Draft Arc

Description
The Arc tool creates a circular arc in the current work plane by entering four points, the center, the radius, the first point and the last point, or by picking tangents, or any combination of those. It uses the Draft Linestyle set on the Draft Tray.

This tool works the same way as the Draft Circle tool, but adds start and end angles. To draw an elliptical arc use Draft Ellipse. You can also approximate a circular arc using the Draft BSpline and Draft BezCurve tools.



How to use

 * 1) Press the  button, or press  then  keys.
 * 2) Click a first point on the 3D view, or type a coordinate and press the  button.
 * 3) Click a second point on the 3D view, or enter a radius value.
 * 4) Click a third point in the 3D view, or enter a start angle.
 * 5) Click a fourth point in the 3D view, or enter an aperture angle.

The arc can be edited by double clicking on the element in the tree view, or by pressing the button. Then you can move the center point to a new position.

The arc can be turned into a circle after creation, by setting its first angle and last angle properties to the same value.

Options

 * The primary use of the arc tool is by picking four points: the centre, a point on the circumference, the start of the arc, and its end.
 * By pressing, you can select a tangent instead of picking point, to define the base circle of the arc. You can therefore construct several types of circles by selecting one, two or three tangents.
 * The direction of the arc depends on the movement you are doing with your mouse. If you start to move clockwise after the third point is entered, your arc will go clockwise. To go counter-clockwise, simply move your mouse back over the third point, until the arc starts drawing in the other direction.
 * To enter coordinates manually, simply enter the numbers, then press between each X, Y and Z component. You can press the  button when you have the desired values to insert the point.
 * Press or click the checkbox to toggle continue mode. If continue mode is on, the Arc tool will restart after you finish the arc, allowing you to draw another one without pressing the tool button again.
 * Press while drawing to force snapping your point to the nearest snap location, independently of the distance.
 * Press while drawing to constrain your point horizontally or vertically in relation to the center.
 * Press or the  button to abort the current command.

Properties
An Arc object shares all properties from a Draft Circle, but some properties only make sense for the circle.

Data

 * : specifies the angle of the first point of the arc.
 * : specifies the angle of the last point of the arc.
 * : specifies the radius of the arc.
 * : specifies if the arc makes a face or not. This property only works if the shape is a full circle.
 * To make an arc a full circle set the and  to the same value. The values 0&#176; and 360&#176; aren't considered the same, so if these two values are used, the circle will not form a face.

View

 * : specifies a Draft Pattern with which to fill the face of the arc. This property only works if the arc is a full circle, and if is, and if  is "Flat Lines".
 * : specifies the size of the Draft Pattern.

Scripting
Draft API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The Arc tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the same function to create circles, with additional arguments. See the information in Draft Circle.

Example: