FreeCAD v1.0 tutorials

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Having scared the living daylights out of myself, by trying to set display preferences on the Mac, I went searching for a decent tutorial.

This one [despite being Windows-based] suits my needs nicely … He’s softly spoken, it’s gently paced, and he starts at the right place !

https://youtu.be/zy4TyfWVaTY?feature=shared

MichaelG.

.

Yes, it’s loaded with adverts … I can live with that.

.

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

I’ve always found MangJelly’s Youtube tutorials to be very good.  He has a good beginners tutorial for v.1.0 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPsLhvgU8kc&t=133s

He also has many more advanced tutorials as well.

Russell

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for mentioning that, Russell

I watched it on Monday

MichaelG.

.

Still struggling to find anything Mac-specific … Grrr!!

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

What sort of display preferences are you trying to set? Perhaps describe one or two items and then we can suggest how they might be achieved. It appears that UI (user interface) is the argot used to describe this task.

In the best traditions of science, change only one thing at a time, exit the program and restart to gauge the effects of the change.

If the things you wish to influence are how various items in FC look when you are using it, there is nothing operating system-specific in FC. Another way to say that is the display preferences in FC are the same whatever operating system you use.

This page gives an overview of what is available:

https://wiki.freecad.org/Preferences_Editor#Display

Note the note at the top of the page noting “On macOS the Preferences… option appears in the FreeCAD menu instead (this is the default place for preferences on the Mac)”

You are unlikely to find a video of someone describing how they set their Y-axis to be purple instead of green but a directed search such as ‘freecad UI setup’ could produce something.

[DC31k]

On DC31k Said:

What sort of display preferences are you trying to set? Perhaps describe one or two items and then we can suggest how they might be achieved. […]

 

Thanks for the thought … but I am over that first hurdle now

The problem was that [contrary to claims] the GUI environment is rather different on various operating systems.

.

Having set the thing up in a useable configuration, I proceeded to follow the very basic demonstration in the tutorial that I linked in the opening post.

 

I spent several hours, trying and failing to get that ‘Pad’ command to work

… the video, about 9 minutes in, shows it automatically activating as soon as there is a closed shape for it to work-with … but I have tried with both a constructed shape and with the pre-defined rectangle and circle : None of these become “paddable” and I get incomprehensible error messages about them not being ‘attached to a base’ or some-such.

Note: I have a busy morning, but will post some screen-grabs this afternoon

Things may suddenly fall into place, but at the moment I am utterly bewildered.

Grateful for any suggestions, but I suspect that only someone successfully using FreeCAD on MacOS will recognise what I am doing wrong.

MichaelG.

.

M1 Mac Mini / 16 GB RAM / Sequoia

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If it is anything like F360 you need to finish the sketch then you can use what sounds like the same tool to push or pull the sketch into an extrusion having first clicked on the “face” bounded by that sketch.

Having watched it it is more like Alibre. make sure you close the sketching window before you select pad, Alibre does not even show the pad options while you are sketching but it looks like Autocad does.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Unfortunately, Jason … When I Close [= finish] the sketch, the shape doesn’t become a face

so there is nothing to Pad [= extrude]

… so I’m dead-in-the- water !

MichaelG

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

See my second paragraph just added.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Maybe a mac thing as I just downloaded it and had no problem creating this with Windows 10, you know the part. If you want me to video how I did it just ask.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I hope I’m not hijacking the thread but does anyone have experience of Freecad on Linux please?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I can confirm that once you get the hang of it you will be able to open and alter .STP files. I increased the main hole on this one, so keep at it.

[Roger WoollettParticipant @rogerwoollett53105]

I use FreeCAD 1.0 on a Raspberry PI so Linux. The latest version is not in the Raspberry OS repository so I use an Appimage.

I think others have pointed out that it is really important to use a tutorial for the same version as you have as the user interface changed a lot while FreeCAD was being developed. 1.0 seems to be far better and more stable than its predecessors

I have found this series good

YouTube

I have not noticed any significant difference between the videos and my Linux version.

 

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

 

… the video, about 9 minutes in, shows it automatically activating as soon as there is a closed shape for it to work-with..

I would respectfully say that it does not.

You have to close the Sketch (9:01).

Then confirm the Sketch is highlighted in the Tree view. This is shown, but not mentioned and assumed in the video.

Then click the Pad button (9:09-9:10).

