HeeksCAD - Newbie Users Perspective
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pl
Sep 21, 2009, 10:29:30 AM9/21/09
to HeeksCAD - Users Mailing List, pj...@eng.cam.ac.uk
Dear All,
I have been trying to use HeeksCAD more and more, (version
0.8.2-svn856) it is amazing what has been done I keep finding nice
features every day. I am trying to note each down so hopefully I can
produce some documentation, but it is difficult keeping up with the
developments. I have also be showing it to a number of people and
students as a possible open-source replacement for some of the CAD +
CAM packages we use. We are lucky to have access to some major
packages, but always look for suitable Open-Source options so students
can work at home or have a solution if they wish to set up a
company. TO be fair currently our requirement is more for generating
.stl files for rapid proto-type systems and 2-D drawings than CNC, but
we may go that way and link it directly to small CNC mills in the
future.
The notes below are some that I have put together as I have been
using HeeksCAD and represent some of my thoughts and comments from
others. I am sorry but the topics are really from a newbie(s) who may
well have overlooked an option or completely misunderstood the method
for a particular construct. As such please ignore or take on board as
you see fit, I will certainly not be offended. Please do not take them
as a criticism as the work the development team is doing is
spectacular and really bodes well for the project.
Thank you for all the work that is being done
Regards
1) Initial feedback from onlookers/trialists
- Perhaps not the most modern interface.
I am trying to track the real feeling about it, but I think it is
partly due to the backdrop (a) and partly number of mouse movements
required. (b - see some comment further on)
(a) Some really like the the graph paper, but others seem to
expect the graded background seen on many of the newer commercial
packages + FreeCAD and Salome. Is it possible to put in an option to
have a graded backdrop. Would this cause problems with the grid, which
I really like! It could look really smart!
2) The selection of the correct drawing plane seemed to cause some
problem, partly due to the change in method of working and partly the
continuing moving plane.
Although the use of additional coordinate systems is not dissimilar
to other packages difficulty was had in selecting planes to draw on.
In
many constructions you are trying to add an extrusion or cut/hole on
to an existing surface. This seems to cause a number of problems
a) Often the existing solid is moved by accident. Is it possible to
lock an existing object in position?
b) The selection of the surface to draw on seemed to be non
intuitive or we just don't understand the process!. Often users were
getting the X-Y plane incorrect and then the extruded section was
incorrect. Is it be possible to highlight
i) possible constraints for the new coordinate system as the user
traverses the mouse.
e.g. planes which set the x-y plane + z then only need rotation
constraint. (Possibly default the rotation to the nearest parallel
constraint from the initial CO. Alot of components are based on a
standard xyz)
existing vertexs or points when defining by three points
c) Once a coordinate system has been chosend/defined it would be nice
to have the option to automatically align the grid to the drawing
plane and lock the orientation parallel to the screen, and x axis
horizontal.
2) The selection of items also seems to cause some problems. It may
be our inability/lack of knowledge but it seems to require quite a lot
of return to the digitizing/selection options when the geometry is
complex. Is it possible to say arrange to use the mouse to step
(e.g. RMB) through the possible selection in the area of the pointer
and select when the one you want is highlighted. e.g. select through
via position in the object tree, selecting last inserted first; by the
order in the digitizing menu, end first -> intersection ....-> plane
. ; Nearest to front first. Each time an item is available for
selection it would be nice if it is highlighted in a distinctive
colour, black merges with the default colour for extrusions.
3) Often we wish to draw on an existing face, e.g. extrude a sketch
from an existing object. Setting the new coordinate system to a face
seems difficult and sometimes we can't get the extrusion to come out
of the face. Is there a good explanation re when to make face, extrude
sketch etc on the web from which I can start fuller documentatio?n
4) Is it possible to rename objects, e.g not a lot of
cubes/extrusions etc, but Main Cube, support ledge ...?
5) There seems to be inconsistent behaviour when selecting a sketch,
e.g. draw a 'W' shape. Selecting the sketch from the drawing area and
from the objects pane gives different menus.
6) If you select the sketch in 5 and convert to face you sometimes
get
terminate called after throwing an instance of
'Standard_ConstructionError'
Aborted
7) Is there any way of changing the depth of an extrusion once it has
been completed?
8) Is there a way of changing the default colour of an extrusion from
black to say grey. Black is difficult to distinguish from the high
light lines etc.
