[solved] techdraw page size

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teletypeguy
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Joined: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:41 pm

[solved] techdraw page size

Post by teletypeguy »

Hi all:

I am new here and have various questions, but I will start with a simple one: How do I change TechDraw to use a US-Letter (or A-size) page instead of A4?

I tried searching on this forum and it replied: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: techdraw page size." Huh.

I am excited to get started with freecad -- I have a little bit of solidworks experience, and the Part Design wb has a familiar feel. I am an electrical engr, not mechanical, and have seen freecad mentioned a fair bit on the kicad forum where I hang out a bit.

Thanks in advance, Gil
Last edited by teletypeguy on Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thomas-neemann
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by thomas-neemann »

teletypeguy wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:01 pm ...
I tried searching on this forum and it replied: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: techdraw page size." Huh.

...

I would search in google. Here's an example

site:https://forum.freecad.org techdraw page format
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jeno
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by jeno »

teletypeguy wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:01 pm Hi all:
I am new here and have various questions, but I will start with a simple one: How do I change TechDraw to use a US-Letter (or A-size) page instead of A4?
Hi Gil
see TechDraw Preferences General -> Default Template

cheers
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FBXL5
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by FBXL5 »

teletypeguy wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:01 pm How do I change TechDraw to use a US-Letter (or A-size) page instead of A4?
Short answer: Use a US-Letter (or A-size) template.

The template defines the size of the drawing page. To change the size of a page/sheet you have to exchange the template of the page.
chrisb
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by chrisb »

teletypeguy wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:01 pm "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: techdraw page size."
this is a limitation of the database's internal search on texts. If you use the FreeCAD forum style, you get a separate search field invoking a search engine (almost) limited to the forum.
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teletypeguy
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by teletypeguy »

Thanks @jeno and @FBLX5 for pointing me to templates. In my install dir ...\Mod\TechDraw does not have any templates. This is v0.20.2 on win11.

Anyway, I poked around and found a letter template on the freecad github repo, downloaded (hopefully correctly) a USLetter_Landscape.svg file, saved it in a local templates dir, and changed the template in the tree, but it now looks blank:
template-1.png
template-1.png (143.69 KiB) Viewed 948 times
I also tried setting Preferences/TechDraw to point to the local template:
tdprefs.png
tdprefs.png (82.82 KiB) Viewed 948 times
When I add a new page it still looks blank, so perhaps I did not grab a valid template file after all. I will try it on linux tomorrow and see what the distro gives me in the way of templates to try. I have seen info on creating one in inkscape, I just thought there would be a selection available out of the box.

thx
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wandererfan
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by wandererfan »

teletypeguy wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 9:01 pm
Attachments
ANSIB_Portrait_blank.svg
(731 Bytes) Downloaded 6 times
ANSIB_Portrait.svg
(21.05 KiB) Downloaded 5 times
ANSIB_Landscape_blank.svg
(732 Bytes) Downloaded 6 times
ANSIB_Landscape.svg
(28.37 KiB) Downloaded 9 times
ANSIB.svg
(29.77 KiB) Downloaded 5 times
ANSIA_Portrait_blank.svg
(781 Bytes) Downloaded 5 times
ANSIA_Portrait.svg
(30.96 KiB) Downloaded 6 times
ANSIA_Landscape_blank.svg
(782 Bytes) Downloaded 7 times
ANSIA_Landscape.svg
(29.15 KiB) Downloaded 6 times
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papyblaise
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by papyblaise »

click the orange button and you will find more than 50 formats including US letter
Attachments
US letter.JPG
US letter.JPG (148.44 KiB) Viewed 859 times
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teletypeguy
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by teletypeguy »

papyblaise wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:54 pm click the orange button and you will find more than 50 formats including US letter
Ahh, did not know about the orange button. But I had changed my templates dir in the prefs, so it was pointing there and I just had the one template I grabbed last night. The .../Mod/TechDraw/ location did not have a Templates subdir.

@wandererfan, thanks for the files -- loaded them into my local templates dir, and then used the big orange button to select :)
new-templ.png
new-templ.png (123.3 KiB) Viewed 797 times
I'll try to make a custom template or two in inkscape later (that title block is crazy-large) but I am off and running now.
Thanks all.
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teletypeguy
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Re: techdraw page size

Post by teletypeguy »

I am unsure how to edit post title to mark this [solved]
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