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Sketcher Tutorial
Introduction Tutorial
The Sketcher is a tool to generate 2D-objects for usage in
parts design. The sketcher is different to traditional Topic
drawing tools. A way to show the difference is the Sketcher
construction of a triangle. A triangle is fully defined by 3 Level
values, which can be any from the following list: side
Beginner
length, angle, height, area. The one exception is three
angles, which will not define the size. Time to complete

Authors
In order to construct a triangle from 3 lengths in the
traditional way, the following has to be done: Ulrich
FreeCAD version
draw the base line
Example files
make two circles with a radius given by the other two
side lengths, or alternatively calculate the coordinates See also
of the third vertex None
draw the missing two sides from the endpoints of the
base line to the crossing point of the two circles or the
calculated vertex. Contents
Introduction
First sketch: a triangle
More about Constraints
Problematic combination of
constraints
Construction Lines - Step by
Step Example
Exercise: resilient sketch

The wikipedia:Triangle page shows a collection of formulas to calculate the missing

information in order to draw a triangle from the minimum specification. Those are
needed, if the triangle has to be defined by pre-calculated coordinates.

The Sketcher is different. The formulas and the above helper constructions are not
needed. In order to understand the difference, it is best to construct a triangle by
yourself.

First sketch: a triangle

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An open document is needed in order to make a sketch. When there is no open

document, a new one will be created by clicking on . The sketcher workbench has to
be selected:

A new sketch will be created by clicking at . A dialog appears, where the orientation
of the new sketch in the 3D-space can be selected. It doesn't matter in this case, so the
xy-plane can be confirmed. A new empty sketch will be created and opened in edit
mode. A grid with a coordinate system will be shown with a red point at the origin.

In the Sketcher it is ok to draw an arbitrary triangle with the polyline tool and
define its properties in a later step. Each click in the drawing plane sets a vertex. The
triangle needs to be closed. So for the last line a click is needed on the first created
vertex. A red point should be visible near the mouse pointer before clicking.

This will make sure that the last vertex is identical to the first one and the profile is
closed. Those symbols that appear beneath the drawing pointer do indicate auto-
constraints. They are set automatically at clicking at this location. The red dot beneath
the drawing pointer indicates a coincidence constraint between two vertices, i.e. the
vertices of this different drawing elements are constrained to an identical location.

The created triangle is flexible. A vertex can be touched with the mouse and dragged
around. The sides of the triangle follow the vertex. The same can be done with a line.

Each length of the side is now easily defined by selecting it with the mouse: selected
item turns into green. When clicking on the length tool, a dialog opens and the
desired length can be put in. The picture below shows a triangle with side lengths set

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to 35 mm, 27 mm and 25 mm. The baseline was set horizontally by selecting it and
clicking on the horizontal constraint tool .

These length-definitions are called constraints. Constraints are used to define a fixed
design from the flexible geometric input. The sketcher provides all constraints needed
to define any kind of triangle. Only the area can not be used to define one. So the
created triangle can be redefined by changing the value of a constraint or by deleting
constraints and add other ones. Here comes a list of triangles with other given
properties. It is no problem to turn the just created triangle into one of these.

One or two angles given: Two sides of the triangle needs to be selected. A click on
opens a dialog to define the angle.

Right triangle: Two sides of the triangle needs to be selected. A click on sets a
right angle between the two sides.

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Equilateral: One side has to be set to a defined length. Then all sides needs to be
selected. A click on defines two equal length constrains in order to give all
sides the same length.

Isoscales triangle (two identical length) with given height: Select first the two sides
with the equal length. A click on sets a equality between the two sides. Then
select the base line and the top vertex and click the length tool.

Constraints can be selected by clicking on the symbol or by clicking in the constraint-

list. They can be deleted or in case of constraints with a value edited after a double
click. A given triangle can be later changed into another type of triangle by editing or
changing the constraints. The sketcher is a part of the parametric FreeCAD-modelling
approach. What you have created, can be easily changed at a later time, if for example
a variant of the design is needed.

The above shown triangles have white lines. This is an indication that the sketch has
some degrees of freedom left. It can be tested by dragging on some lines or points. If
the line or point moves, this item is not fully defined. A sketch with no degrees of
freedom left turns green.

The isoscele triangle is missing the length setting for the base line and it can move and
rotate freely in the sketcher drawing plane.

If the triangle properties are defined, it still needed to be fixed in the drawing plane.
The sketcher drawing plane has a coordinate system. The origin of the coordinate
system is visible as the red dot in the center of the pink x-axis and light-green y-axis.
The easiest way to fix it, is selecting a vertex and clicking at . This adds a horizontal
and a vertical distance from the vertex to the origin of the coordinate system. The
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triangle may still have an degree of freedom for rotation. So one sides needs a
horizontal or vertical constraint or an defined angle to one of the coordinate system
axes. The next picture shows a fully constraint sketch. All lines and vertices have now
a green color.

