I'll add that the part workbench is the first layer on top of the geometry kernel, while part design is a user interface layer on top of the part workbench. So when something breaks in part design, it can often be fixed by taking the shape apart and fixing it manually in the part workbench. Useful when you have several hours in a project and get stuck.
That is actually a good way of seeing this. I do a similar thing in Fusion360. When the Solid model is stuck I go into surface mode to repair it. BUT Part workbench lacks many important tools like G2 fillets etc. That makes Part Design for me often still the rather first step to use.
Wow, dense, in a good way. I'm coming from a Sketchup background and found the Part Design workbench exciting, but also tedious. I now understand that I'm much more accustomed with the Part workbench rather than Part Design. I called this video dense as in I feel I'll have to rewatch this after I become more proficient at FreeCAD a few times to fully understand it. Thanks for putting this out, I'll be watching more.
Thank you, I can understand why you prefer that workflow. I to am a lover of the part over part design for the work I do. So much more flexible. Glad your enjoying the videos. 😊😊👍👍
As always superb tutorial ive watched so many of youre earlier ones that have helped me very much. Now that freecad is going to version 1 I will be watching every single one you make. Once again thank you so much
Yes this is going to be a whole course. It's a bit different to my previous learning freecad series which is still valid for this version of freecad. Glad your enjoying. BTW. next video is out today.
Extrude is the process of adding volume by extruding a profile where as pad is an extrude that fuses with the previous operation (if there is one). To do this with an extrude you would also need to run a boolean operation.
As a FreeCAD newbie, all I can say is: Thank you for explaining that weird workbench split! FreeCAD seems in many places unnecessarily hard to learn: why aren't these just called "Solid" and "Surface" workbenches? (Also: Why are they separate at all? The intent is the same for both - e.g. Onshape puts both concepts in their "part studio")
No problems, glad I could help. I am in total agreement with you, I wish this was all under one workbench to make things easier as per other CAD packages. I think freeCAD wanted to implement the feature based workflow after the part workbench was in existence and it was easier to start from a fresh workbench.
I don't know why, but as a newbie with some experience with openSCAD, i found out that Part and Part design feel like different programs. Maybe I discovered some stuff randomly, but I tried to design simple bathroom towel hook - shape consisting of two arcs and one line, or something like upside down J letter with rounded Y. First I tried to draw sketch. J letter part was relatively easy. Adding second part broke constrains one way or other, I was not able to make arc and make boolean operation of sketches, nothing. Then I experimented with part. First it does not have body which is weird. I made arc with outer dimension, cylinder with inner dimension subtract. Add rectangle, fuse. Upside down J done. I draw sketch with two arces with given end angles, diameters, connected them by line, then extruded sketch, positioned it manually, fused. Done. So what took me like two hours and 4 failed attempts was accomplished in 20 minutes, even faster than openscad (which i tried to import, but extrusion failed). Since now I assume that boolean operations work better in Part.
The sketch was added from a previous action. This part of the video is going through how the project differ when they structure themselves after each operation. Don't worry as you progress to the next videos in the course you will see this appear as you start to model.
Sometimes Part workbench at first might seem worse option but things like boolean operations works much better than in part design. Sometimes sadly further editing geometry can brake in both benches when importing stl and converting it to solid.
It's funny you should say that. I am in the process of a project where I keep going back to refine an assembly after I make modifications in the build and new material comes available (I am restoring an old Greenhouse and finding salvage wood so I have to make adjustments to the different parts and remodel on the go) I am using A2plus for the ease of use over Assembly 4 but I am looking to swap to the new integrated assembly wb as I have done a lot of re-attachment due to new edges being created causing topo issues. I am hoping I don't hit the same problems and want to do a video on the results.
@@MangoJellySolutions Hi Mango. Could you do a video on the tree, data, view , propreties tables and field ? all those tables that appears on the left side when you create a part or an assy. I have soo many questions regarding this maybe it cold help a lot to have you introduce these tables. For exemple, i right clicked on a body in the tree, went down to tree setting and checked «show description». I cannot find how to write the description of a part or an assy. I see the column being added, but cant find the cell were i have to write it. I was wondering also if you could point at a cell that could host the revision value.
