I want to thank the author. This is the fourth or fifth FreeCAD video I have watched. I have some 2D CAD experience but I am new to 3D. He makes the use of the software very easy to understand, starts simply, and builds concepts from there. Very well thought out.
Hello Mr. Lewus; thanks very much for your kind compliments! I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the tutorials. FreeCAD can be a rather difficult program for newer users, so I tried to write these tutorials based on a simplified and straightforward approach. Thanks again, cheers!
This FreeCAD Tutorial is very good. Mr. Hoefer speaks clearly, works fast but unlike some other teachers; he does not swish the cursor all over the place which makes following the exercise confusing. I highly recommend Mr.Hoefer's tutorial for those of us who are 'CAD design' challenged.
Thank you very much for your kind compliments, I'm glad you enjoyed the series! I tried to make the pacing of the videos as quick as possible without extra fluff or filler, so I'm glad you appreciated it.
This is my first time using FreeCAD and this tutorial really help. Not like other tutorial spending time telling about themselves or speaking languages that I cannot understand, this tutorial is clear and I can trace them on the programme I just downloaded. Highly recommended for first-timer.
Please keep em coming !...….first time round gives you an overview ….second time you can chose a specific and I think then will always be a valuable reference tool...…...great tutorial
Hello sidster64, sorry for delayed response, I’m glad you have found the series to be useful, I’m planning on making more FreeCAD videos in the future; what topics would you like to see in future videos? Should I demonstrate how to design more advanced objects? Thank you for your feedback and your kind compliments
I am not advance the best best up for free cad preferences misplaced work benches for two day had problems with macro set and destination file but I would like to get to be able to change a jpeg into stl file my image work bench isn't running like yours and if you could make it so i could follow along same image an all just so glad you speak english thanks i never expected a response peace an have a wonderful day
I have free cad for 5 years and your have been best video of all even understand views has change a lot for me thanks again going to try to go over tutorial again i always miss something thanks again
Liked and subbed after watching one of your tutorials, it's been two years since your last. Hopefully you make more in the future when you can find time.
Hello Dino Lauro, thanks very much for your compliments. Unfortunately, both my personal and professional lives have occupied most of my free time for the last few years. However, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to find some time to make some more FreeCAD/3D printing tutorials in the near future. I’m planning on making a tips and tricks video detailing the use of some of tools that I missed in the first videos, such as the array function among other things. I’m also planning on making some example project videos to demonstrate the workflow for creating objects from scratch. Thanks again for your comment and feedback; I appreciate it. Cheers!
Thank you very much Fabricio Ferrari! I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I’ve made two other FreeCAD tutorials; Part 1 is about the Part Workbench and Part 3 is about importing images and designing objects from schematics. You can find all the videos on my RU-vid profile. Thanks again!
Thank you very much for explaining Part Design and some other functionalities of FreeCAD. Great tutorial and learning experience, a pleasure to follow through. 5 stars
Excellent again ...although I am having a problem being able to create two separate sketches like you do at 46:39 and creating pads with them. Is there a trick? I have watched and watched and cannot find my problem. Thanks.
Hello Frets Nirvana, Im glad to hear you enjoyed the tutorial. So you are having issues creating multiples sketches and creating pads with them? Are you running into issues when you try to create the sketches, or do they refuse to turn into objects when you try to pad them? Ive found that, most of the time, when a sketch fails to pad or revolve, its because all of the points in that sketch are not connected. When this happens, the object will fail to appear but the pad will show up in the combo view with an little red exclamation mark next to the icon. In order to figure out which of the elements or lines is not connected, duplicate the original sketch and double click to edit the new sketch. Then delete one of the elements or lines (I find that elements like arcs or elliptical arcs are usually the cause of the problem) and draw a line connecting the two points that the element or line used to be connected to (make sure a dot appears next to your cursor or else they will not be connected; see 12:24 for an example). Next, exit out of the sketch and try to pad or revolve it again. Two things can happen here; A) you've found the unconnected element if the pad is created without any issues. If this is the case, go back into your original sketch and delete the element which you deleted in the duplicate sketch and redraw it, making sure that a little dot icon shows up next to your cursor when you connect the dots of the element (you might have zoom in by scrolling in order to make the dot appear). B) if the pad still fails to be created, repeat the process until you find the element which is disconnected. This is actually the easiest way to find the culprit as opposed to redrawing the entire sketch. An unconnected element is usually the culprit when a pad fails to render, but its also possible that there is a duplicate constraint within the sketch. For a detailed explanation on duplicate constraints, see 21:45). Hopefully this will help you out; if you are trying to revolve the sketch like I did at 46:39, make sure that the sketch is located on the proper axis. For example, a sketch located on the horizontal axis can only be rotated around the vertical axis and vice versa. By the way, as a fellow guitarist/composer, I checked out your channel and really enjoyed your original work. Cheers!
