FreeCAD 0.14.3700 on WIndows 7 - 64 bit Pad Operation used with Options Pocket Operation used with Options Showed constraining Model is available at GrabCAD (free registration required): grabcad.com/li... or at Github: github.com/BPL...
Free cad is a very fine program. I have 2 diplomas in Mechanical engineering. I am 74yo with 5 strokes and 4 heart attacks with 2 heart shocks. I am a master tool and die maker also retired and owned a machine shop for 32 years. I have used auto cad , solid works, Pro-e Fire wire, Onshape and Master Cam. I have watched several RU-vid tutorials and re-watched them over and over to learn. I love this tutorial. His voice is very clear and his training is the best. I wish that I could make the cad programs but i am not a programmer. Free Cad fits my budget perfectly and is very powerful. I have stopped trying to learn Turbo Cad platinium20/20and I decided to concentrate on learning Free Cad. This tutorial is great. I thank every one who helped make the Free Cad program and everybody who teaches how to use it. Thank you very much!!!! Good luck to all the users of Free Cad and teachers.!!!
Dear sir you must have about the best tutorials I have ever seen. Following along 5 yrs later on Freecad 19 and everything worked fantastic. Genius. Everything makes sense now. I know there is more so I am moving to your ashtray model. Thank you very much. BTW, to people who come here There have been some changes in the program since 0.14 to 0.19. Some of the commands and buttons he is using are no longer in Part Design but can be found in Sketcher
This gentleman is a genius. I am using version 18 and the 2nd last pocket operation to the first face did not refine the face into one in the Part Design Workbench. So instead of doing "to first face" I changed pocket to 10mm for "dimension" and then that face was refined perfectly into one.
I am going to watch every single one of your videos, they are excellent and it's not like some of those videos where you learn one little thing in 30 minutes, you taught me half of freecad in a single video! Keep them coming and thanks again for all of your help and response!
Thank you so much for the effort and time that you have put into these fantastic video lessons! I have used AutoCAD and other modeling products in the past and I really like what I see in FreeCAD so far. I think the idea of roughing out a sketch and then applying constraints works extremely well. Also, thanks to all of the developers who have put their time into this fantastic project. Note: I removed my original question because I saw the error of my ways! :)
Thank you so much for these tutorials and although I can draft in AutoCad I was finding myself at a loss of where to even start with this freeCAD program. I came across your 13 part ‘Lessons for Beginners’ and have so far successfully completed up to number 4 and I am starting to understand more and more with each lesson. This has taken quite some time and effort on your part in order to help others like myself to get started and you have done so in an easy to understand and structured way, so again, thank you very much for this series of tutorials.
Thank you for the great instruction! I got hung-up on the sketch initially because it wasn't fully constrained. It took me a long time to fix it but I'm learning and was able to complete the model.
5:40 "And then I will go back to the origin. Now we have over-constraining." 😎 [Ctrl + Shift + R] Select Redundant Constraints [Ctrl + Shift + E] Select Conflicting Constraints _Listed under_ Main Menu: [Part Design] - [Sketcher tools]
It fixes the foot of a welded structure, allowing an adjustment in position and pitch of the structure. The big front hole is for a screw fixing the end position and the two small holes hold a pin allowing adjusting the picht (angle) of the complete structure to be adjusted.
Many thanks for these videos, I hope you realise you're going to be responsible for single handily getting people into FreeCAD and there by CAD in general which is a great thing! Question: Is it possible to merge points when in sketch mode, for some reason I sometime create an additional unwanted point instead of creating a closed or linked sketch?
+Dan Gascoyne Yes, just select the two points and choose the coincident constraint. Remember the fist Circle Sketch we did with Tutorial 1 - Turners Cube around Minute 28:00 ?
You know when you ask a question and then the penny drops, that just happened whilst doing lesson 05 right now! It's the terminology that threw me as the whole concept of constraints makes complete sense but is alien to me (I've dabbled in 3D surface modellers before like Lightwave but not CAD based stuff). Once again thanks for you support :P
Ok, I just started learning how to use FreeCAD and these tutorials seem to be a great way to learn how to use the program. Using objects to teach is also a great idea. I'm running into the same issue with a couple of the Parts Design tutorials. After padding my initial sketch and choosing a face in which to draw another sketch. The vertical and horizontal center lines are not centered so I can use them to work with. For example: @15:26 You create a rectangle and center the vertical lines so the rectangle is in the center of the object. Using the X and Y axis lines (vertical and horizontal lines) How do I center the object so I can sketch using the center lines (vertical and horizontal lines)? I know there is an option to fix it, but I cant find it. Why isn't the object just centered every time I start a new sketch? Or why cant you move the object or have it snap to either the vertical line, horizontal line or center the object on both? Or in the Task menu of the sketch have an option to snap to center, vertical or horizontal lines. Or instead of moving the object just move the lines. I mean I could create a couple lines, modify the length and get the center myself but whose to say its exactly the center or possibly a tenth of a millimeter off. Another issue, sometimes when I hover over items on the menu bar, the hover text doesn't appear letting me know which tool it is. Just something to think about. Like I said, I'm new to the program and there couple be an extremely easy way to center the object that I don't know. But if there is why isn't it on the left side in the Combo View?