More about Constraints

The sketcher does not know the triangle formulas from the wikipedia. Instead it sets
up a system of equation for the 2-dimensional coordinates based on the given
constraints. This system of equations is then solved numerically.

In this way a wide variety of geometric problem can be solved. But there is also a
disadvantage. If the set of equations has multiple solutions, we may get something
totally different from what we expect. This is especially annoying, if the same design
should be used for different dimensions. The typical symptom is, that after a change
of a length constraint, the sketch flips to something totally different. A simple example
is the division of a distance into three equal partitions. The following picture shows
three lines in a row with equality and parallel constraint set. The total distance is set
to 10 mm.

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This works well, as long as only larger distances are put in. When the distance is
reduced above a certain ratio, the lines are folding together. So we do not get any
more a third of the given distance but the distance itself or two third of it. Some lines
of our row have changed their orientation. This gives still a valid solution for the set of
constraints, but is not what was intended. So following image of the same sketch
shows this. The length constraint was set to 1000 mm and then reduced to 5 mm.

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The solution is to define an angle of 180° between the partition lines as replacement of
the parallel constraint. The 180°-constraint has only one solution. The sketch is now
robust against large changes of the distance. It has to be said, that also a 0°-constraint
serves for the same purpose, where appropriate.

The 180°-constraint is a solution for a lot of problems. Some older versions of

FreeCAD have problems to show the 180°-constraint in the sketcher plane. In most of
the cases the 180°-arc is not shown as expected in the sketcher drawing plane. This is
a known issue for FreeCAD before version 14.3613.

In case of several incremental dimensions in a straight line, it may be advisable to

draw a zig-zag-line first and then set the 180°-constraints. This helps, not forgetting
one, or setting one twice.

The following table shows some constraints combinations for the definition of a
simple elbow. The combination was tested by enlarging the 10 mm length horizontal
dimension to greater values until the elbow flips its orientation. The table documents
for each shown constraint combination the changed length where the flipping occurs.

Constraints Combination Remarks

Definition of
length: Equality
constraint for
definition of
length
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Definition of
orientation:
horizontal and
vertical
constraints

Flips at 51 mm

Definition of
length: Equality
constraint for
definition of
vertical length,
arc for definition
of horizontal
length.

Definition of
orientation: two
points for
definition of
orientation of
horizontal line
and vertical
constraints

Flips at 52 mm

Definition of
length: Equality
constraint for
definition of
length

Definition of
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orientation:
horizontal line
perpendicular to
Y-axis and
vertical line with
vertical constraint

Flips at 51 mm

Definition of
length: Horizontal
length defined
with the general
length constraint.
Equality
constraint for
definition of
vertical length.

Definition of
orientation:
horizontal and
vertical
constraints

Flips at 82 mm

Definition of
length: Horizontal
length defined
with the
horizontal length
constraint.
Equality
constraint for
definition of
vertical length.
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Definition of
orientation:
horizontal and
vertical
constraints

The horizontal
line does not flip
at a test of 10 km,
but the vertical
line was flipped!

Definition of
length: Equality
constraint for
definition of
length

Definition of
orientation:
horizontal line
90°-angle to
vertical line and
vertical line with
vertical constraint

Flips not, tested

up to 10 km

The test showed the following: larger changes of dimension constraints may cause a
flipping of some lines of the sketch due to multiple solutions of the underlying system
of equations. The only constraints that do preserve the orientation of the elements
they are applied to, are the angle constraint and the horizontal and vertical dimension
constraints. The differences between the other constraints regarding maintaining
orientation are minor.

Recommendation: Use angle constraints and horizontal and vertical

dimension constraints at critical places in order to make a sketch robust
against dimension changes.

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Problematic combination of constraints

Sometimes two or more constraints define the same property. An example can be
made of two connected lines, where the connection point is the center point of a
symmetry constraint for the endpoints of the lines. Those lines now have equal length
and are parallel. All this is the consequence of the symmetry constraint.

What happens, if those two lines already have an equality constraint and a parallel
constraint and the symmetry constraint is added too? Now the parallel property is
defined by two constraints and the equal length is also defined by two constraints. In
principle the underlying system of equations should have a solution. But there may be
numerical problems. This can be tested by trying to move the lines. In most cases the
lines are frozen, even if the sketcher still reports several degrees of freedom.

The above case shows a problem that seems to be difficult to solve for the sketcher
programmers. So the user has to take care, to avoid such situations. Sketches with
redundant constraints do behave unexpected and problematic. Symptoms of those
redundant constraints are the above frozen state or reported redundant constraints
after modifying a different object in the sketch.

