This week in FreeCAD development:

Sketcher

• Reqrefusion improved the positioning of constraint labels on sketches so that they don’t overlap with the line they annotate (PR#29538). He also improved the positioning of constraint labels for large arcs (PR#29594).
• ElementW made line type settings visible on dark themes (PR#29319).
• PaddleStroke fixed a bug where the Python converter was cropping precision to 6 digits (PR#29211).

Part and PartDesign

• maxwxyz added a preference to open the attachment dialog when a new sketch is created in PartDesign (PR#29168). He also added input hints for the attachment dialog (PR#29614).
• paragforwork fixed a bug where suppressing a feature would result in recomputing it (PR#29219).

Assembly

PaddleStroke fixed two issues in the Simulation tool (PR#29428 and PR#29433) and another bug where the Distance joint wouldn’t be solved properly depending on the selection order (PR#29461).

CAM

• sliptonic fixed a bug related to the default curve accuracy set in Preferences (PR#29579).
• tarman3 fixed selecting the starting point in the task panel (PR#29502) and incorrect paths creation in LeadInOut (PR#29499), and renamed the ZigZagAngle property to Angle in Pocket (PR#26842). He also added a rapid movement from ClearanceHeight to SafeHeight in the beginning of instructions for Slot (PR#25845) and made it possible to create mirrored paths by just selecting an axis or a shape as a reference (PR#21820).

FEM

• marioalexis84 fixed angle units to be radians for the CalculiX displacement writer (PR#29689), improved node indexing for z88 (PR#29606), and added a read-only property for easily identifying materials in the property view (PR#29609).
• NewJoker added the first example for CalculiX’s 1D fluid network functionality (PR#29697) and fixed advanced refinement tools in Gmsh (PR#29590).
• ickby fixed a mesh group bug in Gmsh (PR#29440).

BIM

• Roy-043 fixed the position of axis labels (PR#29661).
• furgo16 introduced the ArchCovering object and its associated BIM_Covering command to provide a parametric tool for modeling architectural surface finishes (PR#27222). This enables users to apply finishes, such as flooring, wall cladding, ceiling tiles, or façade panels, to existing geometry (base faces or solids) or create them from 2D profiles.

Other changes

• wwmayer resurrected the original progress indicator and used it for STEP, IGES, and glTF importing; 3x380V cherry-picked Werner’s patches to the upstream project and further improved the code (PR#27380).
• Roy-043 fixed incorrect arrow alignment on BezCurve and BSpline objects (PR#29222).
• WandererFan fixed a crash in TechDraw on loading some documents (PR#29653).
• YashSuthar983 fixed a crash in the Measure tool (PR#29669) and improved angle creation and sector support, with a new preference for arrow height and radius (PR#27135).
• Connor added a double-click action to clear the current expression and retain the value in all expression-bound spinboxes and ExpLineEdit controls (PR#29414).
• olaaaf improved the box selection rendering (PR#28982).

Additional improvements and fixes were contributed by andershol, chennes, ElementW, ipatch, marioalexis84, Roy-043, rehan-ahmed-aix, sliptonic, tarman3, and theo-vt.

If you are interested in testing the latest weekly build, you can grab it here.

Activity stats

PR stats: since the previous report, 54 pull requests have been merged, and 50 new pull requests have been opened.

Issue stats: overall, there are 3372 open issues in the tracker, down by 17 from last week.