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Integration

The geometry that is used in the extension isn't native blender geometry, that means blender doesn't know anything about it and native tools cannot work with it. So in order to further process drawn shapes they have to be converted to a native type first.

INFO: There are some limitations to keep in mind when converting.

Convert Types

When a sketch is active you can choose the convert type for it in the sidebar. By default this is set to None which means no native geometry will be created.

INFO: Setting this to something other than None will disable the visibility of the sketch so that it will only show when it's active

Bezier Converter

Converts the sketch to a bezier curve.

Mesh Converter

Converts the sketch to a mesh. This doesn't convert to mesh directly but rather uses the bezier converter and the native to_mesh() function behind the scene.

Fill Shape

Some converters support the Fill Shape setting. When this isn't set the resulting geometry won't have surfaces at all but rather just edges.

INFO: The setting toggles the bezier's fill_mode option between None and Front

Limitations

3D Geometry

Conversion requires a sketch, the extension currently doesn't support creating 3D sketches and is therefor limited to the conversion of 2D entities.

Non-Persistent Geometry

The output geometry will be re-generated each time a sketch is deactivated. Converters don't take any modifications that are done after the conversion into account.

INFO: Indices of created geometry elements aren't persistent. Referencing such elements isn't currently supported.

In order to further process geometry after the conversion make sure you do this in a procedural way, otherwise things might break when editing the sketch.

Path Connections

Converters parse the geometry depending on shared start-/endpoints, connections created with coincident constraints or overlaps between entities aren't interpreted as a connection.

Precision

Bezier curves cannot exactly represent a circle. Converted curves are only an approximation to an exact arc or circle. Converted meshes also suffer from that error since the mesh convert type is currently based on the bezier converter.

Best Practices

To avoid running into such limitations try to follow these practices:

  • Connect entities by sharing a start-/endpoint, avoid using the coincident constraint to connect entities that are part of a path that you intend to later convert.
  • Use the construction option whenever you create geometry that you don't intend to convert.
  • If you have alot of construction geometry create a dedicated sketch that is used for construction only. Then create another sketch on the same workplane and reference entities from the construction sketch.
  • If the Fill Shape option is set make sure the drawn shape is a closed path and that multiple closed paths don't overlap each other.