@@guillaumevincent716 This question has been driving me nuts all week. Finally found it. Description is know as 'Label2', of course it is lol! So you may not see it on everything so you will need to right click on the data tab and check 'show hidden'. I have also had another request from a patreon regarding a treeview video so will like to blend in this information as well. Revision value, you could right click and add property for a custom property? Would that work?
@@guillaumevincent716 Oh an addition! just found this out. click in the description cell, hit F2. You can edit it if the object has a label 2! Every days a school day (found out that one by accident as i just dropped my mug on my keyboard!!)
When discussing the different workbench functionality via example it would have been helpful, obvious frankly, to have been in the appropriate workbench at the time of each examples illustration rather than simply staying in "start". As it stands the only cue as to which you are talking about is your vocal one which of course is lost at a point in time in the past as you flip back and forth. Why discard the visual cue so carelessly?
Here's my guess. With freecad being open sourced, each workbench may have a different creator. Since the workbenches are designed to do specific things and use similar tools to get there, they name the tools differently as not to confuse the user as to which WB they are using. I have experienced errors in one WB and no errors in another WB while using the same steps. So, either I'm neglecting the particular order of steps (required in 1 WB) or the WB isn't designed to accomplish the task. Blending tasks within different WB's seems to error often. Presently, I'm fighting with curves WB profile-pipeline using the same steps done on a successful model, but, hasn't worked on a similar model. The non-working path is a rounded rectangle, primitive compared to the successful model. What a way to ruin a sunday afternoon ... freecad addiction. Lol 😂
@@dbeelee8564Haha. Well what can I say. I too persevere until I accomplish the task. But then forget how I did it the last time in order to accomplish something similar. Terribly frustrating.
I'll add that the part workbench is the first layer on top of the geometry kernel, while part design is a user interface layer on top of the part workbench. So when something breaks in part design, it can often be fixed by taking the shape apart and fixing it manually in the part workbench. Useful when you have several hours in a project and get stuck.
That is actually a good way of seeing this.
I do a similar thing in Fusion360. When the Solid model is stuck I go into surface mode to repair it.
BUT
Part workbench lacks many important tools like G2 fillets etc.
That makes Part Design for me often still the rather first step to use.
Very helpful clarification of these similar but different workbenches - I wish I'd seen this when I first started using FreeCAD meant years ago!
Wow, dense, in a good way. I'm coming from a Sketchup background and found the Part Design workbench exciting, but also tedious. I now understand that I'm much more accustomed with the Part workbench rather than Part Design. I called this video dense as in I feel I'll have to rewatch this after I become more proficient at FreeCAD a few times to fully understand it. Thanks for putting this out, I'll be watching more.
Thank you, I can understand why you prefer that workflow. I to am a lover of the part over part design for the work I do. So much more flexible. Glad your enjoying the videos. 😊😊👍👍
Excellent distinction between these two apparently similar workbenches.. Thanks
Thank you :) Was trying to keep it as short as possible and glad it came across. Thanks for the comment.
As always superb tutorial ive watched so many of youre earlier ones that have helped me very much. Now that freecad is going to version 1 I will be watching every single one you make. Once again thank you so much
Are you going to do more? I finally found a tutorial that helps with learning freeCAD! Please Please don't stop now.
Yes this is going to be a whole course. It's a bit different to my previous learning freecad series which is still valid for this version of freecad. Glad your enjoying. BTW. next video is out today.
4:34 what is the distinction between "extrude" and "pad"?
Extrude is the process of adding volume by extruding a profile where as pad is an extrude that fuses with the previous operation (if there is one). To do this with an extrude you would also need to run a boolean operation.
As a FreeCAD newbie, all I can say is: Thank you for explaining that weird workbench split! FreeCAD seems in many places unnecessarily hard to learn: why aren't these just called "Solid" and "Surface" workbenches? (Also: Why are they separate at all? The intent is the same for both - e.g. Onshape puts both concepts in their "part studio")
No problems, glad I could help. I am in total agreement with you, I wish this was all under one workbench to make things easier as per other CAD packages. I think freeCAD wanted to implement the feature based workflow after the part workbench was in existence and it was easier to start from a fresh workbench.
4:20 How do I know which workbench is open? I don't see either referred to on the screen.
The current workbench will be shown in the drop down. The tools will also differ from others.
I don't know why, but as a newbie with some experience with openSCAD, i found out that Part and Part design feel like different programs. Maybe I discovered some stuff randomly, but I tried to design simple bathroom towel hook - shape consisting of two arcs and one line, or something like upside down J letter with rounded Y. First I tried to draw sketch. J letter part was relatively easy. Adding second part broke constrains one way or other, I was not able to make arc and make boolean operation of sketches, nothing. Then I experimented with part. First it does not have body which is weird. I made arc with outer dimension, cylinder with inner dimension subtract. Add rectangle, fuse. Upside down J done. I draw sketch with two arces with given end angles, diameters, connected them by line, then extruded sketch, positioned it manually, fused. Done. So what took me like two hours and 4 failed attempts was accomplished in 20 minutes, even faster than openscad (which i tried to import, but extrusion failed).
Since now I assume that boolean operations work better in Part.
3:59 How did that sketch get there in first place?
The sketch was added from a previous action. This part of the video is going through how the project differ when they structure themselves after each operation. Don't worry as you progress to the next videos in the course you will see this appear as you start to model.
@3:01 you say you can solidify the surface. My question is, can you break the solid into a surfaces. If so, how, what is the command?
Excellent! On to the next video.
This brings up an intriguing question. Will v0.22 (FreeCad version 1.0) be able to import surface models, such as Sketchup models?
Sometimes Part workbench at first might seem worse option but things like boolean operations works much better than in part design.
Sometimes sadly further editing geometry can brake in both benches when importing stl and converting it to solid.
Hi. Wich workbench would you recommend to make assemblies?
It's funny you should say that. I am in the process of a project where I keep going back to refine an assembly after I make modifications in the build and new material comes available (I am restoring an old Greenhouse and finding salvage wood so I have to make adjustments to the different parts and remodel on the go) I am using A2plus for the ease of use over Assembly 4 but I am looking to swap to the new integrated assembly wb as I have done a lot of re-attachment due to new edges being created causing topo issues. I am hoping I don't hit the same problems and want to do a video on the results.
@@MangoJellySolutions Hi Mango. Could you do a video on the tree, data, view , propreties tables and field ? all those tables that appears on the left side when you create a part or an assy. I have soo many questions regarding this maybe it cold help a lot to have you introduce these tables. For exemple, i right clicked on a body in the tree, went down to tree setting and checked «show description». I cannot find how to write the description of a part or an assy. I see the column being added, but cant find the cell were i have to write it. I was wondering also if you could point at a cell that could host the revision value.
@@guillaumevincent716 This question has been driving me nuts all week. Finally found it. Description is know as 'Label2', of course it is lol! So you may not see it on everything so you will need to right click on the data tab and check 'show hidden'. I have also had another request from a patreon regarding a treeview video so will like to blend in this information as well. Revision value, you could right click and add property for a custom property? Would that work?
@@guillaumevincent716 Oh an addition! just found this out. click in the description cell, hit F2. You can edit it if the object has a label 2! Every days a school day (found out that one by accident as i just dropped my mug on my keyboard!!)
Great tutorial! Would you consider to make whole course on i.e. Udemy? I’d buy it for sure!
When discussing the different workbench functionality via example it would have been helpful, obvious frankly, to have been in the appropriate workbench at the time of each examples illustration rather than simply staying in "start". As it stands the only cue as to which you are talking about is your vocal one which of course is lost at a point in time in the past as you flip back and forth. Why discard the visual cue so carelessly?
Compound and Fusion.... I still can't see the difference ???
Here's my guess. With freecad being open sourced, each workbench may have a different creator. Since the workbenches are designed to do specific things and use similar tools to get there, they name the tools differently as not to confuse the user as to which WB they are using. I have experienced errors in one WB and no errors in another WB while using the same steps. So, either I'm neglecting the particular order of steps (required in 1 WB) or the WB isn't designed to accomplish the task. Blending tasks within different WB's seems to error often. Presently, I'm fighting with curves WB profile-pipeline using the same steps done on a successful model, but, hasn't worked on a similar model. The non-working path is a rounded rectangle, primitive compared to the successful model. What a way to ruin a sunday afternoon ... freecad addiction. Lol 😂
@@dbeelee8564Haha. Well what can I say. I too persevere until I accomplish the task. But then forget how I did it the last time in order to accomplish something similar. Terribly frustrating.