remove plot and ship

[berndhahnebach]

see #4870

[donovaly]

I think PartDesign's shaft design wizard uses the plot component. So removing it would be a regression to this feature. Can you please check this before you merge this PR?

[sanguinariojoe]

I think PartDesign's shaft design wizard uses the plot component. So removing it would be a regression to this feature. Can you please check this before you merge this PR?

If it does then it is already failing. Plot module is disabled by default, and the version here is not even working

[donovaly]

If it does then it is already failing. Plot module is disabled by default, and the version here is not even working

Using the Windows build we provide at our website, you get the shaft design wizard working nicely. When you click on the buttons there, you get very valuable plots of the load, shear force etc.:

So dropping this feature without a replacement would be sad.

[sanguinariojoe]

If it does then it is already failing. Plot module is disabled by default, and the version here is not even working

Using the Windows build we provide at our website, you get the shaft design wizard working nicely. When you click on the buttons there, you get very valuable plots of the load, shear force etc.:

So dropping this feature without a replacement would be sad.

Woha! You are right!

grep -r "Plot" ./
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        from freecad.plot import Plot
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        self.win = Plot.figure(title)
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        self.thePlot = Plot.getPlot()
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        Plot.xlabel("$%s$ [%s]" % (xname, xunit))
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        Plot.ylabel("$%s$ [%s]" % (yname, yunit))
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        Plot.grid(True)
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        plots = self.thePlot.series
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:            del self.thePlot.series[0]
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        self.thePlot.update()
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        self.thePlot.plot(self.xpoints, self.ypoints)
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        plots = self.thePlot.series
./Mod/PartDesign/WizardShaft/ShaftDiagram.py:        self.thePlot.update()

FEM conversely is using matplotlib directly...

OK, then we need to choose a way to do this (I am opening a forum topic):

• We keep just the Plot module here (i.e. freecad.plot.Plot), and get the workbench (the tools to manipulate those plots) in its own repo (https://github.com/FreeCAD/freecad.plot)
• We get everything (module and workbench) here and remove Plot from the Addon Manager

[luzpaz]

What about the option that is smart enough to recognize that the user is wanting a feature that requires the Addon Manager to download and install? When the user clicks the function a dialog appears explaining said function has a 3rd party dependency that needs to be d/led and for FreeCAD to restart.

[sanguinariojoe]

What about the option that is smart enough to recognize that the user is wanting a feature that requires the Addon Manager to download and install?

Is it not a bit weird that the user must install external dependencies to use FreeCAD core modules?

On top of that, Plot module itself (not the workbench) is quite simple and requires very little maintenance, so keeping it enabled by default in FreeCAD should be rather harmless.

---

In the forum someone confirmed that Shaft Wizard is broken unless you enabled Plot during compilation.

---

I think I will create 2 PRs. One to totally remove Ship and another to remove the Plot workbench and keep just the module (another PR will be required for https://github.com/FreeCAD/freecad.plot afterwards). Hopefully I am convincing you that it is simple enough to keep it in the core as well.

[luzpaz]

Is it not a bit weird that the user must install external dependencies to use FreeCAD core modules?

To be clear, I'm saying that core should still function even if plot is external. But if the user clicks a part of the UI in TechDraw that requires plot functionality that it would trigger a dialog saying something like "The external plot workbench is required for this operation, would you like to install it via the Addon Manager? yes/no"

FreeCAD is slated to become a an enormous ecosystem of external workbenches/macros, it makes sense that we start to leverage the Addon manager a lot more because of this

[luzpaz]

Ship WB has been removed from core. Is now available as external workbench https://github.com/FreeCAD/freecad.ship

[yorikvanhavre]

I think there is no absolute impossibility in having a core functionality depend onean external module. Indeed it will probably occur more and more in the future. I would say the important point is not to let the user down, so 1) not remove anything that could make a file not open correctly, and 2) if some external component is needed at some point, make it clear and easy to the user. i dont think point 1) applies here, right? then i would simply modify the shaft wizard code to print a nice info if plot is not there, and continue gracefully where it can

[luzpaz]

Should we close this PR not that
#4900 has been merged and
#4971 is pending

This PR is obsolete then, correct?

[sanguinariojoe]

Totally! I just preserved that to illustrate the discussions on the other PRs

PS I actually cannot close it... No privileged enough

[yorikvanhavre]

Ok, closing it then!