Відео

it's ok, i figured it out... my arc and my slot were not connected, i did try and join the lines but ended up re-sketching the slot making sure the points turn yellow to ensure lines are connected.

Awesome work, you got it! FreeCAD 1.0 release candidate is available and way more stable then the current version and you get a lot less of these kids if issues. The freeCAD Devs are really brining out the A game on the next release, it really feels like something special. 🍻

Wow sounds like a cool solution. I love how FreeCAD is giving us the power to do you're own thing without having 20 old guys telling you that's not the way ... I'm looking at you Catia! I'm a big whiskey guy but I love the Brandy style glasses. I switch it up between scotch: Glenfiddich 15, Bourbon: Buffalo Trace and Rye: Lot 40 copper pot. So I can't remember what I was enjoying in that video. 🍻

Thank you. I'm glad the video came in handy. I really wish that you could add these limits to the dimensions themselves, it would be a kickass features for going back to old designs years later. 🍻

​@@QEngineering Hi again Quin, I've been meaning to get back to you regarding spreadsheets in Freecad. I was well through a model with a large spreadsheet when I found your video and incorporated conditional statements into my existing sheet. As I said, it was already a large spreadsheet plus I wanted all the info in one sheet only, so I had to work around a bit to get it to function- a confusing phase until eventually a light turned on. That done, the spreadsheet looked like something out of a horror movie, Frankenstein came to mind! But it worked and I was happy about that. Since then I've created a few simple practice models driven by spreadsheets using conditional statements. Over time, I've managed to refine the sheets to the point they look fairly simple and entirely respectable. Now I need to go back to my initial project and rebuild or start again on a better spreadsheet layout, one I can come back to in the future and not be totally confused when I look at it! Cheers.

Awesome, keep it up, a 3D design education usually becomes a 3D printing addiction. Which is the sweetest addiction of them all.🤗 🍻

You're very welcome !!! 🍻

Glad I could help, I'll have a better video out soon that reflects the v1 changes, hopefully I'll make things a bit more clear in my 2nd attempt. 🍻

Word! 😎🙃 🍻

Many many you're welcomes 🤗 🍻

You're very welcome, and thank you for leaving a comment. In the next release of FreeCAD the auto constraint system will do this when you hover over the middle of the line. 🍻

The good news is that the next the release does have a midpoint auto constraint when you hover close to the center of a line. Just don't forget that FreeCAD isn't even in version 1.0 yet, so I can see them having to prioritize development of key features and trying to navigate around some of Adobi's scummy patents that maintain their monopoly on CAD software.

Think of it this way, every element you draw can be manipulated in many ways (degrees of freedom), this makes the element unpredictable. So you setup constraints to make it's behaviour predictable. This is important in parametric designs. Confused? Well imagine your designing something for 3D printing at home, you print the prototype and discover that everything is good in the x and y dimensions but you want to add a bit of room in the z dimension. If you have your constraints setup properly you could just change the z dimension and everything would figure itself out based it's "rules of behaviour" (aka constraints). In the same scenario if you didn't use constraints a simple change in the z dimensions may require you to manually update hundreds of elements by hand. When I did my engineering internship in the 90s parametric designs really weren't used. On one project when the design specs changed I had to edit 300 2D AutoCAD drawings, and calculating the offset of elements by hand to reflect the change, this took me over 500hours to complete.

CAD is so much fun, still blows my mind to see something go from my imagination to computer memory then out to the old 3D printer. Best of luck on your creative journey. Cheers 🍻

The beta version of FreeCAD v1.0 has an offset tool that makes this process much easier, I'll do an update video once the release date is closer. 🍻

My workflow is to first find a staring point, this could be a reference that I measured an object from or something like the center of the object. I also consider what pattern feature I will use (mirror, polar or linear) and setup the sketch for that. I then draw a general outline of the shape I need, I'll make sure everything in joined up using point and coincidence constraints. Then I'll apply horizontal and vertical constraints, then angles. After that I worry about dimensions. I also don't bother doing any chamfers or fillets on a sketch level. The big thing is not to overdo the amount of features on a sketch. If for example you have a square lid with a bolt hole in each corner I would first sketch a square using the center of the box as my reference, extrude it, then make a 2nd sketch for one of the bolt holes and use a polar transform to generate the 3 other bolt holes. Then lastly I'd apply chamfers and fillets last. Hope that helps, I am planing to make videos on this subject when the next version of freecad comes out, they've made significant changes on the UI side so I'm holding off until the dev team finishes their magic. 🍻

@@QEngineering Thanks for the details. Keeping sketches simple and doing lots of them makes so much sense I feel dumb for not thinking of it!

Your welcome, The next version of freecad has a build in offset took which makes this process a lot easier. I'll make a followup video on this one showing the technique when it comes out. Cheers. 🍻

@@QEngineering The Design for my specific Anki Holder from Scratch to the result as stl needed 1 hour, incl. your video. Without your video my trial and error for the connection would have definitely taken longer. Now the prototype of the holder is printing. If all fits --> printing the next 5 transportholder and tomorrow all the Anki stuff can be transported cleanly without any damage. :) freecad isn't my daily work but I like it to do new stuff and videos like yours are nuggets to safe time. THX and greetings from germany =)

The FreeCAD GitHub has a weekly beta build that you could run to test the new feature. A word of warning is that it's not a stable release so dont use it for anything you consider critical. github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-Bundle/releases/tag/weekly-builds 🍻

Thanks

@@emilejvr3475 anytime

You're going to love the next version. The team added so many modern features and quality of life changes that it's hopefully going to be a much easier program to learn for the next group of new users. 🍻

From one Quin(n) to another you are very welcome. 🍻

For the longest time the expression engine had an issue with things not showing up in the drop down but if you knew the exact name you could still type it in and get the value. That being said my workflow is to type in the values first then reference them later, no reason for it, I just like doing it that way.

