Arch Panel Sheet

Other languages:

Panel Cut

Nest

BIM

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

Menu location
Arch Panel Sheet
Utils → Panel tools → Panel Sheet
Workbenches
BIM
Default shortcut
None
Introduced in version
0.17
See also
Arch Panel, Arch Panel Cut, Arch Nest

Description

This tool allows to build a 2D sheet, including any number of Arch Panel Cut objects, or any other 2D object such as those made by the Draft Workbench and Sketcher Workbench. The Panel Sheet is typically made to layout cuts to be made by a CNC machine. These sheets can then be exported to a DXF file.

The above image shows how Panel Sheets appear when exported to DXF.

Usage

Optionally, select one or more Arch Panel Cut objects or any other 2D object that lies on the XY plane.
Select the Utils → Panel tools → Panel Sheet option from the menu.
Adjust the desired properties.

Options

After the panel sheet is created, with or without child objects, Any other child object can be added/removed to/from the panel sheet by double-clicking it in the tree view and adding or removing objects from its Group folder
Double-clicking on the panel in the tree view also allows you to move the objects contained in this sheet, or move its tag
It is possible to automatically make panels composed of more than one sheet of a material, by raising its Sheets property
Panel Sheets can display a margin, that is useful to make sure a certain space is always present between inner objects and the border of the sheet
When Panel sheets are exported to DXF, the outlines, inner holes, tags of their inner children are placed on different layers, as shown on the above image

Properties

Data

DataHeight: The height of the sheet
DataWidth: The width of the sheet
DataFill Ratio: The percentage of the sheet area that is filled by cuts (automatic)
DataTag Text: The text to display
DataTag Size: The size of the tag text
DataTag Position: The position of the tag text. Keep (0,0,0) for automatic center position
DataTag Rotation: The rotation of the tag text
DataFont File: The font of the tag text
DataMake Face: If True, the panel is a Part Face, otherwise a Part Wire
DataGrain Direction: This allows you to inform the main direction of the panel fiber (clockwise direction, 0° means up)

View

ViewMargin: A margin that can be displayed inside the panel border
ViewShow Margin: Turns the display of the margin on/off
ViewShow Grain: Shows a fiber texture (Make Face must be set to True)

Scripting

See also: Arch API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

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

Sheet = makePanelSheet(panels=[], name="PanelSheet")

Creates a Sheet object from panels, which is a list of Arch Panel objects.

Example:

import FreeCAD, Draft, Arch

Rect = Draft.makeRectangle(500, 200)
Polygon = Draft.makePolygon(5, 750)

p1 = FreeCAD.Vector(1000, 0, 0)
p2 = FreeCAD.Vector(2000, 400, 0)
p3 = FreeCAD.Vector(1250, 800, 0)
Wire = Draft.makeWire([p1, p2, p3], closed=True)

Panel1 = Arch.makePanel(Rect, thickness=36)
Panel2 = Arch.makePanel(Polygon, thickness=36)
Panel3 = Arch.makePanel(Wire, thickness=36)
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()

Cut1 = Arch.makePanelCut(Panel1)
Cut2 = Arch.makePanelCut(Panel2)
Cut3 = Arch.makePanelCut(Panel3)
Cut1.ViewObject.LineWidth = 3
Cut2.ViewObject.LineWidth = 3
Cut3.ViewObject.LineWidth = 3
FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.recompute()

Sheet = Arch.makePanelSheet([Cut1, Cut2, Cut3])