9) Given the fantastic digitizing etc functionality would it be
possible to.
a) Arrange to edit any length in a sketch, e.g. highlight a sketch
-> Edit and then all line lengths/radii are shown and are editable?
b) arrange lines to be colinear with existing lines, e.g. to align
the edge of a new extrusion with an existing part. Also possibly add
the ability to snap to a point, vertex or end of an existing line.
c) Related to (b) switch display into wireframe or hidden-line mode
to aid alignment with existing objects
d) Highlight possible lock on the fly?
10 Selecting a line from the options menu seems to give a duplicated
pullout menu
11 When you have a sketch active, how do you know which line you are
about to work on when you toggle horizontal, remove etc?
12 What is the logic behind the appearance of 'split sketch' in menus
when a sketch is selected? It seems to appear inconsistantly, but
probably just me!
13 There are a number of terms which come up, e.g. gripper, pad
sketch, which are not standard drawing terms which put off new
users. It would be nice to have a note on each of the functions as
they are put in to the system. I am sure that the users would help put
the notes together as documentation.
14 Why would you want remove a gripper? The option doesn't seem to do
anything, but I may be wrong
15 It was generally assumed by users that if a sketch had been
completed that the resultant extrusion would be
perpendicular. However, due to the way they had drawn it this may not
be the case, and there seemed to be no way to correct this.
16 Is there a way of redefining the direction of extrusion once the
sketch has been drawn? e.g +ve, -ve
17 Disconcerting is that removing an Extruded Solid also seems to
loose the original sketch. But selecting and using ctrl-z does give
some undo functionality.
18 Would it be possible to arrange a hot-key or even a mouse press,
e.g. MMB, to complete an operation without having to return to the
properties menus to select tick? Could also be used to 'stop drawing'
without opening a menu or pressing ESC.
19 Returning to a previous request is it possible to arrange for a
menu
selection to orientate the model into either x-y, x-z, y-z , y-x, z-x,
z-y standard orientations (It might be nice to have these as default
related to the original coordinate system, but alsIllegal instructiono
give the option to
relate them to the currently selected CO.)
20 related to above it would be nice to have access to 2-D drawings,
dxf
(and SVG) of the standard orthographic views to produce
drawings. Initially possibly, 5 standard views with x-y in the center
so that the drawing could be completed in another package, e,g,
QCAD. Would it be possible to export in shaded, wireframe and hidden
line formats?
21 I am still have some problems with the .stl export functionality,
it
seems that in some difficult situations it is putting out incorrect
unit normals. I will try and generate a simple test file. In the mean
time is it possible to arrange a display mode which. temporarily,
displays the generated STL file triangles on the solid model. This
significantly decreases the time taken to generate a suitable file,
e.g eliminating the step of saving the file, loading into a STL
display package and then re-adjusting the new tolerance value.
To attract other users it might be useful to
a) give the option of adjusting angle and length as other packages
as well as the tolerance.
b) The option of displaying the unit normals, or coloring any
displayed triangles (say blue one side red the other) to aid
understanding of any problem areas.
22 It may be our system set=up, I am investigating, but sometimes. I
think after the system goes down without closing HeeksCAD, it takes a
VERY long time to start up polloing printers, e.g. with messages in
the terminal window as below
GnomePrintCupsPlugin-Message: The ppd file for the CUPS printer pltdo
could not
be loaded.
(pltdo is one of the printers on our system)
NB Removing the .HeeksCAD file before starting see
Is it possible
to temporarly hide an object (e.g. cube, extrusion) to aid visibility
and redrawspeed?
ms to solve the problem
23 The ability to switch off visibilty is really nice. Would it be
possible to add it to the standard pullout menu when an item is
highlighted,. E.g. highlighting a item, either in the objects pane or
on in the drawing would give a sandard set of options, typ.
Remove
Edit
Visibility
Rename
--------
Pick Edges
...
Without having to go down two levels of menu
24 Does the full screen option need to be on alot of the menus, we
don't seem to change very often. Could it be just an icon bar/pull
down menu toggle
25 Is it possible to set variable transparency colours?
26 Is there a method to add more standard items, in particular
holes, plain and tapped?
27 I have seen mention of assemblies of parts somewhere, is it planned
to also
include motion between parts?
28 Is there an option to pattern objects?
29 Drawing a simple sketch -> PAD sketch -> X seems to often result
in
Illegal instruction
and the system crashing
30 Is there any option that adds enhanced lines on the graph paper at
x=0 and y=0, eminating from the currently selected CO system?