@@RickHoefer89 Hi ...thanks for the kind words on my music endeavors ....very rarely do people watch and listen ...so thank you. Thanks for all that detail. I am going to have to recheck all of this. But for simplicity ...if I create a new unnamed document part design and create a new sketch ...I can then create a pad with it. But then if I create another sketch with something like a circle, highlight it (it is now called Sketch 001) in the model window and then request a pad. Freecad goes to the tasks window with no images showing and gives me these message "Pad: Result has multiple solids. This is not supported at this time." Maybe I am creating that second sketch wrong? My model tab/window does not look the same either. Everything ends up under a heading of "Body" whereas yours is basically showing just two sketches under "Unnamed" It does not matter if I have not done a pad yet on the first sketch. It happens on every additional sketch I try to make. Meaning they all end up as a subgroup of "Body" and I can only pad the very first sketch. Also the "Body" has an exclamation point with "Tip shape is empty (but must be executed" ...what does that mean? Also, you deserve more subs ....I just did ..TY. Keep on picking!
Very nice tutorials, helpful to beginners and experienced users alike. Having worked with CAD/CAM for many years, I have to make a couple corrections involving your pronunciation. Fillet, a rounded corner or intersection is pronounced FILL-it, not Fill-AY. CAD is an acronym for Computer Aided Design and is spoken as a word, not spelled out. Therefore FreeCAD is pronounced as it's spelled, freecad, not free-C-A-D. Anyone in industry would notice this mispronunciation immediately.
Hello Ted Whitmer; thank you very much for your complimentary review of my tutorials. Regarding the pronunciation errors; if I could go back and redo the videos, the pronunciations issues would be the primary issue I would address. About half of the comments I have received on the Part 1 video relate to the two errors you have indicated, in addition to my incorrect pronunciation of 'Euler'. I have only been using FreeCAD for about 4.5 years and everything I have learned has been from my own experience using the program. I never watched any tutorials, which would have included the correct pronunciation, instead relying upon my interpretation of the text from the various tooltips and functions within the program. I feel foolish that I did not do my research before creating the series. However, I have learned my lesson and have performed pronunciation research for my more recent videos. At least it was a linguistic error instead of a mathematical/computation error, otherwise I would feel completely incompetent haha. Cheers!
Nice tutorial. I had problems with editing imported part (in context of 3d printing). What I learned, is that once Mesh is converted to Shape, you have kind of set of Faces, but not a Solid. To have a Solid you have to convert that part further by using "Advanced utility to create shapes". First I did "Shell from faces", then "Solid from shell". And only after that I was able to properly edit (cut holes) resulting Solid and was able export and print it. When I tried to cut holes in set of Faces, Cura sliced it incorrectly. Its because sides of holes are not filled.
Hi can someone please assist. I can't seem to get my lines to connect. At 12:56, when trying to connect two lines, a RED DOT should appear next to your cursor. On my FreeCAD, the RED DOT does not appear when i hover over the points I want to connect. Is there some kind of setting I need to change? This is really frustrating me as i can't create a solid shape without connecting the lines.
Hello Thurman Ezikiel, sorry to hear about your trouble. Hopefully, this will either be easily remedied or a bit more complex. When you double click a sketch to edit it, there should be some options in your combo view (the window to the right of your workspace, you can see an example of this window at around 8:28). This window contains all of the editing parameters for the sketch. The one we are interested in is called 'Auto constraints', and is located under the grid size entry box. If you cannot see this option, try clicking the title 'Edit Controls' to bring down the pull down menu containing the option. Make sure that 'Auto Constraints' is checked, then try to connect the lines again. The program will not automatically connect the lines for you if this option is not checked. Let me know if this works for you, and if not, we will try to find a different solution. Cheers!
Thank you for the Tutorial. The mouse pointer not coming with auto constraint like your does in point constraint and straight-line constraint, and i have to this manually. Can i do something to get auto-constraint while using sketch-Part design? Thanks!
Hi Rick. I just tried to follow your tutorial but upon choosing Part Design I don't get most of wht you have on screen - grid, tools, combo box. Is it a setup / preferences thing? Cheers. PS where is the grid turn on feature?
