (which will be the center of the space where the
printer head can move). By adding that constraint we are making sure that our piece will always stay "anchored" to that origin point.
 Our base sketch is now ready, we can leave edit mode by pressing the Close button on top of its task panel, or simply by pressing
the Escape key. If needed later on, we can reenter edit mode anytime by double-clicking the sketch in the tree view.
 Let's extrude it by using the Pad tool, and giving it a distance of 14.4mm. The other options can be left at their default values:

The Pad behaves very much like the Extrude tool that we used in the previous chapter. There are a couple of differences, though, the main one being
that a pad cannot be moved. It is attached forever to its sketch. If you want to change the position of the pad, you must move the base sketch. In the
current context, where we want to be sure nothing will move out of position, this is an additional security.

 We will now carve the inside of the block, using the Pocket tool, which is the PartDesign version of Part Cut. To make a pocket, we will
create a sketch on the bottom face of our block, which will be used to remove a part of the block.
 With the bottom face selected, press the New sketch button.

 Draw a rectangle on the face.

 We will now constrain the rectangle in relation to the bottom face. To do this, we need to "import" some edges of the face with the External
geometry tool. Use this tool on the two vertical lines of the bottom face:

You will notice that only edges from the base face can be added by this tool. When you create a sketch with a face selected, a relation is created
between that face and the sketch, which is important for further operations. You can always remap a sketch to another face later with the Map
sketch tool.

 The external geometry is not "real", it will be hidden when we leave edit mode. But we can use it to place constraints. Place the 4 following
constraints:
 Select the top left point of the rectangle and the top point of the imported line and add a Horizontal Distance Constraint of 1.8mm

 Select again the top left point of the rectangle and the top point of the imported line and add a Vertical Distance Constraint of
1.8mm

 Select the bottom right point of the rectangle and the bottom point of the right imported line and add a Horizontal Distance
Constraint of 1.8mm

 Select again the bottom right point of the rectangle and the bottom point of the right imported line and add a Vertical Distance
Constraint of 1.8mm
 Leave edit mode and we can now perform the pocket operation: With the sketch selected, press the Pocket button. Give it a length of
12.6mm, which will leave the upper face of our pad with a thickness of 1.8mm (remember, the total height of our pad was 14.4mm).

 We will now attack the 8 dots on the top face. To do this, since they are a repetition of a same feature, we will use the handy Linear
pattern tool of the Part Design Workbench, which allows to model once and repeat the shape.
 Start by selecting the top face of our block

 Create a New sketch.

 Create two circles.

 For each circle, select it and add a Radius Constraint of 3.6mm to each of them
 Import the left edge of the base face with the External geometry tool.

 Place two vertical constraints and two horizontal constraints of 6mm between the center point of each circle and the corner points of the
imported edge, so each circle has its center at 6mm from the border of the face:

 Notice how, once again, when you lock the position and dimension of everything in your sketch, it becomes fully constrained. This always
keeps you on the safe side. You could change the first sketch now, everything we did afterwards would keep tight.
 Leave edit mode, select this new sketch, and create a Pad of 2.7mm:

 Notice that, as earlier with the pocket, since we used the top face of our base block as a base for this latest sketch, any PartDesign operation
we do with this sketch will correctly be built on top of the base shape: The two dots are not independent objects, they have been extruded directly
from our brick. This is the great advantage of working with the Part Design Workbench, as long as you take care of always building one step on
top of the previous one, you are actually building one final solid object.
 We can now duplicate our two dots four times, so we get eight. Select the latest Pad we just created.

 Press the Linear pattern button.

 Give it a length of 36mm (which is the total "span" we want our copies to fit in), in the "horizontal sketch axis" direction, and make it 4
occurrences:

 Once again, see that this is not just a duplication of an object, it is a *feature* of our shape that has been duplicated, the final object is still only
one solid object.
 Now let's work on the three "tubes" that fill the void we created on the bottom face. We have several possibilities: create a sketch with three
circles, pad it then pocket it three times, or create a base sketch with one circle inside the other and pad it to form the complete tube already, or
even other combinations. Like always in FreeCAD, there are many ways to achieve the same result. Sometimes one way will not work the way we
want, and we must try other ways. Here, we will take the safest approach, and do things one step at a time.

 Select the face that is at the bottom of the hollow space we carved earlier inside the block.

