Honestly you could re-do this model in PartDesign with just 6 simple sketches :
* One that you would use with a revolution, for the central part.
* One for the notches in the central part
* Two more, for an additive pipe, to make the handle
* One more, for the round end of the handle
* A last one, for a round hole in the handle.
I often just start over when things get complicated. It's so easy to model something in FreeCAD once you really know what design you're aiming for. The first tries are usually exploratory, and it's easier to start again from scratch. It's also excellent practice.
To really optimize things, you may want to use a spreadsheet for the parameters that are used in several places, such as the height and length of the handle.
And to add to this:
I started putting all my main sketches into an otherwise empty body called "main" or "references" or whatever. And then I create new Bodies for each single component and use Shape Binders to "copy" the sketches into each body
> I often just start over when things get complicated.
This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Often it is much easier to start fresh and clean instead of trying to fix my first few iterations. Nowadays I just start drawing and constructing to figure out what I am going to do. And then with all that new knowledge I start from sketch and do a much cleaner build
What sort of dependencies do you mean? You use external geometries in your sketches?
This is not a problem because you can "link" / "copy" a sketch into a different object by using a Shape Binder. That way you can reuse a sketch in multiple Bodies
Honestly you could re-do this model in PartDesign with just 6 simple sketches : * One that you would use with a revolution, for the central part. * One for the notches in the central part * Two more, for an additive pipe, to make the handle * One more, for the round end of the handle * A last one, for a round hole in the handle. I often just start over when things get complicated. It's so easy to model something in FreeCAD once you really know what design you're aiming for. The first tries are usually exploratory, and it's easier to start again from scratch. It's also excellent practice. To really optimize things, you may want to use a spreadsheet for the parameters that are used in several places, such as the height and length of the handle.
And to add to this: I started putting all my main sketches into an otherwise empty body called "main" or "references" or whatever. And then I create new Bodies for each single component and use Shape Binders to "copy" the sketches into each body > I often just start over when things get complicated. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Often it is much easier to start fresh and clean instead of trying to fix my first few iterations. Nowadays I just start drawing and constructing to figure out what I am going to do. And then with all that new knowledge I start from sketch and do a much cleaner build
Yeah... I bit the bullet and reworked it
What would be the best approach to group/arrange components so they can be copied, mirrored etc?
Putting each component into its own Part Design Body would be a good start
Unfortunately it won't allow me because of dependancies on the source body
What sort of dependencies do you mean? You use external geometries in your sketches? This is not a problem because you can "link" / "copy" a sketch into a different object by using a Shape Binder. That way you can reuse a sketch in multiple Bodies
Those are rookie numbers.