RIP sir. It is total bullshit that lots of shitty people are going on their shitty lives and a gentlemen like this (obviously a master in his profession) died at his young ages. Unfair.
at about 14:20 in your vid when you show "model already did refinement" and you show that the top is now one surface and the bottom is now one surface. On my model the top of my part is now one surface but the bottom is 2 surfaces along with the line?? I'm using version15 I checked the 3 check boxes in part design preferences are all checked. I've also redrawn it a few times but always get the bottom being 2 surfaces along with the line. Any idea what's going wrong? Thanks in advance
+jsdspif3 nevermind. in a post someone states there's a bug in ver. 15 refinemenet and to use the dimension of 10mm. I did that and now the bottom and top are one surface with no line. False alarm. Thanks anyway. Sorry about that. Thanks to the poster with the correction.
When I applied the first pocket operation, It didn't remove the material. It just created a line marking where the pocket would have been applied? Using version 16.
Thank you for the helpful video. . . I did make this but when I try to export as an .stl file, it does not look right at all. None of the pockets or pads are there that we made. Just basically a hunk from the first basic sketch with pad. And if I export it as an .iges file, it's even worse, looks very strange. Any input on this? Thanks
+johnsbigboytoys When exporting to STL or other 3D you have to specifically mark the solid to be exported. In your case, please: > select the LAST feature in the tree view (pocket004) > select (from pull-down-menu) "File > Export" > in the now open dialog, make sure STL is set as File type. > apply a file name (no ending ".stl" needed) and hit Return or click on "Save". and everything should be fine.
+Learn FreeCAD Wow, you are a genius! I did exactly what you said and it worked perfectly! This was ruining my day and ruining freecad for me! Thank you so much and thank you for such a fast response, I don't think I had to wait an hour! Anything you need, just ask. I am subscribing.
I have been having trouble following this because evidently the program has changed since this video. When I go into part design, and then start a new sketch, it automatically changes to the sketcher workbench. Also, all kinds of unintended things are happening. I get inconsistent results. I'm trying out the program for the first time, trying to follow along. I think I'm going to give designspark a try before continuing.
Thanks so much for these videos. I followed this exactly and got a slightly different result. I noticed that even though I have automatic refinement enabled it does not join all faces/remove lines like in this demo. Some it removed and others it leaves. I'm using version 15 on Ubuntu. I'm not sure why it does this or how to manually refine the piece. @14:00 you add a pocket and freecad auto-refines the top and bottom. On mine it refined only the top and left the bottom as 2 faces. How can I fix that?
RoscoeT99 Hello. This is a known bug in 0.15 stable release. I reported back and it is already fixed. For Version 15 the bug appears if I remember correctly when using pad option "to last" on second pad (pad001). It APPEARS NOT using "Dimension" value (in this cas 10 mm). BPLRFE
is there a way to increase the size of the cursor text? (I think that is the correct term. The dim's shown next to the cursor). Mine is very small, so much so it's really not readable. I see that it's there,but it's to small to read the numbers??
+jsdspif3 Are you talking about the sketcher dimensions ? Within FreeCAD, look at the top menu row. Choose "Edit > Preferences" and click on the left row on the "Display"-icon. Then choose on the right side the tab labeled "Sketcher" und scroll down a little bit. I set the Font size for sketch editing to 14 px and feel quite comfortable with that.
+Learn FreeCAD no . When you first started the sketch using the poly line tool and you say "I'll make sure the polyline tool recognizes the origin" and you place the crosshairs on the center point of the axes there are dim's next to the crosshairs showing where the crosshairs are positioned, and if you were to move the cursor around those small dim's change showing where the cursor is now at in it's new position. In your video they are the small blue numbers. Even in your video they seem so small but I almost think mine are smaller than that. Is there a way to make these larger ?
+jsdspif3 They show the co-ordinates of the cursor. I have to admit I never pay attention to them. Constraining is more important. For visual reference you can also toggle a grid via the Preferences for the sketcher ... But anyway interesting question, i will ask if somebody on the forum knows ...
I really do give up. I follow the tutorial, copy the processes and get stuck with constraints for hours, to me a completely pointless task given you should be able to simply tell it the overall size, the centre point you want and none of this clicking 8 or 9 lines to make them fixed. I just spent 20 minutes in dumbfuckery mode trying to constrain something that each time it accepted a constraint, complained about it but would not suggest what constrain I needed despite SELECTING TWO FUCKING LINES TO WORK WITH. Jeezus, this program is really annoying. When I was about 12, I had a play on a very early cad system, one that had a light pen and all that, long before a mouse was a thing and making stuf was very easy, point, select, cut or remove or intersect depending on the operation, and easily manipulated. This thing takes about 20 steps to just put in a wire frame.