Ok, I found it, you need to use the conditional expressions with the question mark '?'. Because it produces really big expressions, I guess, I will work without them and do the validation by myself (human brain, lol). I think it is better to choose meaning full names, then it should be clear. Edit: I found your video: "FreeCAD Tutorial Conditional Statements in Spreadsheets" where you explain how to do this with two spreadsheets. Nice approach, thank you.

Answering to my own question: I guess it is better not to work with the full units because "-1 mm" will be treated as text. So, better check that the are set right under: Preferences > General > Unit System

Most the things that I design at home are designed to be 3D printed, all my measuring tools at home are set to mm. So when I sit down in front of FreeCAD I don't think about changing units. That being said I've designed things for both the American and Japanese markets and the worse sin that you can commit is mixing measurement types. As a jr engineer in the 90s I watched someone get walked out the building for designing a tool head for a robot in inches but then using metric for all the hardware (bolts, washers ... Etc).

@@QEngineeringThen I guess it is better not to include the units on the measurements. Anyway, that thing with the negative numbers and the units is not good solved.

Thank you for the compliment. I've been getting my butt kicked on a project at work and seeing this really cheered me up +100 cool kid points 😎. 🍻

This is a workflow that I was shown by the old boys back in the 90s when solid works started being a thing.

Thank you 🍻

Glad I could pass on the knowledge ☺️. Greetings from 🇨🇦. I came from Solid Works and Catia and even I had a hard time starting out. FreeCAD basically went it's own way rather then coping other software. This makes it harder to learn but once you get use to the FreeCAD way it makes the other CAD software feel 20 years out of date. 🍻

FreeCAD has been making some real advances over the years. The next version of FreeCAD will include a fix to the Topo naming issue and an integrated assembly work bench, this will make FreeCAD an absolute monster. 🍻

@@QEngineering What TOPO naming problem ?

@@ajarivas72If you edit a part and the edit causes a new face to appear FreeCAD will renumber the faces which can cause your model to break (the wrong faces will stick to each other). It's freeCADs biggest issues. A dev names realthunder came up with a fix a few years ago in his own branch (link stage 3, aka FreeCAD RT).

@@QEngineering Thanks for the clarification. I know and use FreeCAD real-thunder, it's a great variant. Most of the time I use the normal FreeCAD. The topological naming problem you mention, it is not new to me. Drawing everything with topological Python scripting has helped me to avoid that issue, furthermore employing Python scripting has helped me to automatize most of my work and that has let me use FreeCAD in batch more with the command freecadcmd. My first encounter with FreeCAD was in February 2016. I love it since then.

@@ajarivas72 if you reference everything to the origin (0,0,0) you will never get effected by topo naming. I'll often do this, say rather then sketching in a face, I'll create a sketch on a parallel plane then using the attachment editor I'll offset the z by the height of the pad.length value. I started working with 3d designs in 2000 and the old mechanical engineers use to reference everything to the origin and I never understood why until I stared with freeCAD (in 2015). Apparently the first few versions of Catia and Solid Works suffered from this as well. I haven't done much work with python in FreeCAD but you definitely make it sound cool. 🍻

Thank you, The audio side of video creation is still something I struggle with, I'm aiming for -4 db in "stars for nerds" which seems to work great on YT. 🍻

I make my tutorials on a base install of FreeCAD for this very reason, while versions such as real thunders are great the do come with bugs that may not be constant across different platforms. Happy that you got it going 😁. 🍻

Happy to be of service. 🍻

My pleasure. 🍻

Yes, this is what I was looking for, VERY HELPFUL!!!

I'm glad I got your imagination going, knowledge is golden but imagination is priceless. It sounds like your 100% on the right path, the solution you have sounds very logical and if it works for you that's amazing. Keep doing what makes sense for you. Personally what I've started doing in some designs is using 3 fields, 1 is the dimension, 2nd is an offset and the 3rd is the total on both. I then use the total as the volume. I like this because I can maintain my optimal dimensions and see the offset which is compensation for my 3d printer tolerance, it works well for me because I can take a look at the design years later and know what's going on. Which is basically what your seem to be doing but I like dealing with hard values (ie 0.1mm) while you like percentages, which is simply a personal style. Keep up the great work really sounds like you're rockin FreeCAD. 🍻

May your cup never go empty. 🍻

I'm just glad I had the opportunity to share some knowledge. 🍻

Glad I could help. Love the UK, I spent quite a bit of time with your RAF boys when I was in the RCAF. 🍻

I'm glad I could help. Cheers.

@@QEngineering Nice feature. I like it very much. FreeCAD is becoming more powerful each day

Happy New Year, best wishes to you and your loved ones. I haven't been active because I've had a lot of chances in my life (all good) and I just haven't found a good balance that gives me the free time to make good quality videos that respect the time that people invest in watching them ... Wow I sound like a real adult there didn't I ? 🍻

You're welcome, although I'm now wanted by the UA-cam police for not having a mandatory a long intro, not having a like/share/sub rant or a raid shadows ad. 😋 Thanks for leaving a comment! 🍻

You are very welcome. 🍻

Truer words were never spoken. Mastering constraints is the first (and most critical) step to unlocking parametric design skills. 🍻

literally why i'm currently here. lol. I'm assuming this is the "SLOW" part folk complain about with it vs say.....fusion. fusion let me down so i switched to this. yay. No tablet to take advantage of shapr3d at the moment.

You can change the hotkey that fires up and command under Tools -> customize -> keyboard, but I don't see a way to remap the mode shortcut 'M'. 🍻

I'll didn't even think of doing that 🤯, definitely sounds like a fun thing to try !!! 🍻