Arch Axis

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Leader

AxisSystem

BIM

THIS COMMAND IS PART OF THE INTEGRATED BIM WORKBENCH IN V1.0
This page has been updated for that version.

Menu location
Arch Axis
Annotation → Axis
Workbenches
BIM
Default shortcut
A X
Introduced in version
-
See also
Arch AxisSystem, Arch Grid

Description

The Arch Axis tool allows you to place a series of axes in the current document. The distance and the angle between axes is customizable, as well as the numbering style. The axes serve mainly as references to snap objects onto, but can also be used together with Arch AxisSystems. They can also be referenced by other Arch objects to create parametric arrays, for example of beams or columns. Arch Grids can also be used in places of axes.

Two axes objects positioned perpendicularly to each other to create a grid

Usage

Press the Axis button, or press A then X keys.
Move/rotate the axes system to the desired position.
Enter edit mode by double-clicking the axes system in the tree view to adjust its settings like number of axes, distances and angles between axes.

Options

Each axis in the series has its own distance and angle in relation to the previous axis. This allows to do very complex systems such as non-orthogonal systems, polar systems or any kind of non-uniform system.
Double-clicking the axis in the tree view allows to edit the distances, angles and labels of each axis.
Axes length, size of the bubbles and numbering styles are customizable directly via the axes system's properties.
Each axis can also display a label, which is editable via the task panel dialog.

Properties

DataLength: The length of the axes
DataLimit: If greater than zero, each axis will be represented as two lines of the given length instead of one continuous line introduced in version 0.20
ViewBubble Size: The size of the axis bubbles
ViewNumeration style: How the axes are numbered: 1,2,3, A,B,C, etc...
ViewBubble Position: Where the bubble is placed on the axis: At start point, endpoint, both or none.
ViewFont Name: A font to draw the bubble number and/or labels
ViewFont Size: The size of the label text only (bubble text is controlled by the bubble size)
ViewShow Labels: Turns the display of the label texts on/off

Use as section mark

By setting the Bubble Position property to Arrow left/right or Bar left/right, the axis will display a filled arrow or bar instead of the bubble, so it can be used as a section mark. introduced in version 0.20

Scripting

See also: Arch API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The Axis tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following function:

Axes = makeAxis(num=5, size=1000, name="Axes")

Creates an Axes object from the given number (num) of axes, and size, the interval between each axis.

Example:

import Draft, Arch

Axes = Arch.makeAxis(5, 1000)

Axes.ViewObject.LineWidth = 3
Axes.ViewObject.BubbleSize = 200
Axes.ViewObject.FontSize = 150

Axes2 = Arch.makeAxis(6, 500)

Axes2.ViewObject.LineWidth = 2
Axes2.ViewObject.BubbleSize = 200
Axes2.ViewObject.FontSize = 150
Axes2.ViewObject.NumberingStyle = "A,B,C"
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()

Axes2.Length = 6000
Draft.rotate(Axes2, -90)
Draft.move(Axes2, FreeCAD.Vector(-1000, 2500, 0))
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()