r/FreeCAD • u/Old-Physics9062 • 9h ago

HELP! just learning

Trying to do a very simple first project to get used to operating the program. I have lots of computer drawing experience , but no 3d.

I make the body, pad it, make the sketch for a pocket, but get a red wire frame. I've gone through the validation and cannot find anything wrong, except that it doesn't work.

I don't even know what to ask. So thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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u/neoh4x0r 8h ago edited 8h ago

What do you mean by "getting a red wire frame" ?

Based on your sketch nothing stands out as being "wrong."

If you leave the sketcher are there more lines visible than just the inner rectangle?

PS: It does look like you have some constraints would are duplicates (ie. the blue construction lines at the two corners, you only need to dimension one set and make the other "equal" to them).

You might also need to click the button next to "Fully Constrained" so that the sketcher will refresh the DoFs (it will have two arrows on a circular path).

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u/Old-Physics9062 8h ago

That's my problem. I can't find anything wrong. When I go to make the pocket, it is red wire frame. Direction is correct.

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u/neoh4x0r 8h ago edited 8h ago

That's my problem. I can't find anything wrong. When I go to make the pocket, it is red wire frame. Direction is correct.

You need to post a screenshot of the pocket when it fails (eg, we can see the "red frame" you mention).

You also need to check the "report view" for errors and also mention any dialogs/pop-up with errors (like "wire not closed" and so on).

Moreover, as I mentioned before, you have what appears to be duplicate/redundant constraints, yet it says "fully constrained" -- this might be the source of your issues and you need to refresh the DoFs by clicking the said button or trying to recreate the sketch from scratch using equals constrains for similar elements since those should be inferred from the edge dimensions.

For example, your top line is 93 thou + 0.8" and the bottom line's dimension should be inferrable from that without needing to explicitly dimension it -- the same can be said for the vertical line as well with use of equals constraints.

Perhaps some lines were not correctly constrained using coincidence and causes very small gaps to exist between two points and that leads to things visually appearing ok, but results in a "wire not closed" error.

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u/Old-Physics9062 8h ago

There are no errors reported

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u/neoh4x0r 8h ago edited 8h ago

For some reason that image is not showing up and I've "refreshed" the page several times and it just keeps saying:

Image processing almost complete. Refresh the page to finish loading.

You might want to try editing your post and re-uploading the image in jpg/png format or just post a link to the image (ie. like on imgur)

You might also want to consider uploading your FCStd file to a file-sharing service and then post a link to it -- this will make it easier for people to look at the file and see what is going on.

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u/Old-Physics9062 8h ago

I resent it. I have no idea about the other ways.

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u/neoh4x0r 6h ago edited 6h ago

The red frame does not indicate an error, it just indicates the area that will be removed by the pocket operation and you turn it off by un-checking 'Show preview overlay' and you then you would want to check 'Show final result' (so you can see what it looks like with the material removed before clicking ok).

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u/Old-Physics9062 7h ago

Here is a link

https://we.tl/t-eTwQYzRYQHrzomUe

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u/Sloloem 6h ago

You're viewing the document at an earlier state. If you go to the model tree and click the eye icon to the left of the "Pocket" feature, you should see the frame shape you made. Nothing went wrong with the pocket operation itself, the UI seems to have just somehow glitched into a weird state where the visibility didn't automatically move to the tip of the part the way that it should've. There are valid cases for viewing previous features, it's just not what would've been appropriate in your case.

The red wireframe you were seeing in the Pocket tool itself is simply the "preview overlay", if you'll notice that check box. It's just red because the preview overlay for subtractive operations is red, not because it's an error. Maybe a weird choice. I think you might be able to tweak it in the theme editor but yeah the colors for the previews are all over the place. Red for subtractive at least matches the buttons even though additive features have yellow buttons but preview green and dress-up features also have red buttons but preview fuscia...it's a bit confusing.

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u/Old-Physics9062 6h ago

Thx

It's nice to know I'm not completely crazy!

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u/neoh4x0r 6h ago

Your file works for me on v1.1.3 without any issues -- I only needed to change the visibility of the pocket.

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u/neoh4x0r 6h ago edited 6h ago

PS: You can reduce the number of dimensional constraints by making the sketch look like the following...

You had 4 dimensions that were 93 thous and you only need to have one and use the equals constraint on the other three.

I also removed some extra construction lines that were also redundant as a result.

Moreover, after these changes I needed to add a vertical constraint the left most solid line.

Naturally, some lines will need to made coincident on the external geometry because they would be free-floating after making the previous changes.

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u/Old-Physics9062 6h ago

Thx, I'll try it after dinner. Did you use the dimentioning tool on those corners?

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u/neoh4x0r 6h ago edited 6h ago

I used the dimension constraint on the two points at the top and then made the constructions lines all equal to each other (there are only three of them now) -- this allows that dimension to be inferred by proxy for all the blue construction lines.

One thing I left out, and have now edited in my previous comment, was the need to constrain the left edge of the inner rectangle as vertical.

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u/Old-Physics9062 8h ago

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u/Dopevoponop 7h ago

Have you tried clicking on the “Ok” button under “Tasks”? Nothing looks wrong in this, seems like you just have to commit to the action.

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u/Old-Physics9062 6h ago

Yes It just cancels itself

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u/Old-Physics9062 4h ago

Thanks for the help!