31 When editing a sketch or object, see 9 above, is it possible also
show the x,y positions relative to x=0 and y=0?
32 When drawing a sketch the two most likely things I seem to want to
do is delete/remove a line/object, or switch to another drawing mode,
e.g. circle, add construction line etc. Then ideally say delete line
segments to define a shape. I may be misunderstanding things but the
circle tool seems to generate a construction line which needs to be
converted into a sketch before being able to be extruded. Why the two
step process for the circle and 1 for lines.
33 Is there a reason why there isn't a rectangle drawing shape?
I have been trying to use HeeksCAD more and more, (version
0.8.2-svn856) it is amazing what has been done I keep finding nice
features every day. I am trying to note each down so hopefully I can
produce some documentation, but it is difficult keeping up with the
developments. I have also be showing it to a number of people and
students as a possible open-source replacement for some of the CAD +
CAM packages we use. We are lucky to have access to some major
packages, but always look for suitable Open-Source options so students
can work at home or have a solution if they wish to set up a
company. TO be fair currently our requirement is more for generating
.stl files for rapid proto-type systems and 2-D drawings than CNC, but
we may go that way and link it directly to small CNC mills in the
future.
The notes below are some that I have put together as I have been
using HeeksCAD and represent some of my thoughts and comments from
others. I am sorry but the topics are really from a newbie(s) who may
well have overlooked an option or completely misunderstood the method
for a particular construct. As such please ignore or take on board as
you see fit, I will certainly not be offended. Please do not take them
as a criticism as the work the development team is doing is
spectacular and really bodes well for the project.
Thank you for all the work that is being done
Regards
1) Initial feedback from onlookers/trialists
- Perhaps not the most modern interface.
I am trying to track the real feeling about it, but I think it is
partly due to the backdrop (a) and partly number of mouse movements
required. (b - see some comment further on)
(a) Some really like the the graph paper, but others seem to
expect the graded background seen on many of the newer commercial
packages + FreeCAD and Salome. Is it possible to put in an option to
have a graded backdrop. Would this cause problems with the grid, which
I really like! It could look really smart!
2) The selection of the correct drawing plane seemed to cause some
problem, partly due to the change in method of working and partly the
continuing moving plane.
Although the use of additional coordinate systems is not dissimilar
to other packages difficulty was had in selecting planes to draw on.
In
many constructions you are trying to add an extrusion or cut/hole on
to an existing surface. This seems to cause a number of problems
a) Often the existing solid is moved by accident. Is it possible to
lock an existing object in position?
b) The selection of the surface to draw on seemed to be non
intuitive or we just don't understand the process!. Often users were
getting the X-Y plane incorrect and then the extruded section was
incorrect. Is it be possible to highlight
i) possible constraints for the new coordinate system as the user
traverses the mouse.
e.g. planes which set the x-y plane + z then only need rotation
constraint. (Possibly default the rotation to the nearest parallel
constraint from the initial CO. Alot of components are based on a
standard xyz)
existing vertexs or points when defining by three points
c) Once a coordinate system has been chosend/defined it would be nice
to have the option to automatically align the grid to the drawing
plane and lock the orientation parallel to the screen, and x axis
horizontal.
2) The selection of items also seems to cause some problems. It may
be our inability/lack of knowledge but it seems to require quite a lot
of return to the digitizing/selection options when the geometry is
complex. Is it possible to say arrange to use the mouse to step
(e.g. RMB) through the possible selection in the area of the pointer
and select when the one you want is highlighted. e.g. select through
via position in the object tree, selecting last inserted first; by the
order in the digitizing menu, end first -> intersection ....-> plane
. ; Nearest to front first. Each time an item is available for
selection it would be nice if it is highlighted in a distinctive
colour, black merges with the default colour for extrusions.
3) Often we wish to draw on an existing face, e.g. extrude a sketch
from an existing object. Setting the new coordinate system to a face
seems difficult and sometimes we can't get the extrusion to come out
of the face. Is there a good explanation re when to make face, extrude
sketch etc on the web from which I can start fuller documentatio?n
4) Is it possible to rename objects, e.g not a lot of
cubes/extrusions etc, but Main Cube, support ledge ...?
