[Patentpractice] FreeCAD and Inkscape for patent drawings, hatching versus shading, and OS questions

[Rick Neifeld]

*Background and Questions:*
Being able to prepare complicated patent drawings has been on my
professional bucket list for a couple decades. To do so with purely open
source software is kinda on that list.

I can now design 3D models, generate 2D engineering drawings therefrom, and
export the drawings to SVG, from FreeCAD. And I can use Inkscape to import
the SVG files and readily mark them up with sheet numbers, Figure numbers,
reference characters, curved and straight lead lines, arrows, and feature
numbers, and then export them from Inkscape to pdf (or to a bit mapped
image format suitable for including in a strict DOCX file).  And both
FreeCAD and Inkscape are free and open source.

1. Has anyone else gone down this path and have any observations, dos and
don'ts, or the like?  Did you use all ten default (or multiple) views in a
page or stick to one view? Why or why not?

*Ubuntu Compatibility*
I am currently using FreeCAD and Inkscape on Windows 10.  Upon review of
Windows 11, it seems to me a bridge too far.  Windows 11 locks the user in
to Windows and MS products for all eternity. The combination of a TPM 2.0
chip required by Windows 11, mandatory secure boot, and automatic turnon of
bitlocker on boot, tied to the users microsoft ID, does that.  Ubuntu,
FreeCAD, and Inkscape are all free an open source.  And I have enough
technical oomph to load and use ubuntu on some computers. So I plan to do
that, keeping my existing Windows boxes, but moving to all free and open
source.

2.  Has anyone run FreeCAD on Ubuntu?  Got any sage or stupid advice?  Any
difference from running on Windows?
3.   Has anyone run Inkscape on Ubuntu?  Got any sage or stupid advice?
Any difference from running on Windows?


*Hatching versus shading*
Hatching, what the patent rules identify as oblique lines to identify
cross-sections.
Shading, what the patent rules identify has usable to identify curved
surfaces and, in perspective view, flat surfaces

4. My issue here is the PTO conversion of image data to bitonal, at least
for pdf images.  First, I am guessing that bit mapped objects in "DOCX"
files are likewise converted to bitonal.  Does anyone know if that is the
case?

5. Assuming PatentCenter converts to bitonal an uploaded grayscale pdf
image file, how does it handle "shading."  Shading seems to be ambiguous
because it defines what we see and not the data format. For example, I
could make something look shaded rendaring a a bitonal image file in which
every third pixel was black, the rest white.  But that is not generally how
its done, right?

6. Is there some method of defining in Inkscape (or some other svg file
editor) shading in bitonal data format?
7. Can I define the line spacing and dimension small enough in Inkscape so
that the result appears to be shading instead of individual lines?  If so,
what settings?
8. FreeCAD and Inkscape allow for RGB or RGBa settings that are equivalent
to white, and black. For example, 255,255,255 and 0,0,0.  Do we know that
PatentCenter will interpret those as the proper bitonal values, aka white
and black?




Best regards
Rick Neifeld, J.D., Ph.D.
Neifeld IP Law PLLC
9112 Shearman Street, Fairfax VA 22032
Mobile: 7034470727
Email: RichardNeifeld at gmail.com;
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