 Create a new sketch, add a circle with a radius of 4.8825mm, import the left border of the face, and constrain it vertically and horizontally at
10.2mm from the upper corner of the face:
 Leave edit mode, and pad this sketch with a distance of 12.6mm
 Create a linear pattern from this last pad, give it a length of 24mm and 3 occurrences. We now have three filled tubes filling the hollow space:

 Now let's make the final holes. Select the circular face of the first of our three "pins"
 Create a new sketch, import the circular border of our face, create a circle with a radius constraint of 3.6mm, and add a Point on Point
Constraint between the center of the imported circle and our new circle. We now have a perfectly centered circle,and once again fully constrained:
 Leave edit mode, and create a pocket from this sketch, with a length of 12.6mm
 Create a linear pattern from this pocket, with a length of 24mm and 3 occurrences. That's the last step, our piece of lego is now complete, so
we can give it a nice color to mark our victory!

You will notice that our modeling history (what appears in the tree view) has become quite long. This is precious because every single step of what we
did can be changed later on. Adapting this model for another kind of brick, for example one with 2x2 dots, instead of 2x4, would be a piece of cake, we
would just need to change a couple of dimensions and the number of occurrences in linear patterns. We could as easily create bigger pieces that don't
exist in the original Lego game.
But we could also want to get rid of the history, for example if we are going to model a castle with this brick, and we don't want to have this whole
history repeated 500 times in our file.
There are two simple ways to get rid of the history, one is using the Create simple copy tool from the Part Workbench, which will create a copy of our
piece that doesn't depend anymore on the history (you can delete the whole history afterwards), the other way is exporting the piece as a STEP file
and reimporting it.
Assembling
But the best of both worlds also exists, which is the Assembly2 Workbench, an addon that can be installed from the FreeCAD-addons repository. This
Workbench is named "2" because there is also an official built-in Assembly Workbench in development, which is not ready yet. The Assembly2
Workbench, however, already works very well to construct assemblies, and also features a couple of object-to-object constraints which you can use to
constrain the position of one object in relation to another. In the example below, however, it will be quicker and easier to position the pieces using
Draft Move and Draft Rotate than using the Assembly2 constraints.

 Save the file as it is now

 Install the Assembly2 Workbench and restart FreeCAD

 Create a new empty document

 Switch to the Assembly2 workbench

 Press the Import a part from another FreeCAD document button

 Select the file we saved above

 The final piece will be imported in the current document. The Assembly2 workbench will determine automatically what is the final piece in our
file that needs to be used, and the new object stays linked to the file. If we go back and modify the contents of the first file, we can press
the Update parts imported into the assemblybutton to update the pieces here.

 By using the Import a part from another FreeCAD document button several times, and moving and rotating the pieces (with the Draft tools
or by manipulating their Placement property), we can quickly create a small assembly:

Downloads

 The model produced during this exercise: https://github.com/yorikvanhavre/FreeCAD-manual/blob/master/files/lego.FCStd

Read more

 The Sketcher
 The Part Design Workbench

 The Assembly2 Workbench

5.

Introduction
This tutorial is here to teach you how to use the Part Module. You will practice:

 inserting primitives
 changing values of primitives

 using placement

 doing boolean operations

Tip: If you selected something wrong or just want to quickly de-select everything,
just click (Navigation-Style OpenInventor: CTRL-Click) in empty space in the 3D-view.