5) There seems to be inconsistent behaviour when selecting a sketch,
e.g. draw a 'W' shape. Selecting the sketch from the drawing area and
from the objects pane gives different menus.
6) If you select the sketch in 5 and convert to face you sometimes
get
terminate called after throwing an instance of
'Standard_ConstructionError'
Aborted
7) Is there any way of changing the depth of an extrusion once it has
been completed?
8) Is there a way of changing the default colour of an extrusion from
black to say grey. Black is difficult to distinguish from the high
light lines etc.
9) Given the fantastic digitizing etc functionality would it be
possible to.
a) Arrange to edit any length in a sketch, e.g. highlight a sketch
-> Edit and then all line lengths/radii are shown and are editable?
b) arrange lines to be colinear with existing lines, e.g. to align
the edge of a new extrusion with an existing part. Also possibly add
the ability to snap to a point, vertex or end of an existing line.
c) Related to (b) switch display into wireframe or hidden-line mode
to aid alignment with existing objects
d) Highlight possible lock on the fly?
10 Selecting a line from the options menu seems to give a duplicated
pullout menu
11 When you have a sketch active, how do you know which line you are
about to work on when you toggle horizontal, remove etc?
12 What is the logic behind the appearance of 'split sketch' in menus
when a sketch is selected? It seems to appear inconsistantly, but
probably just me!
13 There are a number of terms which come up, e.g. gripper, pad
sketch, which are not standard drawing terms which put off new
users. It would be nice to have a note on each of the functions as
they are put in to the system. I am sure that the users would help put
the notes together as documentation.
14 Why would you want remove a gripper? The option doesn't seem to do
anything, but I may be wrong
15 It was generally assumed by users that if a sketch had been
completed that the resultant extrusion would be
perpendicular. However, due to the way they had drawn it this may not
be the case, and there seemed to be no way to correct this.
16 Is there a way of redefining the direction of extrusion once the
sketch has been drawn? e.g +ve, -ve
17 Disconcerting is that removing an Extruded Solid also seems to
loose the original sketch. But selecting and using ctrl-z does give
some undo functionality.
18 Would it be possible to arrange a hot-key or even a mouse press,
e.g. MMB, to complete an operation without having to return to the
properties menus to select tick? Could also be used to 'stop drawing'
without opening a menu or pressing ESC.
19 Returning to a previous request is it possible to arrange for a
menu
selection to orientate the model into either x-y, x-z, y-z , y-x, z-x,
z-y standard orientations (It might be nice to have these as default
related to the original coordinate system, but alsIllegal instructiono
give the option to
relate them to the currently selected CO.)
20 related to above it would be nice to have access to 2-D drawings,
dxf
(and SVG) of the standard orthographic views to produce
drawings. Initially possibly, 5 standard views with x-y in the center
so that the drawing could be completed in another package, e,g,
QCAD. Would it be possible to export in shaded, wireframe and hidden
line formats?
21 I am still have some problems with the .stl export functionality,
it
seems that in some difficult situations it is putting out incorrect
unit normals. I will try and generate a simple test file. In the mean
time is it possible to arrange a display mode which. temporarily,
displays the generated STL file triangles on the solid model. This
significantly decreases the time taken to generate a suitable file,
e.g eliminating the step of saving the file, loading into a STL
display package and then re-adjusting the new tolerance value.
To attract other users it might be useful to
a) give the option of adjusting angle and length as other packages
as well as the tolerance.
b) The option of displaying the unit normals, or coloring any
displayed triangles (say blue one side red the other) to aid
understanding of any problem areas.
22 It may be our system set=up, I am investigating, but sometimes. I
think after the system goes down without closing HeeksCAD, it takes a
VERY long time to start up polloing printers, e.g. with messages in
the terminal window as below
GnomePrintCupsPlugin-Message: The ppd file for the CUPS printer pltdo
could not
be loaded.
(pltdo is one of the printers on our system)
NB Removing the .HeeksCAD file before starting see
Is it possible
to temporarly hide an object (e.g. cube, extrusion) to aid visibility
and redrawspeed?
ms to solve the problem
23 The ability to switch off visibilty is really nice. Would it be
possible to add it to the standard pullout menu when an item is
highlighted,. E.g. highlighting a item, either in the objects pane or
on in the drawing would give a sandard set of options, typ.
Remove
Edit
Visibility
Rename
--------
Pick Edges
...
