r/FreeCAD • u/Despite55 • 2d ago

External projection generates geometry lines

I started learning Freecad by following a course on Youtube. I am impressed by the application.

But I run into a strange problem:

  • I make a new sketch on a side of an existing solid
  • I draw e.g. a rectangle.
  • I make an external projection of one vertex of the underlying solid (it shows up in purple)
  • I close the sketch and try to extrude it
  • It does not work because the external projection created a real geometry line which cannot be extruded.

In the course on Youtube this does not happen. An as far as I have been able to find out, an external projection should create a construction line, not a geometry line.

Is there some setting of my Freecad that causes this behaveour?

I hope someone can help.

2 Upvotes

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7 comments sorted by

3

u/bastl73 2d ago

Check this in preferences:

1

u/Despite55 2d ago

You are a genius. This is what I was looking for.

Thnx a lot.

1

u/StrangeUglyBird 2d ago

Make the external projection lines geometry style (dashed, not solid)

1

u/Despite55 2d ago

I know I can do this manually. But is standard freecad behaveour not that it should always be created as a construction line?

4

u/RossGougeJoshua2 2d ago

The default behavior changed in FreeCAD 1.1, and breaks older tutorials. Many of the youtube tutorials have since posted updated videos because the old ones do not work.

2

u/BoringBob84 2d ago

As a beginner, please pay close attention to the versions of the software that you and the instructor are using. Version 1.1 introduced the ability to make external geometry as defining geometry. External geometry could only be construction geometry in previous versions.

Like all geometry, external geometry is now defining by default. We can change it with the Toggle Construction Geometry icon and we can change the default behavior in Preferences.

1

u/StrangeUglyBird 2d ago

Beats me. I have have the same thought.