Final model

Setting up the basic shape

1. Switch to the Part Module
2. Create a new document from the menu File → New

3. Insert box by clicking on

4. Make sure the box ("Cube") is selected in tree view

5. Change the dimensions of the box (see property/data-tab) to

1. Length= 90 mm

2. Width= 90 mm

3. Heigth= 90 mm

6. Click into the value field of placement-row in data-tab so that ... appears on right side

7. Click on ... to change the placement of the box

1. X: -45 mm

2. Y: -45 mm

3. Z: -45 mm

8. Click on OK to close dialog

9. Insert box ("Cube001") by clicking on

10. Make sure the box ("Cube001") is selected in tree view

11. Change the dimensions of the box ("Cube001") (see property/data-tab) to

1. Length= 80 mm

2. Width= 80 mm

3. Heigth= 80 mm

12. Change the placement of the box ("Cube001") to

1. X: -40 mm

2. Y: -40 mm
 3. Z: -40 mm

13. Click to insert a cylinder ("Cylinder")

14. Make sure the cylinder ("Cylinder") is selected in tree view

15. Change radius of "Cylinder" to be 27,5 mm, change height to be 120 mm

16. Change placement values of "Cylinder" to be

1. X: 0 mm

2. Y: 0 mm

3. Z: -60 mm

17. Click to insert a cylinder ("Cylinder001")

18. Change radius of "Cylinder001" to be 27,5 mm, change height to be 120 mm

19. Choose Edit → Duplicate selection from the top menu to get another cylinder ("Cylinder002")

20. Make sure "Cylinder001" is selected in tree view

21. Change placement values of "Cylinder001" to be

1. Y: 60 mm

2. Rotation axis with angle

3. Axis: X

4. Angle: 90°

22. Click on OK to apply values and close dialog

23. Make sure "Cylinder002" is selected in tree view

24. Change placement values of "Cylinder002" to be

1. X: -60 mm

2. Rotation axis with angle

3. Axis: Y

4. Angle: 90°

25. Click on OK to apply values and close dialog

26. Click on to change to axonometric view

27. Click on to zoom to fit all

28. Select "Cube001", "Cylinder", "Cylinder001" and "Cylinder002" and fuse them by clicking

29. Select "Cube" and "Fusion", but make sure, that "Cube" is selected FIRST

30. Apply a boolean cut by clicking

The finished basic shape should look like this:

Cutting the corners part 1

1. Insert box ("Cube002") by clicking on

2. Change the dimensions of the box ("Cube002") (see property/data-tab) to

1. Length= 140 mm

2. Width= 112 mm

3. Heigth= 112 mm

3. Change the placement of the box ("Cube002") to

1. X: -70 mm

2. Y: -56 mm

3. Z: -56 mm

4. Insert box ("Cube003") by clicking on

5. Change the dimensions of the box ("Cube003") (see property/data-tab) to

1. Length= 180 mm

2. Width= 180 mm

3. Heigth= 180 mm

6. Change the placement of the box ("Cube003") to

1. X: -90 mm

2. Y: -90 mm

3. Z: -90 mm

7. Make sure "Cube002" is selected in tree view, otherwise select it

8. Choose Edit → Duplicate selection from the top menu to get another box ("Cube004")

9. Make sure "Cube003" is selected in tree view, otherwise select it

10. Choose Edit → Duplicate selection from the top menu to get another box ("Cube005")

11. Select "Cube003" and "Cube002", but make sure, that "Cube003" is selected FIRST

12. Activate menu to change placement

13. Tick option Apply incremental changes to object placement, notice that all values are reset ...

14. Choose "Rotation: X-Axis" and "Angle: 45°" and click on Apply

15. Choose "Rotation: Z-Axis" and "Angle: 45°" and click on Apply

16. Click on OK to close the dialog

 17. Apply a boolean cut by clicking , the resulting object will be named "Cut001"

Cutting the corners part 2

1. Select "Cube005" and "Cube004", but make sure, that "Cube005" is selected FIRST
2. Activate menu to change placement

3. Tick option Apply incremental changes to object placement, notice that all values are resetted ...

4. Choose "Rotation: X-Axis" and "Angle: 45°" and click on Apply

5. Choose "Rotation: Z-Axis" and "Angle: -45°" and click on Apply

6. Click on OK to close the dialog

7. Apply a boolean cut by clicking , the resulting object will be named "Cut002"

8. Click on to change to axonometric view

9. Click on to zoom to fit all

If everything went well your model should look like this:

Finishing the model

1. Select "Cut" and "Cut001", but make sure, that "Cut" is selected FIRST

2. Apply a boolean cut by clicking , the resulting object will be named "Cut003"

3. Select "Cut003" and "Cut002", but make sure, that "Cut003" is selected FIRST

4. Apply a boolean cut by clicking , the resulting object will be named "Cut004"

5. Click on to change to axonometric view

6. Click on to zoom to fit all

7. Don't forget to save your file ...

Congratulations! You just finished this tutorial succesfully!

6.

This tutorial introduces the new user to some of the tools and techniques used in the Technical Drawing (TechDraw) Workbench. This tutorial is not a
complete and comprehensive guide to the TechDraw Workbench and many of the tools and capabilities are not covered. This tutorial will take user
through the steps needed to produce technical drawings of the part from the Basic Part Design Tutorial.

Before You Begin

Download the sample file from the Part Design tutorial.