Hello a Boswell Inniss, that is a good question; the answer primarily depends on the nature of the line in question. If it is a straight line, meaning that it is parallel to either of the sketch axes, you can select the line you wish to use and then use either the “Create Vertical Line Constraint” or “Create Horizontal Line Constraint”; when you press either of these constraints, a pop up box will appear asking to rename the constraint as well as edit the length of the line; you can use this to input the desired length of the constrained line, such as 2.92mm for example. If the line is not parallel to the axes, meaning that it is not at a right angle, you can use the “Distance Constraint”, which has an icon that looks like a double ended arrow at a 45 degrees angle. When you use this constraint, it will also ask you for a length, so you can keep the existing length or change the length to your desired value, such as 2.92 mm. Unfortunately I do not know of any command which will cause the program to draw its own line with a desired length. However, you can always set the gridsnap to your desired length, such as 2.92, and draw a line from the origin to one of the grid lines on the axes, or you could draw the line, then change the grid snap to another value and click and drag the line to a new location; it’s length should stay the same when you move it as long as you don’t drag the end points of the line. If you want your line to be a certain length and at a certain angle, you can use trigonometry to calculate the desired x and y gridsnap values. For example, if you wanted the line to be 2.92 mm long at a 30 degree angle to the x axis, the y gridsnap value would be sin(30)=y/2.92 => y=1.46, and the x gridsnap value would be cos(30)=x/2.92 => x=2.5288. Although you wouldn’t have to use trig calculations if you use the Distance Constraint mentioned earlier, since the length will always stay at the value you input. Hope that helps!
I have Freecad 0.18 running on Mac OS Catalina. But the Part Design Workbench and Sketch workbench do not appear when selected (the various tools do not appear). All other workbenches work fine. I tried downloading and reinstalling, but it did not solve the problem. Can anyone help??
When I create a file for a Turner's Cube the image changes to a solid when I 3D print it. Any assistance to correct this would be appreciated . Thanks in advance.
Hi, Is it possible to relate length of one line to another? for example: line 1 is 50mm and I want line 2 be equal: 2 x line 1. do you know any free CAD which can do it?
Hello MARTA Doroszkiewicz, unfortunately I am unaware of such a feature. There is an equality constraint, which sets the length of two lines equal to each other, but there is no scaling constraint that I currently know of (such as line 1 length = x * line 2 length, where x is the scaling factor, such as x=2 like from your example). The only way to adjust the length of a line relative to another is to manually input the value of each line, meaning whenever you alter the length of the first line, you would have to change the length of the second line to coincide with the scale you require. I’ll do some research and see if I can find a way to make such a constraint, maybe through the use of macros. I’ll let you know what I find. Cheers!
Hi Rick, thank you for so quick respond, I have done a bit more searching looking on auto cad, learn about two different constraints and as a result , I added some additional worlds for search and I found this tutorial. I think this is my solution, I am just trying to check it wright now. Simply this gives some option of parameters in constraining the geometry. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b07qbhYHZbU.html
Hi Rick, I have a rectangular surface with a line in the middle, now I want to extrude the line in the direction normal to the surface of the rectangle, to create another rectangle perpendicular to the first one. How would you do it? (I want zero thickness for the surfaces as I would be using them for importing to FEA software later)
Hello Rupa Russe, to be totally honest with you, I do not have any experience with step files. The two files types I am most familiar with are .stl and .obj files. However, if you are asking how to combine multiple primitives into a single object for exportation, the simplest way is to use the Fusion function located under the Part Workbench. To start with, select the first two primitives you want to be incorporated into the finished object by using control and clicking to select them and fuse them together. Then select the fusion you just created and the 3rd primitive and fuse them together, then keep repeating with each primitive until they are all included in the final fusion. Then select the finished fusion and use export under the file menu to export it as your desired file type. You can see an example of the fusion operation in my FreeCAD Tutorial Part 1 video. Hopefully this will help, thanks for watching!
@@RickHoefer89 This is really helpful guidance. I have watched hours of videos (in English and German?) and yours have been the most direct and straightforward. Thank you!
Could anyone give me a hand with sketching? After sketching a 2D image and turning it into a Pad or a revolution I am getting an error message stating "failed to validate broken faces" All my lines and fillets are connected to one another. Am I doing something wrong? Any help, advice, or tips would be greatly appreciated? Thank you.
Hi Rick, I see you have sketcher tools on your part design workbench. They don't come up on mine V .17. Sketcher doesn't show under VIEW-Toolbars either so not unchecked. Any help would be appreciated
Hello Peter, my first thought is that maybe the toolbar is pushed off the side of the screen by the other toolbars; try to drag one of the bigger toolbars that are visible down to a new row underneath the others to free up some room. For example; in my video my first row of toolbars is just the view buttons and the ruler, then the second row is sketch tools and the third row is constraints. You can move the toolbars by clicking the grey line at the right of the toolbar and dragging them around, you can make a new row by dragging them under the last row. Hopefully the sketch tools will pop up when some space is freed up. If that doesn’t work, it could be that the installed file or the system config file may be corrupted; I know it’s a pain but maybe downloading a fresh version of FreeCAD and reinstalling it might help. If that doesn’t work, try downloading and installing 0.16 and see if the tools show up on that version. Hopefully this helps, good luck!
