Here is a FreeCAD Sketch representing a tag metal plate. The sketch in then transferred it into Draft to add some graphics and letters. Then TechDraw workbench is selected to print the design.
In the final Technical Drawing the original Sketch part outline and 5 holes are lost. They do not show on the drawing. Only the graphics and letter appear in the Technical Drawing.
Despite some substantial searching I just cannot figure out how to see the complete part in TechDraw.
Also, when transferring my design into TechDraw, the original dimensions are not respected. I must manually re-adjust the base Scale to get a decent true size. Which means I must print many times to re-adjust to the proper scale value.
So… the Questions:
1- How can I render the Sketch outline and holes in the TechDraw page?
2- How can I make FreeCAD to respect proper dimensions when transferring to TechDraw?
FreeCAD design included here.
Much appreciation for your help.
I will look at the first question later, the second comes usually from your print driver, where you have to switch off automated scaling.
I must revise my answer from above and it is also an answer to question 2: You have to insert a TechDraw View, not an ActiveView. The latter is basically a screenshot for illustrating things. The text is missing in the screenshot, because I don’t have the font.
OK. I’m getting somewhere. Thanks for this guidance. Very useful.
Experimenting with the insertion of the TechDraw InsertView tool, I found that I must not select the actual Body and all subordinates features down to and including sktOilDisc, otherwise the Body becomes the only object that will be inserted in the TechDraw image. If I strictly select every objects starting with Sketch001 and down, then I get all the desired objects into the TechDraw « Page », which is what I want. That is great! Still, I will investigate the “Why” later.
Now the “Text” object remains a problem. By experimentation I create a TechDraw Default Page. Then I InsertView with strictly the Text object. The text will not appear.
Instead I get this error:
10:50:51 SE::getShapes - source shape is empty!
10:50:51 Error: DVP::execute - Source shape is Null. – View
So, contrary to your comment: “The text is missing in the screenshot, because I don’t have the font.”
I am tempted to conclude, based on the error listing, that the font being absent may not be the error, unless the “source shape” is the actual font. But that, I am not knowledge enough to conclude.
I chose a standard font Arial just to make sure that it is present. Besides, the text is properly shown in the 3D view…
I do not really get what the error message means. Nor have I any idea to correct the problem.
So, based on this error message, is there another explanation/solution that you may have for the absence of text in the TechDraw Page?
Thanks again 
You are trying to display white text on a white page.
ActiveView is just a screen grab. It makes no attempt to scale the image. If you want a properly scaled representation, you would have to use Insert View.
I don’t think TechDraw knows about Draft Text. It only draws shapes and Draft Text doesn’t have a shape (Part.getShape(Text) returns a null shape). Usually Draft WB users use the DraftView command.
You blue graphics are below the disk, so they are hidden. You would have to raise them above the level of the top of the Body to see them.
OK. I’m getting there, promise.
I rearanged my design and now I understand the difference between View and ActiveView. Now I can insert two images on the TechDraw page.
Attached is my newest Tag_Oil_TechDraw.FCStd. There are 3 issues I cant find solution:
1- In the View image there are dots for each element. How can I prevent those dots to appear on the View image?
2- On the TechDraw ActiveView image has some of those segments in white (it should be a perfect circle) (idem for the inner hole).
What causes this artifact. Can I not get a cleaner image?
3- That same TechDraw ActiveView those points appear also here and on the 3D_View window. Can I toggle OFF those points?
Thanks again for your help
You don’t want to prevent them to appear in the view, because you need them for dimensioning. They are not present on the output though. For a preview hiede them with TechDraw ToggleFrame.
They go away when you print or export, or when you use the RMB to “Toggle Frames”
I believe this is because sktOilDisc1 is marked as visible. Normally sketches inside a body should be hidden (spacebar or PropertyEditor).
Change the point size on Body’s View tab.
Tag_Oil_3dPointSize.png
You don’t want to prevent them to appear in the view, because you need them for dimensioning. They are not present on the output though. For a preview hiede them with > TechDraw ToggleFrame> .
Exactly what I was looking for. In fact, I meant “How can I toggle them OFF”. Thanks
Can you pls explain exactly the steps to make this work?
I just cannot get the same results as you, no matter what I put visible. I just cannot get to properly render the 3Dview, like you do on your version.
I should have asked this before, but what version are you using?
ActiveView in v0.20 doesn’t give nice results, so you would have to use Tools > Save image… and then TechDraw_Image to add it to your page. It works properly in v0.21.
OS: Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601: SP 1)
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.2.29177 +426 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: (HEAD detached from 0.20.2)
Hash: 930dd9a76203a3260b1e6256c70c1c3cad8c5cb8
Python 3.8.10, Qt 5.15.2, Coin 4.0.1, Vtk 8.2.0, OCC 7.6.3
Locale: French/Canada (fr_CA)
Thanks, the Tools/Save_Picure works pretty well. Surprisingly, the default format is bmp and when you want to get it back with TechDraw/Insert_Bitmap_Image, the only format available are jpg and png. So I must convert the OIL_tag.bmp into OIL_tag.png
And the other strange thing is that the tool to insert and image is called: Insert_Bitmap_Image. Yet, you cannot import a bmp.
However, Tools/Save_Picture also offer the user to change the saving format to png or jpg, so its possible to manage with a few extra clicks.