TechDraw TemplateHowTo

Introduction
This tutorial shows you how to create an SVG file that can be used as the background template for the TechDraw Workbench pages.

This tutorial assumes you are moderately familiar with Inkscape and SVG, as well as FreeCAD and the TechDraw Workbench.

We're going to make a simple template for US Letter size paper in landscape orientation.

A copy of the result of this tutorial is available in

Where is the directory where FreeCAD was installed, for example

Create base document
1. Open a new document in Inkscape.

2. In Document Properties
 * Select page size "US Letter" or "A4" and orientation "landscape".
 * Set default units to "mm", and the page size to width "279.4" and height "215.9". For DIN-A4 you would use "210" and "297".

3. Use the XML Editor to add a "freecad" namespace clause to the item.

Note that your editable texts will not work if you use "https://...", even though the wiki is reached via https these days. Since SVG is a human readable format you could also enter the line above into the file with a text editor.

Create template drawing
4. Draw outlines, zone numbers, center lines, and other geometry.

5. Draw the boxes and lines for the title block.

6. Add and position your static text.

7. Add and position the text that will be editable.

8. You now have your finished artwork, that should look something like this:

Create editable fields
9. Use the XML Editor to add a tag to each editable  item.
 * Assign a meaningful field name to each editable text.

Adjust size of the SVG
10. Use the XML editor to adjust the attribute to match your page size in millimeters.
 * It is four values, in the format

11. Your template will now appear much bigger than desired.

12. We need to shrink it.
 * , or box select and select all.
 * Adjust the and  spinboxes to match your artwork's size in millimeters.
 * Set it to the page size less any applicable margins, for example,, and.

13. Use "Align and Distribute" or the and  spinboxes to position the artwork within the limits of the page if required.

14. Your template should now look right, just like it did in the finished artwork picture above.

Remove transformans on the SVG
15. Ensure that all your editable texts are "ungrouped" with ++.

16. Select everything on your page,, and then (+).

17. Then delete the current layer,.
 * Note: if you deleted the layer already (in your layer panel is no layer listed) this step is not required. In that case you should select all (+), cut the selection (+) and paste it with the command in the next step.

18. Then paste,.
 * Note: This command prevents that the text positions are stored in transform tags. It's important that you do not use the normal paste command!

19. Your template should now look right and shouldn't have any unwanted transforms.

20. Save your template. When you use Inkscape, save it preferably as Plain SVG because FreeCAD can only handle the features of the SVG 1.1 specification. Plain SVG will remove any Inkscape-specific XML tags.

21. Try it in FreeCAD and TechDraw Workbench with Insert Page using Template.