TechDraw Module

Previous: Surface Module

Next: Web Workbench

Index

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.

• New Default: adds a new page using the default template.

• New Pick: adds a new page using a selected template.

Views

These are tools for creating View objects.

• New View: adds a 2D projection view of an object.

• New Projection Group: invokes a dialog to create many views of an object from multiple directions.

• New Section: adds a cross-section view of an existing view.

• New Detail: adds a detail view of a portion of an existing view.

• New Draft: adds a view of a Draft Workbench object.

• New Arch: adds a view of a Arch Workbench SectionPlane object.

• Spreadsheet: inserts a view of a Spreadsheet Workbench sheet.

• ActiveView: inserts a view of the active 3D view. introduced in version 0.19

Clips

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

• Clip: inserts a clip group into a page.

• ClipPlus: adds an existing view to a clip group.

• 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.

• New Length: adds a length dimension.

• New Horizontal: adds a horizontal length dimension.

• New Vertical: adds a vertical length dimension.

• New Radius: adds a radius dimension to a circle or circular arc.

• New Diameter: adds a diameter dimension to a circle or a circular arc.

• New Angle: adds an angle dimension between two straight edges.

• New Angle3Pt: adds an angle dimension using three vertices.

• New Links: links an existing dimension to the 3D geometry.

• New Balloon: adds a "balloon" annotation to a page. introduced in version 0.19

• New Horizontal Extent: adds a horizontal extent dimension. introduced in version 0.19

• New Vertical Extent: adds a vertical extent dimension. introduced in version 0.19

Import/Export

These are tools for exporting pages to other applications.

• Save SVG: saves a page as an SVG file.
• Save DXF: saves a page as a DXF file.

Decoration

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

• Hatch Area: applies a hatch pattern from a file to a face.

• Geometric Hatch: applies a hatch pattern to a face using an Autodesk PAT specification.

• New Symbol: inserts an SVG symbol into a page.

• New Image: inserts a PNG or JPG bitmap image into a page.

• Toggle Frames: turns on and off the frames and labels surrounding a view.

• Redraw: The Redraw tool forces an update of the selected page. introduced in version 0.19

Annotation

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

• New Annotation: adds a plain text block to serve as an annotation.

• Leader Line: The Leader Line tool adds an annotation line to a view. introduced in version 0.19

• Rich Text Block: The Rich Text Block tool adds an rich text annotation block to a Leader Line or a View. introduced in version 0.19

• Cosmetic Vertex: The Cosmetic Vertex tool adds a Vertex which is not part of the source geometry. introduced in version 0.19

• Midpoints: The Midpoints tool adds Cosmetic Vertices at the midpoints of one or more Edges. introduced in version 0.19

• Quadrant: The Quadrant tool adds Cosmetic Vertices at the quarter points of one or more (circular) Edges. introduced in version 0.19

• FaceCenterLine: The FaceCenterLine tool adds a center line to selected Face(s). introduced in version 0.19

• 2LineCenterLine: The 2LineCenterLine tool adds a center line between 2 Edges. introduced in version 0.19

• 2PointCenterLine: The 2PointCenterLine tool adds a center line between 2 Points. introduced in version 0.19

• CosmeticEraser: The CosmeticEraser tool removes cosmetic objects from a Page. introduced in version 0.19

• DecorateLine: The DecorateLine tool changes the appearance of Edges. introduced in version 0.19

• ShowAll: The ShowAll tool shows/hide invisible edges in a View. introduced in version 0.19

• WeldingSymbol: The WeldingSymbol tool adds welding specifications to an existing leader line. introduced in version 0.19

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: 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 (moveViews.py).
• 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)

Previous: Surface Module

Next: Web Workbench

Index

TechDraw

• Pages: New Default, New Pick
• Views: New View, New Projection Group, New Section, New Detail, New Annotation, New Draft, New Arch, Spreadsheet
• Clips: Clip, ClipPlus, ClipMinus
• Dimensions: New Length, New Horizontal, New Vertical, New Radius, New Diameter, New Angle, New Angle3Pt, New Links, New Balloon
• Decoration: Hatch Area, Geometric Hatch, New Symbol, New Image, Toggle Frames

---

• Utilities: SaveSVG, SaveDXF
• Additional: Preferences, Import-Export Preferences; Hatching, LineGroup, Templates; TechDraw API, TechDrawGui API

User documentation

• Installation: Linux/Unix, Windows, Mac; Getting started
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Workbenches, Preferences, Document structure, Interface Customization, Properties, Mouse Model; Tutorials
• Workbenches: Std Base; Arch, Draft, FEM, Image, Inspection, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Path, Plot, Points, Raytracing, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Ship, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Start, Surface workbench, TechDraw, Test Framework, Web

---

• Scripting: Introduction to Python, FreeCAD scripting tutorial, FreeCAD Scripting Basics, How to install macros, Gui Command, Units Modules: Builtin modules, Workbench creation, Installing more workbenches Meshes: Mesh Scripting, Mesh Module Parts: The Part Module, Topological data scripting, PythonOCC, Mesh to Part Coin scenegraph: The Coin/Inventor scenegraph, Pivy Qt interface: PySide, Using the FreeCAD GUI, Dialog creation Parametric objects: Scripted objects Other: Code snippets, Line drawing function, Embedding FreeCAD, FreeCAD vector math library, Power users hub, Python, Macros, FreeCAD Scripting Basics, Topological data scripting

---

• Deprecated workbenches: Complete, Drawing