Set distance between two parallel lines in sketcher

[stevecoh1]

Several noob extreme annoyances:

1) I am trying to sketch two rectangles, one inside the other, with all sides of one parallel to the other. This, I can do. How do I set (constrain) the distance between the sides of the two triangles. Instructions tell me to select one line and a point on the other line and constrain the distance between the two. But HOW do I select one point on the second line? I can't figure out how. And so I'm not able to do what I want.

2) I create a sketch, starting in the XZ plane and then I make some sort of mouse movement or click and the drawing rotates in some way that I didn't think I was asking for but apparently was. How can I undo this action and get back to a straight-on XZ view?

3) Is it possible to scroll the view so my object is better centered on the screen? This should be easy but isn't.

4) If anyone knows of a reasonably short tutorial on such issues (either web view or video) I would be happy to study them. The few I've tried get very verbose and don't deal with the basics I need to know.

[stevecoh1]

Thanks to the excellent New to Freecad - Start Here page, my questions above have now been answered. My further questions will go into the Help forum, where this would have gone had I known.

[Shalmeneser]

2) Sketcher_ViewSketch ?

[chrisb]

Thanks to the excellent New to Freecad - Start Here page, my questions above have now been answered. My further questions will go into the Help forum, where this would have gone had I known.

Please fix the link.

[aapo]

1) I am trying to sketch two rectangles, one inside the other, with all sides of one parallel to the other. This, I can do. How do I set (constrain) the distance between the sides of the two triangles. Instructions tell me to select one line and a point on the other line and constrain the distance between the two. But HOW do I select one point on the second line? I can't figure out how. And so I'm not able to do what I want.

Simply select one of the endpoints. The point in question on the second line segment does not need to be between the endpoints of the first line segment, FreeCAD uses the (invisible) extension of the line segment into full line in this kind of constraint. This is the simplest way, the other way is to create a point and connect it to the second line segment with the "point on object" constraint, and then use this point. But then you'll have an extra point that's not actually needed.

[drmacro]

Constrain the two lines parallel, then use the "Constrain distance" tool by selecting one of the lines, then the end point of the line and click the tool

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