Hi Rick, I see it in 16, reloaded 17, I think they've changed it. From part design start a new doc, it asks to create a body. click. then asks to create a sketch. click, then choose workplane. choose OK. This sends you to sketcher WB. make your sketch then press ' exit sketch edit '. this sends you back to part design WB. From there to edit your sketch, press ' edit selected sketch ' icon. back to sketcher WB. etc. etc. I think access is now a back and forth process.
Hello Randy Fleet, I’m sorry to hear that your having an issue with exportation. I’ve never experienced the problem that you are encountering; whenever I go to export an object, Ive always been able to select the file type from the pull down menu. What version of FreeCAD are you currently running? Here’s some ideas that might help: there is a pull down menu located at the top of the screen called ‘FreeCAD’, it’s in the same tool bar as ‘file’ and ‘edit’. Click the ‘FreeCAD’ pull down menu and select ‘Preferences’. This should bring up a pop up menu for the program preferences, and there should be an option for Import-export preferences in that pop-up. There might be a setting there you can use to try to fix the issue. Here’s another thought; when you go to export the object, type the prefix of the file you want it to be next to the name. For instance, if you want an OBJ file, type ‘name.obj’ into the file name for exportation and see if that works. You could also try exporting the file as a html file and then go to the file and pull up the file info, then change the suffix from .html to the type you want it to be. For instance, change it from ‘name.html’ to ‘name.obj’. If all else fails, you might have to do a fresh reinstall using the latest version from the FreeCAD website. Hopefully one of these options will work for you, if you need further assistance I’m always happy to help.
Hello Todd Sutton, my apologies for my very belated response; you can change the unit within the program by highlighting the 'mm' text in the data section for an object and tying 'in'. That will change the units from mm to inches. I also believe you can enter 'ft' for feet, however, I have yet to try this.
Very good presentation .thank you! After your class I create a 3D model and I export to stl file ferst time and then I modify same file and ad some New fishers I have problems to export new STL file. Could you please help me Thanks Peter Peter
Hello Peter, I’m glad you enjoyed the video. So you said you exported a model as an STL and then you modified it and when you exported it again it didn’t work? Did you import the STL you exported, convert it into and object, and edit it, or did you modify the original model in FreeCAD that you used to export the first STL and try to export it a second time with the new modifications? Also I’m not sure what you mean when you say you added new fishers, sorry I don’t mean to sound rude by saying I didn’t understand you, it could be that I’m not familiar with the terminology. Did FreeCAD display any messages when the model failed to export? I’m thinking I might need some more clues to figure this out. My first thought is that if you tried to export the STL using the same name as the original, then the program would warn you that your about to over write the original, so that might be one of the issues. My next thought is that the program might not let you export an imported STL file as an STL file, so you might have to convert the imported STL into a solid object and then try exporting it again. My next thought is to try exporting it as an .obj file instead an see if that works. My last thought is if your trying to export a mesh as an STL and there is something wrong with the mesh then exporting won’t work; if that’s the case, then you might be able to fix it by going to the mesh workbench and then selecting the mesh pulldown menu at the very top of the screen, where the file and edit menus are. The mesh pulldown menu has some tools for fixing up the meshes, so hopefully that will help. Sorry I can’t think of what the problem might be without some more specific information, like export error message. Good luck, thanks for watching
Rick Hoefer Thank you very much for quick response, is very helpful and tomorrow I will try your suggestions. Sorry for the funny word I meant create new cuts and holes. Thanks Peter
Rick Hoefer After I export to STL I decided to add cuts and change some dimensions. When I open this model from the file in part Desgin I tried to do those changes but freeCad won’t let me do any thing, I try to covert to cad model . And i did some think I don’t remember what. FreeCad let me do all changes I saved the file under same name.Next step I tried to exporting to STL , then program warn me :file already exists Do you want to replace it? I pick Yes. Next I opened documents and looked Proporty it not STL file type and size 0 KB. Before I did that I saved those two files on memory stick: old CTL file original and modified file . After I tried changed the names but nothing happened. Now if I tried to add some thank to the modified it would let me do. Sorry for my writing because English my second language. Thank you very much for your help Peter
Hello Peter, thanks for the information about your problem. It sounds like your problem is pretty technical, would you mind emailing the FreeCAD file of the modified model to me so I can take a look at it for you? I promise I will keep your work confidential and I won’t send it anywhere else. My email address is rwhproductions@gmail.com If I can figure out what the problem is I will email the modified STL back to you and an explanation of what the problem is.
Ed Smelly; My apologies for the error in pronunciation, several other viewers have also brought this issue to my attention in the comment section for the Part 1 video, but unfortunately I had already created and posted Parts 2 and 3 with the same incorrect pronunciation before being made aware of my mistake. Apologies for any other grammatical/enunciation mistakes in this series. Thanks for watching!