In general the sketcher gives a warning, when redundant constraints are detected. But
this detection mechanism seems not to work in all cases. When the problem is
recognized, it can be avoided by just deleting the redundant constraints. Sometimes it
is necessary to choose a different combination of constraints.

The following cases are sources for redundant constraints:

An equality constraint for two radii of the same arc

An symmetry constraint for two radii of the same arc
A symmetry constraint in combination with parallel, equality and or perpendicular
constraints
A different problematic case are parallels with an intersection point in infinity. It is
possible to set a 180°-constraint for two parallel lines without an intersection point.
This is not recommended. An angle to an other line or axis should be used instead.

A different problem is the change of orientation of angles. This can happen if, angle
changes above 180° are made. Doing this in smaller steps avoid the problem.

Construction Lines - Step by Step Example

In the first part it was shown that construction geometry is not necessary for
constructing triangles. But nevertheless the sketcher provides construction geometry,
which is useful for more complex problems. Any line can be converted to a
construction line with the button. The construction lines are shown in the sketch
as blue lines. They can be used for constraints in the same way as other lines, but are
not shown and not used when the sketch is closed.
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Giving the task to make a rectangle with the side length having the golden ratio.
Wikipedia shows how to construct two lines with a length ratio of the golden ratio.

D
1.
2.
3.

A S B

The sketcher is a perfect tool to construct a rectangle with the golden ratio for the side
length. The size of the rectangle can be later changed without making a new
construction. The construction steps for the golden ratio according to Wikipedia are:
1. Having a line segment AB, construct a perpendicular BC at point B, with BC half the length of AB. Draw the hypotenuse AC.
2. Draw an arc with center C and radius BC. This arc intersects the hypotenuse AC at point D.
3. Draw an arc with center A and radius AD. This arc intersects the original line segment AB at point S. Point S divides the
original segment AB into line segments AS and SB with lengths in the golden ratio.

Here is a step by step explanation, how this can be done.

Make a new sketch as explained at the triangle example.

Draw a rectangle in the sketch. Use the button . The following picture shows the
rectangle. FreeCAD did add horizontal and vertical constraints to the rectangle.
This rectangle can not be rotated.

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The rectangle should stay in the center of the coordinate system. To achieve this, a
symmetry constraint is added to a horizontal line. This is done by selecting first the
two vertices of the horizontal line and then the vertical axis of the coordinate system.
The symmetry constraint is added by clicking on the button . The same is done for a
vertical line, but instead now the horizontal axis is selected as symmetry axis. The
picture below shows the result. The rectangle stays now at the center and can only be
resized but not moved.

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This was the preparation for the rectangle. The top horizontal line should be the
distance AS of the golden ration construction. An additional line is needed to
represent the SB-distance. It is drawn a little bit skewed as shown below. This avoids
the auto-constraining to horizontal. This line should instead be constrained later with
a 180°-angle, in order to avoid the existence of multiple solutions to the constructed
constrain-combination. If the line is drawn with an horizontal constrained, the
sketcher will complain later at adding the 180°-angle constrained. The horizontal
constrained has to be removed in such a case. The picture shows how to add an angle-
constraint by selecting two lines and clicking at . After adding a line, it is often
advisable to drag at the line with the mouse. This will easily show, if a line is not
attached to the other drawn elements. If a line is not connected right to the other
lines, problems may arise in later steps of the part construction.

The last line is not part of the rectangle. It is therefore necessary to convert it into a
construction line. Selecting the line and clicking at the button does the conversion.

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The line has now a blue color as visible below. The recipe from Wikipedia for the
golden ratio requires a line half of the distance AB. In order to get a reference point
for this, an additional vertex is set at the line with the tool. This is shown below.

The reference point should stay at the center of the distance AB. This will be achieved
by selecting first the two endpoints of the distance AB and third selecting the center
point. When all three points are selected in the right sequence, the symmetry
constraint can be set at clicking at the button, as shown below.

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The Picture below shows already the second side BC of the construction triangle. This
line was drawn as described above and converted to a construction line. This line must
have a vertical constraint as visible in the picture. This can be easily achieved by
drawing the line nearly vertical. If the line is nearly vertical a vertical constraint
symbol is shown and set by the Sketcher when finishing the line at this state.

The line BC must have half of the length of AB. There is only a reference point
available for this purpose, so the equality constraint can not be used. The equality
constraint would need a line with this length as reference, which is not available in the
construction. Therefore the classical arc is used to define the length BC. The picture
below shows the drawing of the arc. The arc-tool is used. First the center point is
set at B. The point should be visible beneath the arc-tool at clicking at B. Often the
arc-tool has not has to be not directly over the target point but a little beneath, in
order to get the coincidence point visible. Second the radius of the arc is defined by
setting the next point at the reference point. The last point of the arc is set in the
neighborhood of the point C. It is important, that the first two points are fixed to C
and the center point. This should be tested with dragging at the arc after finishing it.