The Task
In this tutorial, you will be using the TechDraw Workbench to create a 2D drawings of the 3D part below. We will create multiple Views of the part and
add key dimensions. This Tutorial will not use every feature and tool available within the TechDraw Workbench, but should use enough to give the
user of this tutorial a basic foundation upon which to build their knowledge and skills.

The Part

Creating a Drawing
Startup
 You may wish to adjust your preference settings before beginning. See Note 1.
 First open the file containing our 3D part. Then make sure you are in the TechDraw Workbench.

 You will be selecting items in the Drawing window and/or the Combo panel. Selection in TechDraw works the same as in the 3D window. Items
turn yellow when the cursor is in position to select them and turn green when selected. To select multiple items use the Ctrl key while clicking.

Views and Dimensions

All work in TechDraw begins with a Page. Pages are based on Templates and contain Views.

1. Click on New Page from default Template to create a new Page.

2. Click on Body in the 3D window or in the Combo view.

3. Click on Create new View. This will add the View to the page we just created.

Now we have a View on the Page looking down at the top of the Body. It is a little small, though.
 1. Select Page in the Combo view and scroll to the Scale property on the Data tab.
2. Change the Scale from 1 to 2 and press Enter. The View will get bigger.

3. Drag the View away from the documentation block in the bottom right of the page.

Better, but a little boring. Let's add some Dimensions.

1. Select (LMB) the top-left Vertex (small dot), then also select (Ctl-LMB) on the bottom-left vertex.

2. Click on New Vertical Dimension. Drag the dimension text away from the Body.

3. Try that again with the top-left and top-right Vertices and New Horizontal Dimension.
Editable Text
We should add some documentation to our drawing.

1. Click on the small green square beside Title in the documentation block. You'll get a pop-up window where you can change Title to something
more meaningful.
2. Just for practice, put your name in the Designed by Name field the same way.

Getting better. Let's add some text to the page.

1. Click on New Annotation. A text block will appear in the middle of the page.
2. Drag the text block away from the main View.

3. Click on Annotation in the Combo view and scroll to the Text property on the Data tab.

4. Click in the data area, the click on the ellipsis at the right of the field. You'll get a pop-up window where you can change the text to something
more meaningful.
Before we leave this Page, let's see what it will look like when we print it.

1. Click on Toggle Frames. The Vertices and View frames will disappear. You can get them back by clicking Toggle again.

Multiple Views of a Single Part

Let's create a multiview drawing using a different Template as a starting point. We'll be using the First Angle convention, but you can change to Third
Angle if that is your local convention.

1. Click on New Pick. A file chooser dialog will appear. Select a template file. We're going to use "ANSIB.SVG". A new tab will appear.
2. Select "Body" and "Page001" (if you have more than one page in your document, you need to tell TechDraw which one to use).

3. Click on New Projection Group. The familiar small view in the middle of the page will appear and a dialog will appear in the Task panel.

4. Click on several boxes in the Secondary Views section of the dialog.

5. Drag the View labelled "Front". All the other Views move with it.

6. Change the Scale drop down box from Page to Custom and change the Custom Scale to 2:1. Press the OK button.
 1. In the View labelled "TopLeftFront", select the two Vertices at the extreme ends of the front edge of the work piece.

2. Click on New Length. Drag the dimension text away from the Body.

Linking Dimensions to 3D Model

Do you notice a problem with the dimension we just created?

From the first part of this tutorial, we know that the work piece is 53 mm wide, but our new dimensions reads 43.27. This is because "TopLeftFront" is
an isometric projection, and our first drawing was an orthogonal projection. To get the right value, we need to link our dimension directly to the 3D
model.

1. Note the name of our faulty dimension in the Combo panel. We'll need it in a minute.
2. Change to the 3D tab and select the Vertices at the ends of the front edge of the work piece. Also select Page001.

3. Click on New Links. A dialog will open in the Task panel.

4. In the dialog, move our dimension from the Available column to the Selected column. Press OK.

5. Return to Page001. Our dimension should now read the correct value of 53. (if you still see 43.27, you may need to press the Recompute
button or drag the dimension value a bit until it changes.)

Going Further
In this tutorial you have learned enough about TechDraw to produce a drawing like this one (by NormandC). See Note 2.
There is much more functionality in TechDraw for you to explore - Section Views, Detail Views, Svg Symbols, Images, face hatching.