TechDraw Module

Introduction
The TechDraw Workbench is used to produce basic technical drawings from 3D models created with another workbench such as Part, PartDesign, or Arch, or imported from other applications. Each drawing is a Page, which can contain various Views of drawable objects such as Part::Features, PartDesign::Bodies, App::Part groups, and Document Object groups. The resulting drawings can be used for things like documentation, manufacturing instructions, contracts, permits, etc.

Dimensions, sections, hatched areas, annotations, and SVG symbols can be added to the page, which can be further exported to different formats like DXF, SVG, and PDF.

TechDraw was officially included in FreeCAD starting with version 0.17; it is intended to replace the unsupported Drawing Workbench. Both workbenches are still provided in v0.17, but the Drawing Workbench may be removed in future releases. To keep up with TechDraw plans and developments, visit the TechDraw Roadmap.

FreeCAD is primarily a 3D modelling application, and thus doesn't have many 2D drawing tools, which are mostly included in the Draft and Sketcher Workbenches. If your primary goal is the production of complex 2D drawings and DXF files, and you don't need 3D modelling, you may wish to consider a dedicated software program for technical drafting such as LibreCAD, QCad, TurboCad, and others.



Pages
These are tools for creating Page objects.


 * techdraw-new-default.svg New Default: adds a new page using the default template.


 * techdraw-new-pick.svg New Pick: adds a new page using a selected template.

Views
These are tools for creating View objects.


 * techdraw-view.svg New View: adds a 2D projection view of an object.


 * techdraw-projgroup.svg New Projection Group: invokes a dialog to create many views of an object from multiple directions.


 * techdraw-viewsection.svg New Section: adds a cross-section view of an existing view.


 * techdraw-viewdetail.svg New Detail: adds a detail view of a portion of an existing view.


 * techdraw-draft-view.svg New Draft: adds a view of a Draft Workbench object.


 * techdraw-arch-view.svg New Arch: adds a view of a Arch Workbench SectionPlane object.


 * techdraw-spreadsheet.svg Spreadsheet: inserts a view of a Spreadsheet Workbench sheet.

Clips
These are tools to create and manage Clip objects (clipped views).


 * techdraw-clip.svg Clip: inserts a clip group into a page.


 * techdraw-clipplus.svg ClipPlus: adds an existing view to a clip group.


 * techdraw-clipminus.svg ClipMinus: removes a view from a clip group.

Dimensions
These are tools for creating and working with Dimension objects.

Linear dimensions can be based on two points, on one line, or on two lines.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Length.svg New Length: adds a length dimension.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Horizontal.svg New Horizontal: adds a horizontal length dimension.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Vertical.svg New Vertical: adds a vertical length dimension.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Radius.svg New Radius: adds a radius dimension to a circle or circular arc.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Diameter.svg New Diameter: adds a diameter dimension to a circle or a circular arc.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Angle.svg New Angle: adds an angle dimension between two straight edges.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Angle3Pt.svg New Angle3Pt: adds an angle dimension using three vertices.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Link.svg New Links: links an existing dimension to the 3D geometry.


 * TechDraw_Balloon.svg New Balloon: adds a "balloon" annotation to a page.

Import/Export
These are tools for exporting pages to other applications.


 * techdraw-saveSVG.svg Save SVG: saves a page as an SVG file.
 * techdraw-saveDXF.svg Save DXF: saves a page as a DXF file.

Decoration
These are tools for changing the appearance of pages and views.


 * techdraw-hatch.svg Hatch Area: applies a hatch pattern from a file to a face.


 * techdraw-geomhatch.svg Geometric Hatch: applies a hatch pattern to a face using an Autodesk PAT specification.


 * techdraw-symbol.svg New Symbol: inserts an SVG symbol into a page.


 * Techdraw-image.svg New Image: inserts a PNG or JPG bitmap image into a page.


 * techdraw-toggleframe.svg Toggle Frames: turns on and off the frames and labels surrounding a view.


 * TechDraw_Tree_Page_Sync.svg Redraw: The Redraw tool attempts to redraw a page without recalculating the 3D model. (This tool was removed in v0.18)

Annotation
The annotation tools are for "marking up" a drawing with additional information.


 * techdraw-annotation.svg New Annotation: adds a plain text block to serve as an annotation.


 * techdraw-mline.svg Leader Line: The Leader Line tool adds an annotation line to a view.


 * techdraw-textleader.svg Rich Text Block: The Rich Text Block tool adds an rich text annotation block to a Leader Line or a View.


 * techdraw-point.svg Cosmetic Vertex: The Cosmetic Vertex tool adds a Vertex which is not part of the source geometry.


 * techdraw-midpoint.svg Midpoints: The Midpoints tool adds Cosmetic Vertices at the midpoints of one or more Edges.


 * techdraw-quadrant.svg Quadrant: The Quadrant tool adds Cosmetic Vertices at the quarter points of one or more (circular) Edges.


 * techdraw-eraser.svg CosmeticEraser: The CosmeticEraser tool removes cosmetic objects from a Page.

Additional features

 * Hatching: explanation of the different hatching techniques.
 * Line Groups: default weights can be assigned to various line types.
 * Templates: the default templates defined for the drawing pages.

Preferences

 * Preferences-techdraw.svg Preferences: preferences for the default values of the drawing page such as projection angle, colors, text sizes, and line styles.

Scripting
The TechDraw tools can be used in macros and from the Python console by using two APIs.
 * TechDraw API
 * TechDrawGui API

Limitations

 * TechDraw drawings and its API are not interchangeable with the Drawing Workbench and its API. It is possible to convert Drawing Pages to TechDraw Pages using a Python script.
 * It is possible to have both TechDraw and Drawing Pages in the same FreeCAD document, as each page is completely independent from each other.
 * There are minor differences in specifying editable texts in SVG templates compared to the Drawing module. In TechDraw the scaling of the SVG document affects the position of the editable text fields. See the forum discussion TechDraw templates scale for more details.
 * Do not cut, copy and paste TechDraw objects in the tree view as this generally does not work out well.

Tutorials

 * Basic TechDraw Tutorial: introduction to creating drawings with the TechDraw Workbench.
 * Creating a new template: instructions to create a new page template in Inkscape for using with the TechDraw Workbench.

Video tutorials by sliptonic
 * TechDraw Workbench Part 1 (Basics), Part 2 (Dimensions), Part 3 (Multiview)
 * TechDraw Workbench Part 4 (Section and Detail), Part 5 (Customizing Templates)