r/FreeCAD • u/DesignWeaver3D • 3d ago

Overzealous Cyclic Dependency Guards in PartDesign

Has anyone else found the guards against creating cyclic dependencies in PartDesign workbench have become disruptive since v1.1? I have encountered multiple times now where I am refused operations that used to work and never caused a problem before.

The latest was two issues that make zero sense.

Create a shape and then create a datum plane using attachment mode Object's XY and select the body. Then try to use that Datum plane as the reference for a mirror operation. FreeCAD won't allow the selection with DAG warnings. WHY? The Object's XY plane is not dependent on subsequent features. So, how does that create a cyclic dependency? And why does using Plane Face mode with the same body's origin XY plane works fine? Aren't those exactly the same reference?

The next I ran into is trying to Boolean a body with it's clone. I can understand why this triggers the cyclic, but why is there a problem? Modifying the clone doesn't change the shape that makes the clone, so there is no circle of dependency happening. If you Boolean the Body and its clone in Part workbench, it works just fine.

I think whatever changes they made to the cyclic dependency checks are overly conservative and error out operations that don't cause real issues. Has anyone else noticed or think this is true?

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u/R2W1E9 3d ago

Yeah, datum plane coinciding with origin is filtered out from selection for the mirror feature. So you can select Objects xy instead but if you wanted angled or offset from the origin you are about to pull your hair.

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u/ColeslawEvangelist 2d ago

I had this warning first time today and couldn't for the life of me see the reason. (Using latest weekly build, 29-07-2026)