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In order to define the length of BC, the line must end at the arc. This will be done by
setting a coincidence constraint between the last arc point and the C point as shown
below. Both points have to be selected and the create a coincidence button has to
be clicked.

The next picture shows the ready triangle. The hypotenuse AC is already drawn and
converted to a construction line.

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Now step 2 of the Wikipedia recipe has to be constructed. A second arc has to be
drawn with the center point at C and the starting point at B. The last point should be
end at the hypotenuse as shown in the picture below.

The drawn arc was converted to a construction line. Now step 3 of the Wikipedia
recipe starts with drawing the last arc as shown in the picture below. The radius of
this arc has to be defined with the above constructed point on the hypotenuse. The
last point will usually not end at a corner of the rectangle. But this is not a problem, as
it will be fixed later. The last point may set as shown below.
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Now the final step has to be made, in order to made the horizontal line of the
rectangle equal to the distance AS. This is shown below by setting a coincidence
constraint between the end of the last arc and the corner of the rectangle.

Now the vertical line has to be made the length of the distance SC. Setting an equality
constraint by selecting the button as shown below, will do this.

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The next picture shows the rectangle with a side length ratio equal to the golden ratio.
The rectangle should have only left one degree of freedom. So at dragging at it, it
should only change its size but not move. If a certain size of one side is needed, a
length constraint can be added to this side. Other wise the sketch is ready and can be
closed. Only a rectangle should than be visible in the FreeCAD window.

Exercise: resilient sketch

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The above example introduced construction lines. Now some important things to
make resilient sketches are discussed. Here is an exercise to get some practice at
working with the sketcher. The goal is to make a sketch for something like a special
frame as shown below.

There should be only three dimensions needed to define the frame. In order to make
changing dimensions easier, the constraints can be renamed to something
memorable. Just select the constraint in the list view and press <F2>. The constraint
can be named for example to "Thickness". The drawing below shows the dimensions.
The peak at the right side should have two times the wall thickness.

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The sketch should look as intended also after changing the key dimensions for
example to 2000 mm and back to 30. You may need to use angle constraints at certain
places to reach this goal. The picture below shows a sketch, which was not robust
against such changes. It is unusable now. In order to get the original state back, the
undo-button can be used.

The above sketch is unusable for the Part-Design Workbench. Only Profile without
intersecting lines are allowed. Construction lines may intersect. Those are not used for
making solids.
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One of the main usage of the Sketcher is the construction of parts in the Part-Design-
workbench. The already existing geometry can be used similar to construction lines.
As this tutorial takes its focus more on the basic sketcher functionality, have a look
here for usage of external geometry: Sketcher External

Sketcher [Collapse]

General: Create sketch, Edit sketch, Leave sketch, View sketch, View section,
Map sketch to face, Reorient sketch, Validate sketch, Merge sketches, Mirror
sketch, Stop operation

Sketcher geometries: Point, Line, Arc, Arc by 3 points, Circle, Circle by 3

points, Ellipse, Ellipse by 3 points, Arc of ellipse, Arc of hyperbola, Arc of
parabola, B-spline, Periodic B-pline, Polyline, Rectangle, Centered rectangle,
Rounded rectangle, Triangle, Square, Pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon, Octagon,
Regular polygon, Slot, Fillet, Trim, Extend, Split, External geometry, Carbon
copy, Toggle construction geometry

Sketcher constraints:
Geometric constraints: Coincident, Point on object, Vertical, Horizontal,
Parallel, Perpendicular, Tangent, Equal, Symmetric, Block
Dimensional constraints: Lock, Horizontal distance, Vertical distance,
Distance, Radius, Diameter, Radiam, Angle, Snell's law, Internal alignment
Constraint tools: Toggle driving/reference constraint, Activate/deactivate
constraint

Sketcher tools: Select unconstrained DoF, Close shape, Connect edges,

Select associated constraints, Select associated geometry, Select redundant
constraints, Select conflicting constraints, Show/hide internal geometry, Select
origin, Select vertical axis, Select horizontal axis, Symmetry, Clone, Copy,
Move, Rectangular array, Remove axes alignment, Delete all geometry, Delete
all constraints

Sketcher B-spline tools: Show/hide B-spline degree, Show/hide B-spline

control polygon, Show/hide B-spline curvature comb, Show/hide B-spline knot
multiplicity, Show/hide B-spline control point weight, Convert geometry to B-
spline, Increase B-spline degree, Decrease B-spline degree, Increase knot
multiplicity, Decrease knot multiplicity, Insert knot

Sketcher virtual space: Switch virtual space

Additional: Sketcher Dialog, Preferences, Sketcher scripting

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User documentation [Expand]

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