App Link

Introduction


An App Link, or formally an, is an element that returns a reference to another object in the document or in an external document. This object was introduced in v0.19 in order to re-use previously created objects, which is very useful to create assemblies.

When a regular copy of an object is created (for example, with Part SimpleCopy), an entire new object with its topological shape is duplicated, which consumes a lot of memory. App Link is used to re-use existing data of an existing object, so an entire new object doesn't need to be created; this improves the handling of copies, particularly in the context of mechanical assembly where many duplicates may be needed, or where importing smaller assemblies into bigger assemblies is required.

Usage

 * App Links can be created by pressing.

An App Link is an internal object, so it is mostly intended to be used by developers when developing assembly workbenches. For example, the Assembly3 and Assembly4 workbenches make use of this object. See External workbenches.

Properties
See Property for all property types that scripted objects can have.

An object is not derived from a Part Feature, however, if the Link has a reference to an external object, it will show the properties of the latter object.

These are the properties available in the property editor for an empty.

Data




View




Scripting
FreeCAD Scripting Basics, and scripted objects.

See Part Feature for the general information.

An App Link is created with the method of the document.