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.
Just started with Freecad (always worked with Sketchup) and While i'm Dutch and started the Dutch version of Freecad it was totaly unclear what the function of constraints where. This video made it all clear for me, 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 This makes it harder to learn but once you get use to the FreeCAD way it makes the other CAD software feel 20 years out of date. 🍻
I've watched a bunch of tutorials. You're the first one to clue me into the distance constraint which fixed my current sketch. However, I don't feel any more knowledgeable about how to achieve a constrained sketch. The must be a more elegant method than randomly applying constraints until it works - this took me hours for what I thought would be the simplest part of my model. It there an order of operations, or effecient strategy for constraining? I was having the most problems with arcs so I started by constraining them with brute force and then following along the perimeter one line segment at a time. I was surprised that in the end I was stuck with one small line that when deleted would turn everything green. I wound up deleting it and replacing with an arc and it worked! What I think I know: 1. Plan whole sketch in advance and constrain it as you go. (LOL. this isn't going to happen often; I'm an on-the-fly kind of guy) 2. deleting and re-drawing difficult segments. 3. constrain one segment and build off that. 4. use all the constrain tools. what I don't get 1. I'm guessing the goal is to clearly define each point's relative location. is there a best "home" location? the purple external geometries seem more effective. should I constrain more thing to these? 2. Is there a best constrain tool to start with or is it better to get SOMETHING constrained and build off that? 3. lots more probably
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. 🍻
Thank you for the kind comment. I hope it helped you understand FreeCAD a bit. I have a constraint workflow video shot that I just have to find the time to edit. 🍻
Constraints should pop up on the tool bar when you enter a sketch. If you moved a bar or made it too small it may be collapsed into a button or 2 with a pulldown to show all the constraints. If not right click and on the tool bar and you should see an option for the constraint bar. 🍻
@@QEngineering , thanks for the reply. I logged out and then I redid the tutorial and then there it was in the ribbon. Maybe I did something wrong before and that maybe the reason it didn't show.
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.
Hard to thank you enough. Every other tutor goes on and on without explaining what constraint in the 1st place. Great video, thumbs up💯.
Constraint understanding is critical... many frustrations seem to be connected to these constraints.
Thanks for doing the video
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.
I spent like 4 hours trying to figure out why i still had DoFs in my sketch and you solved my problem in 2 minutes
Glad I could help.
Constraints are really confusing at first but once you get your head around then they become the best part of sketcher.
🍻
Just started with Freecad (always worked with Sketchup) and While i'm Dutch and started the Dutch version of Freecad it was totaly unclear what the function of constraints where. This video made it all clear for me, 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.
🍻
I am an absolute begineer. Best video for me. Thanks Q!
Glad it was helpful!
🍻
I've watched a bunch of tutorials. You're the first one to clue me into the distance constraint which fixed my current sketch. However, I don't feel any more knowledgeable about how to achieve a constrained sketch. The must be a more elegant method than randomly applying constraints until it works - this took me hours for what I thought would be the simplest part of my model.
It there an order of operations, or effecient strategy for constraining? I was having the most problems with arcs so I started by constraining them with brute force and then following along the perimeter one line segment at a time. I was surprised that in the end I was stuck with one small line that when deleted would turn everything green. I wound up deleting it and replacing with an arc and it worked!
What I think I know:
1. Plan whole sketch in advance and constrain it as you go. (LOL. this isn't going to happen often; I'm an on-the-fly kind of guy)
2. deleting and re-drawing difficult segments.
3. constrain one segment and build off that.
4. use all the constrain tools.
what I don't get
1. I'm guessing the goal is to clearly define each point's relative location. is there a best "home" location? the purple external geometries seem more effective. should I constrain more thing to these?
2. Is there a best constrain tool to start with or is it better to get SOMETHING constrained and build off that?
3. lots more probably
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!
Thanks bro! I'm just starting out (day 2) - it's confusing but I'll get there!
Awesome, keep it up, a 3D design education usually becomes a 3D printing addiction. Which is the sweetest addiction of them all.🤗
🍻
Than you have fixed my frustrations
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.
🍻
Wow. Compared to other freecad explainers you are like a Greek god! Those constrains really got shit out of me.
Nah, just a fat guy who likes to wear a toga!!!
ua-cam.com/video/s9znzVYLV_o/v-deo.html
Thank you! Great beginner tutorial.
Thank you for the kind comment. I hope it helped you understand FreeCAD a bit. I have a constraint workflow video shot that I just have to find the time to edit.
🍻
Well explained friend, Thank You .Brian UK !!!.
Glad I could help.
Love the UK, I spent quite a bit of time with your RAF boys when I was in the RCAF.
🍻
Many thanks for taking the time and effort of making these videos and sharing Your knowledge.
Best regards
My pleasure.
🍻
Thank you great tutorial!!!
You're very welcome !!!
🍻
Great walkthrough video 👍
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀
My pleasure, thanks for watching
🍻
Cheers amigo 🍹
May your cup never go empty. 🍻
Thank You, friend? Your job is very useful!
Glad I could help.
🍻
I was looking for a way to center objects, I didn't know you can click on the point and origin to specify the distance constraint!
The best way to center is to use the symmetric constraint, I believe it it's covered in part 3.
🍻
Thank you!!!
:)
You are very welcome.
🍻
Thanks you😃😃😃
Your welcome
🍻
Cheers!
🍻
How to add the constraints on the ribbon? It doesn't appear on my ribbon.
Constraints should pop up on the tool bar when you enter a sketch. If you moved a bar or made it too small it may be collapsed into a button or 2 with a pulldown to show all the constraints. If not right click and on the tool bar and you should see an option for the constraint bar.
🍻
@@QEngineering , thanks for the reply. I logged out and then I redid the tutorial and then there it was in the ribbon. Maybe I did something wrong before and that maybe the reason it didn't show.
Yeah but why constraints?
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.