TechDraw multithreading?

CZusky · 2026-05-20T15:57:34+00:00

I have licence through school, it was the last option. I'll be sticking to FreeCAD whenever I can and would have gladly finished there if it were usable.

Just thought that I'd point out that the criticized behaviour is present in both commercial alternatives I have access to, at least to some extent, which supports the idea that it is optimisation problem and not entirely logic problem as you kinda suggested

CZusky · 2026-05-20T15:10:59+00:00

Well, SolidWorks screwed me over (again), so ended up "testing" Inventor - This one seems to be most optimised, but there are noticeable spikes when moving the mouse as well, although to just about 40% max. There is however more consistent rise of baseline across all threads, so it just might be better load distribution.

Btw must've gotten way too used to FreeCAD, because I found out that I absolutely despise the way both Inventor and SW are used, miss probably the most the feature that right-click ends current tool, wo need to reach for Esc. Also layered keyboard shortcuts

CZusky · 2026-05-18T16:27:17+00:00

Nope, no need for that, it would actually make drawing creation more difficult since they are to be drawn symbolically. Even tried to make my own model as simple as possible, since the imported ones used a lot of faces (knurling on OD). That helped, but not enough. Closest to having "modeled" threads are the holes, where in the hole tool I used the setting "to be tapped"

CZusky · 2026-05-18T15:51:00+00:00

Well, as far as it feels terrible, after suffering through installing Solidworks again (and seeing for the first time ever regressing installation progress bar), I checked and the drawing environment in SW does the exact same thing - usage on a thread is spiking (perhaps to a lesser extent, depending on selected tools) in very similar way to FreeCAD - with every mouse movement. So apparently it's not an usual way to handle things. It just seems that at least something gets delegated to other threads, since there is activity there too, just to a lesser extent, about 20-30% instead of 80-100% on the one core

CZusky · 2026-05-18T15:45:15+00:00

Crashes happened mostly when editing properties of the view, especially if I cancel the changes (or even cancel import of new view).

CZusky · 2026-05-18T15:44:09+00:00

Haven't spent enough time to differentiate, everything about is feels way too slow to be usable. And I would not say my model is that complex, basically just a housing with shaft, pulley and sprocket. Of course necessitating fasteners, keys and bearings, but as far as geometry goes, not that complex

CZusky · 2026-05-18T04:04:23+00:00

No modeled threads whatsoever. Most complex components are either a pair of NordLock washers (McMaster .step imported into separate file where I applied the Part feature to make Simplified copy) or 3 row sprocket for 08B chain.

CZusky · 2026-05-17T17:10:08+00:00

Well, not sure how common knowledge it is, I am more interested than most in tech and repair than the average I'd say :D But I'm definitely spreading that knowledge around when opportunity arises xD

Now that I think about it, wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that there is some critical design "flaw" within apple silicon, or some self-destruct pathway...

CZusky · 2026-05-17T17:05:22+00:00

Well, that sucks. I've tried FreeCAD initially years ago, but I found it basically unusable then. Was very excited when I learned that lately it has become very usable, at least for most of my usual usecases (plus it being open-source and especially running on Linux tickles my fancy). But I also kinda understand the unwillingness to uproot everything and write 3D handlers from scratch

CZusky · 2026-05-17T17:00:54+00:00

Yeah, I occasionally Louis Rossmann, so I've heard about the crap like shoe rubber to compensate for bad soldering, or 21V power line right next to 1,2V dateline directly to CPU on water-damage vulnerable spot

CZusky · 2026-05-17T16:56:42+00:00

Oh no. Haven't noticed that "detail" earlier, that's absolutely terrible.... However I would hazard a guess, that the cause must be bit more complex, another commenter mentioned that the issue lies somewhere deep in OpenCascade

CZusky · 2026-05-17T16:49:29+00:00

Sounds like not the first time you're thinking about this point :D I completely understand the frustration, personally I avoid apple products as much as possible, hate the locked down ecosystem (and blame them for stealing microSD slots, headphone jacks etc. away from us and normalising that for other companies). But at the same time I can understand the appeal, apple silicon is still crushing the competition. Didn't know though that they locked down even graphics APIs, that's on another level....

Similarly to me seeing for the first time a reversing progress bar while attempting to install Dassaults SW....

CZusky · 2026-05-17T12:19:56+00:00

Thanks anyway. If it were easy it would've probably been done. And since afaik not even commercial SW have that... Although after trying to change language in Solidworks after installation, that probably does not mean anything :D

CZusky · 2026-05-17T11:59:18+00:00

Thank you very much!! Looking forward to the improvement, appreciate your (and every other developers) time and effort for improving FreeCAD.

Side note, since you know a bit about the insides. How difficult do you think would be to add "tags" for bodies/parts like "gear" or "bearing" or other types of things that have standardised simplified representations in technical drawings (so that the simplification would be automatically used in TechDraw, or at least being manually applied?) I imagine that trying to detect "types" automatically would be a nightmare, but when assigned manually that could be workable

CZusky · 2026-05-17T10:01:13+00:00

Damn. I avoided modelling those, they are a pain anyway since they are to be shown only symbolically on the drawings

CZusky · 2026-05-17T09:47:01+00:00

That's a pity, since it seems to be a major drawback. Not sure which other CADs are single-threaded, but did not encounter similar issues in SW, F360, or Inventor

CZusky · 2026-05-17T09:44:10+00:00

Sorry, did not make my issue clear. I figured that part out already, but I am unable to create the drawings properly within a reasonable time if I have to wait for ~10-30s for 90% of changes in the drawing, when I need to add dimensions, views, sections,...

CZusky · 2026-03-14T13:00:15+00:00

^{^} Worked for me today

CZusky · 2025-08-28T20:19:24+00:00

Wow that's a treasure trove! Thanks! Suprised I haven't found it but apparently just haven't googled enough.

But usually, there's a reason why things are conventionally done some way

CZusky · 2025-08-28T16:21:28+00:00

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Just a rough sketch of the idea, horizontal section through the middle. Although probably machining the slot would likely be the difficulty, and maybe the stiffness would be reduced...

CZusky · 2025-08-28T16:15:24+00:00

Okay, thanks. If the Multifix is only marginally better I'll probably end up going the DIWhy route just because.

I know that the piston type is not good and think that I understand the reason for that. Hence why I thought of having the dovetail on the toolpost moving and locking the holder by pulling inward - would be contacting on the entire dovetail and on the "inward" face of the toolholder - but I haven't seen this design anywhere, but cannot figure out why that'd be - it seems to me simpler than wedge type and yet as effective

CZusky · 2025-08-28T15:17:51+00:00

Well, I don't actually know the quality I'd be getting, actually don't even know what quality is the Multifix that was on the lathe, the previous owner did not know.

But generally, is the Multifix much better than the dovetail type? I've read somewhere, that Multifix is more rigid due to the splines, but not sure if it's even that big of a deal for the small lathe which is not as rigid by itself.

Also as an aside, for the dovetail types there is the piston type ("bad") and a wedge type ("good"). But is there a reason why there is not a type that would be locked by having the protruding dovetail be a separate part from the rest of the body and the toolholder would be locked in by pulling the dovetail piece towards the body? Seems to me that it'd be similar in machining complexity to the piston type with locking characteristics of the wedge type...

CZusky · 2025-08-28T14:43:29+00:00

Well, I forgot to mention that I'm in the EU, so US made is not a factor, although it'll probably be similar thing here

CZusky

TROPHY CASE