I found that instead of typing stuff into Google to calculate, it's much smarter to use the built-in Spreadsheet, and reference its fields. That way if you want to adjust something - say, the diameter of your shaft - you change a number in the spreadsheet and the change propagates throughout all the dependent elements, instead of you having to redo the entire work manually.
On a lathe, knurling is achieved using a v-tip following a helical path up the cylinder. This is replicable in FreeCAD and would give a more authentic-looking result. You're correct, however, that the process is computationally very heavy.
Yeh it does take a while to recompute. In my lattice tutorials these are much much more faster but requires a different technique. Personally for output to physical form I would rather finish this with a tool, such as a lathe as you described (if available) or use something like blender to finish off model.
so, the issue im having currently is trying to get the pocket sketch to stay on the pads face, versus being straight on the datum plane. Do you have any suggestions?
hundreds of hours in freecad, part design workbench still seems like a waste to me, every time I try and work in it, I get frustrated after 45 min, delete everything, then make the part in the part workbench in 20 min. But as ever the software continues to grow and hopefully stuff simplified.
Thanks, I followed along and created created a object I am working on, my challenge is can you repeat the pattern across that outer plane, I tried some things, no luck. so if your still following responses for this, maybe a video on that, the great part I have learned a lot from you, thank you again, I have subscribed and been watch all you videos, keep them coming, thanks again
Hi, so glad your finding the channel useful and thanks for the kind comments. So are you looking to place the same knurling on the bottom and sides so if you did both you would cover the whole object with knurling?
@@MangoJellySolutions only on the outer round like your tutorial demonstrated, keeping the same plane in your demonstration and "Z" axis, I am thinking another plane and offset on Z axis by the length of first/second pattern, then duplicate until you have the outer round surface completely knurled, other thought was, a curved first/second pattern at the same circumference of the round, thanks for replying, les
That's interesting. I have recently been looking for a way to map a regular texture onto a curved surface, and this would work for small features being repeated in a regular manner across a curvature large in comparison to the feature size. Another variant might be using the "projection onto object" of the part workbench to mitigate some of the problems of the curvature of the surface. I still haven't found a way of projecting a texture onto a irregular surface (like putting a hexagonal pattern onto the mouse design you featured recently) and I'd be interested in your ideas on this possibility. I'm afraid my understanding of FreeCAD is somewhat thin and confined to part design, sketching and a few other random features!
Thanks for the comments. The other possibilities for repeating patterns would be the draft wb array options on the modifications menu. If you used the path array then you can make the pattern tangent to the surface using the properties on the data tab you will find align which you can set to tangent and then change the tangent vector as normally it starts with a 1 in the z when this should be in the x or y. You can then up the count to as many as you want. The path can be either a sketch path or an edge.
Could you not use a helix path, in the same way as wrapping a thread around a cylinder? but cutting it instead of a adding? Its a bit above my paygrade yet, but I thought your brain might stand a better chance than mine LOL
You should be able to, I have done this also with the path array where you can select the edge as a path. Probably be much quicker to recompute as well.
Thank you for this excellent tutorial (and all of your others too)!!! Is it possible to make knurl on other than round objects, for example if I sketch a rectangle, put fillets on the corners, extrude and knurl the whole object. Or even only the left side of the box (the two rounded corners and the straigt wall)? I've tried alot but without success :(