Without having to go down two levels of menu
24 Does the full screen option need to be on alot of the menus, we
don't seem to change very often. Could it be just an icon bar/pull
down menu toggle
25 Is it possible to set variable transparency colours?
26 Is there a method to add more standard items, in particular
holes, plain and tapped?
27 I have seen mention of assemblies of parts somewhere, is it planned
to also
include motion between parts?
28 Is there an option to pattern objects?
29 Drawing a simple sketch -> PAD sketch -> X seems to often result
in
Illegal instruction
and the system crashing
30 Is there any option that adds enhanced lines on the graph paper at
x=0 and y=0, eminating from the currently selected CO system?
31 When editing a sketch or object, see 9 above, is it possible also
show the x,y positions relative to x=0 and y=0?
32 When drawing a sketch the two most likely things I seem to want to
do is delete/remove a line/object, or switch to another drawing mode,
e.g. circle, add construction line etc. Then ideally say delete line
segments to define a shape. I may be misunderstanding things but the
circle tool seems to generate a construction line which needs to be
converted into a sketch before being able to be extruded. Why the two
step process for the circle and 1 for lines.
33 Is there a reason why there isn't a rectangle drawing shape?
Dan Heeks
Sep 21, 2009, 6:33:42 PM9/21/09
to heeksca...@googlegroups.com
Thanks for the feedback.
When we get time, we will go through your list and add issues, where
relevant, to the HeeksCAD issues list;
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/list
I have added Issue 201: Graduated background
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/detail?id=201
This is a separate option from the grid, which can be turned off ( see
"view options"->"grid mode" in the Options window )
Do you have any software developers at your university that you might
be able to persuade to do some work on HeekCAD?
If you want to add some documentation, how about adding it to the
HeeksCAD wiki pages? http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/w/list
You will need to give us a Google account name to add to the list of
HeeksCAD committers, before you can edit these pages.
Dan Heeks.
When we get time, we will go through your list and add issues, where
relevant, to the HeeksCAD issues list;
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/list
I have added Issue 201: Graduated background
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/detail?id=201
This is a separate option from the grid, which can be turned off ( see
"view options"->"grid mode" in the Options window )
Do you have any software developers at your university that you might
be able to persuade to do some work on HeekCAD?
If you want to add some documentation, how about adding it to the
HeeksCAD wiki pages? http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/w/list
You will need to give us a Google account name to add to the list of
HeeksCAD committers, before you can edit these pages.
Dan Heeks.
pl
Sep 22, 2009, 5:42:39 AM9/22/09
to HeeksCAD - Users Mailing List
> I have added Issue 201: Graduated backgroundhttp://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/detail?id=201
> This is a separate option from the grid, which can be turned off ( see
> "view options"->"grid mode" in the Options window )
>
Thanks for this
> "view options"->"grid mode" in the Options window )
>
> If you want to add some documentation, how about adding it to the
> You will need to give us a Google account name to add to the list of
> HeeksCAD committers, before you can edit these pages.
Personally I would prefer a printable version of the manual rather
> HeeksCAD committers, before you can edit these pages.
than the wiki. I may be old fashioned, but it is easier to find what
you want and and add your own notes. I thought that the web was going
to solve everything, but our students will print out the web pages.
They will still go back to sets of printed manuals, from versions 10+
years old, rather than try and work with the printed web pages as the
formatting is some much easier to extract the info from.
I have started a intro to HeeksCAD in Latex, if it comes to anything
I will put it up ( I can probably arrange to auto generate a set of
wiki pages if the documentation is worth it. .A possible alternative
route is a FLOSS manual (http://en.flossmanuals.net/)
On a related matter, which I didn't put in my original list of
comments, is there an option to put the some or all of the icons on
the side of the window. It is a problem beginning to be seen that,
with the move to wide screens, the use of screen real estate by icons
etc can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the drawing area.
I have always tried to go for a large resolution screen and powerful
cpus, howver the power of the cpu/gpus now , even in netbooks, mean
that a well written/fast graphics application is available to all.
However the knock on effect is frustration when trying to read an
online manual at the same time.
Regards
pl
Sep 22, 2009, 5:46:23 AM9/22/09
to HeeksCAD - Users Mailing List
Giving more info re one of my points
> 8) Is there a way of changing the default colour of an extrusion from
>black to say grey. Black is difficult to distinguish from the high
> light lines etc.