It is possible that for you the Sketch has been accidently de-highlighted in the Tree view. This is possible if the Sketch panel, which the video has on the right of the screen, is in its default place on the left of the screen, as then an errant click will go through to the tree view ‘below’ and deselect the sketch.

In FC, you could make 20 sketches, one after another, and nothing happens to them until you select a specific one and perform an action on it. For example, if you wanted to make a washer, you could sketch a circle for its OD and close the sketch. Then make a new sketch and sketch a circle for its ID and close the sketch.

You can then select the OD sketch, hit Pad and you make a cylinder. Then select the ID sketch, hit Pocket to remove the hole (and you need ‘reverse direction as a Pad always goes ‘upwards’ while a Pocket goes ‘downwards’).

A washer is a good first model. You can start with its OD and ID glued to the XY axis intersection. Then work out how to make two concentric circles at a random point in space. Then work out how to make a washer of constant breadth (i.e. whatever ID you choose, the OD is always ID + 10mm). Then work out to make a washer where the hole does not go fully through it. And one with a blind hole where the base thickness remains constant no matter how you alter the overall height. And then other ways to make a washer – a single sketch of two circles is one way. Drawing its half cross section (a rectangle) and revolving that section will make one.

It is almost like starting with a lathe. You can chuck up a piece of 5/8″ round and a simple RH turning/facing tool and learn a great deal just from those humble beginnings.

[John Haine]

On John Haine Said:

I hope I’m not hijacking the thread but does anyone have experience of Freecad on Linux please?

yes – what do you need?

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

On DC31k Said:..

… 

I spent several hours, trying and failing to get that ‘Pad’ command to work

… the video, about 9 minutes in, shows it automatically activating as soon as there is a closed shape for it to work-with … but I have tried with both a constructed shape and with the pre-defined rectangle and circle : None of these become “paddable” and I get incomprehensible error messages about them not being ‘attached to a base’ or some-such.

…

Things may suddenly fall into place, but at the moment I am utterly bewildered.

Grateful for any suggestions, but I suspect that only someone successfully using FreeCAD on MacOS will recognise what I am doing wrong.

MichaelG.

.

Unlikely the problem is mac specific because FreeCAD works the same way on whatever platform it’s on. There will be cosmetic differences due to the GUI, but these shouldn’t affect function.    I’ve not tried 1.0.0 on Apple yet, but FreeCAD 1.0.0 is almost identical on Windows and Linux.

More likely Michael’s trouble is learning curve.   CAD packages have rules that have to be followed!   It’s not obvious what they are and many tutorials skip over the details.

Try this:

Open FreeCAD, select Part Design (Red ring), and click “New Document” (Green Arrow):

If not already selected click the Tasks tab (red ring). It should list a “Create Body” task (red arrow), click it.  Note: behind the scenes all 3D CAD packages depend on a “body”:  it’s the foundation on which the model is built.

After the body is created, the Task panel lists “Create Sketch”, click it.

The Tasks panel changes to “Select Attachment”, one of the three XYZ planes.  I’ve selected XZ.  (Before a sketch will pad or anything else 3D,  it has to be attached to a plane or a surface.  Advanced users are allowed to create sketches in isolation and attach them later; this may be Michael’s mistake.

Clicking the OK button opens the sketch editor ready to draw on the XZ plane.  The edit buttons appear, exactly where may differ –  I moved them to suit me:

I sketched a heptagon with the “Create Regular Polygon” button.  The Tasks panel now has lots of new information relating to the sketch; constraints, and a warning that it’s under-constrained in 2-degrees of freedom, i.e. the position or dimensions of the sketch are incomplete, not fully constrained.  Worth fixing in a real model because floating bits can cause trouble later.  I’m not going to bother!

Closing the sketch alters the Task panel again; the tools that operate on sketches appear, including Pad:

Clicking Pad produces the expected result, with a dialogue allowing attributes like depth to be changed:

The 3D heptagon has 9 faces on which further sketches can be attached, allowing the draughtsman to create objects of arbitrary complexity.

The sequence may seem complicated but it only takes a few seconds to apply in practice.

Having created a 3D object it’s worth exploring the Model panel.  It lists all the steps taken and the values applied when the item was created.   Most of them can be changed.

In general, learning 3D-CAD, I found it doesn’t pay to poke it with a stick in hope it will work, or to assume it’s what the learner believes to be “common sense” .  Problem is there is no such thing as common-sense, so applying it to anything complicated is painful.  I had to learn CAD methodically.  Failure to do so causes bother later, one symptom being models that misbehave strangely as they grow, with tools not working as expected, or even crashing.   Almost always due to the learner leaving stuff out in the early stages, eventually causing contradictions the software can’t resolve.   Unfortunately it’s hard for CAD  to tell the difference between newbie errors and an expert deliberately leaving the model incomplete for “fix it later” purposes.   So it keeps going until it collapses!

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

What an excellent, and very welcome, set of replies …

I shall have a couple of hours on it this afternoon, and report success or failure in due course.

Thank You All

MichaelG

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

More likely Michael’s trouble is learning curve.   […]

The Tasks panel changes to “Select Attachment”, one of the three XYZ planes.  I’ve selected XZ.  (Before a sketch will pad or anything else 3D,  it has to be attached to a plane or a surface.  Advanced users are allowed to create sketches in isolation and attach them later; this may be Michael’s mistake.

[….

 

 

That appears to be the step at which things start going wrong, Dave

… it doesn’t do that ^^^

 

MichaelG.

.

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Must admit when I tried it for the first time this morning I did not do any of Dave’s first three steps. Just clicked the sketch tool, chose the plane and then the circle tool, etc

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

What it does is this …

.

[display area reduced to avoid posting big images]

So perhaps we’re getting somewhere.

MichaelG.

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Must admit when I tried it for the first time this morning I did not do any of Dave’s first three steps. Just clicked the sketch tool, chose the plane and then the circle tool, etc

Yes, the route I describe isn’t the only one, but I tested and described it in full.

Important to be complete when explaining to a beginner, and not to muddy the waters by offering unexplained alternatives.  Doesn’t help to leave beginners in the dust by saying “that’s unnecessary”.   Jason may have forgotten the problem, it’s not solved with “Just click”.

My priority is getting Michael started, not telling him that FreeCAD supports more than one way of doing things. Plenty of opportunity for that later.

I’m hoping Michael will post screenshots of what he got following my instructions so we can unblock his drain.  Could be I missed something, or he did, or his version of FreeCAD is wonky.  Dunno, it’s a work in progress.

Dave

[Keith PetleyParticipant @keithpetley53472]

Hi Michael,

I’ve got a Mac but never used FeeeCAD before, I normally use Fusion360. Just downloaded FreeCAD and tried playing with it. I sketched a shape, closed it and padded it to 10mm with no problems, by going against Dave’s advice and just poking it. I then went back a stage to try and see where you might be going wrong and “broke” something – I ended up with the same setup as in your screenshot.

If you expand “Body” (not Body001) you should see your sketch in it. If so, right click on “Body” and tick “Active Body”. The “Pad” icon should now be enabled and you can click it.

Hope that helps, if not I’m happy to try more MacOS based experiments.

Keith

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

What it does is this …

………………….

 

So from that you need to select which of the three planes you want to sketch on.

You can either click one from the list or click one from the image ( my preference) and then hit the OK button.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

What it does is this …

.

[display area reduced to avoid posting big images]

So perhaps we’re getting somewhere.

MichaelG.

OK, the Task Panel has been located on the right of the main window, rather than in the default position.   Users can drag and drop panels to suit their preferences, the problem being the layout is unlikely to match any tutorial!  Instant confusion!

I changed my FreeCAD to look like Michael’s:

The difference is presentational:  though the task panel is on the right it still works as I describe.  Click on XZ-plane and then the OK button.

The advantage of moving panel is the user can see the Model Tree and Tasks at the same time.   The disadvantage is it eats screen space.  The facility works best with two screens or more screens, where panels can be moved to reduce clutter.  Here, one screen is used for the 3D display

Whilst the Model and Task panels are both on Screen 2.   Now I have loads of room on the main screen, but have to remember  where the panels are.

Reconfiguring the display is liable to confuse beginners! Advanced users can change it if they want.     Possibly the mac version is tweaked on delivery because the packager likes it that way, and didn’t realise the layout might disconcert beginners following a tutorial.    Getting a reconfigurable display back to default can be tricky too…

Dave

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Having engaged ‘infinite monkeys mode’ for a while …

I have at last demonstrated that it can be done:

.

.

< phew >

MichaelG.

.

Now need to gently start build my own list of  instructions

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

How I did that concave washer of yours.

First sketch done by selecting the plane from the list, second just clicking the plane on screen

[Author]

Posts