The colour option allows the user to change the current drawing
colour, but it changes both the line drawing and extrusion colour. It
would be nice if the drawing was still in a bold colour even if the
default extrusion was say light grey
Regards
I
> 8) Is there a way of changing the default colour of an extrusion from
>black to say grey. Black is difficult to distinguish from the high
> light lines etc.
colour, but it changes both the line drawing and extrusion colour. It
would be nice if the drawing was still in a bold colour even if the
default extrusion was say light grey
Regards
I
Dan Heeks
Sep 23, 2009, 10:46:29 AM9/23/09
to heeksca...@googlegroups.com
>> 8) Is there a way of changing the default colour of an extrusion from
>>black to say grey
>>black to say grey
No, there is no way to do this, currently.
I have added an enhancement request:
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/detail?id=202
Dan.
pl
Sep 28, 2009, 1:45:13 AM9/28/09
to HeeksCAD - Users Mailing List
Is there a way of setting hot keys to call specific functions/
actions?
Many CAD users have hot keys set up to minimise mouse movements to
and from action icons. If the correspondance between key and action in
user changable, either by a menu and/or a flat file, it will enable
users to set up hot keys similar to those in their current system
therefore helping conversion to and take up of HeeksCAD. If users
could submit files of key actions it might be possible to have a
number of predefined files in a directory accessible from a pull-down
menu, thus allowing the users to easily change the operation to be
similar to say, Solidworks, Solid Edge, ProE....
Regards
Dan Heeks
Sep 29, 2009, 7:33:59 AM9/29/09
to heeksca...@googlegroups.com
> Is there a way of setting hot keys to call specific functions/
> actions?
> actions?
No, any hot keys are currently hard-coded.
I have added this enhancement request
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/issues/detail?id=204
Dan.
Dan Heeks
Oct 14, 2009, 3:35:31 PM10/14/09
to heeksca...@googlegroups.com
pl,
Regarding this item:
> 2) The selection of items also seems to cause some problems. It may
> be our inability/lack of knowledge but it seems to require quite a lot
> of return to the digitizing/selection options when the geometry is
> complex. Is it possible to say arrange to use the mouse to step
> (e.g. RMB) through the possible selection in the area of the pointer
> and select when the one you want is highlighted. e.g. select through
> via position in the object tree, selecting last inserted first; by the
> order in the digitizing menu, end first -> intersection ....-> plane
> . ; Nearest to front first. Each time an item is available for
> selection it would be nice if it is highlighted in a distinctive
> colour, black merges with the default colour for extrusions.
>
When you right-click, in the graphics view, over multiple items, you
get different options for each type of item under the mouse.
You can then choose the "properties" option, under the item you want to select.
This will select the item.
If you hold down the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard, you can right click
on another item. "Properties" will have changed to "Mark", and
choosing this will select this item without deselecting the existing
selection.
This won't help if you have multiple items of the same type in exactly
the same place.
Is this OK?
Dan Heeks.
pl
Oct 14, 2009, 6:17:59 PM10/14/09
to HeeksCAD - Users Mailing List
when multiple items overlay/obscure each other. e.g. draw a cuboid
with a sphere hidden behind. Currently as we understand you need to
reorient the display to the point that you can see the sphere before
it can be selected. Not impossible but can be quite slow. Suggestion
was that placing the mouse on the cuboid and then repeatedly pressing
a mouse key would step through any other items hidden behind the
cuboid, e.g. the sphere. When drawing/editing a sketch the same
procedure could select individual lines/edges.... or have I
misunderstood the operation of RMB. As we see, when you try and select
the hidden sphere you only get the option of a 'face' or the
'cuboid'.
More checking of this seems to indicate that the selection choices are
limited to items which are part of touching objects under the cursor,
and sometimes note every item under the cursor. e.g having a component
with an intersecting sphere/cube/cylinder often doesn't show the
sphere as a selectable object, even if directly attached. Is it
something to d with trying to select a non-flat surface.
Second example, draw a cube and view corner on. Selecting face seems
to give an option make sketch, but this seems to ignore the face
selected and draws on the original plane. Only if make coord system is
the plane selected to sketch on. Should this not be the default
behaviour, e.g. select face -> make sketch automatically changes the
coord sys. NB with the corner on view if a side face is chosen to
coord system made and a sketch with regular shape chosen it normally
draws on the original xy plane not the new one, is this the correct
operation?
Regards
> Dan Heeks.
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