All of that was developed by a new guy named Paddle. The old Sketcher dev was reviewing and merging his PRs but he decided to leave FreeCAD development a few days before Christmas. I hope that this situation will be resolved somehow and Paddle will be able to continue making those wonderful and long-awaited improvements. His new Translate (rectangular array+move+copy+clone in one tool), Scale and Copy/Paste tools are already waiting for review. Hopefully, someone will help with that.
Bravo to the new guy (and thank you for giving him credit)! This is absolutely fantastic work! I can easily see mapping only a few buttons on my SpaceBall and being able to work significantly more efficiently with these additions. 😀
Paddle here, Glad people seems to like these features! It's sad that Abdullah left :( Yes there are a few more features in the queue. I need to fix a few bugs in scale and translate before they can go in. Copy paste probably needs a bit of additional work. I'm just struggling to find time as I'm focusing on the assembly workbench.
@@pierreboyer9277 Great to meet you here and see how many people appreciate your efforts and enjoy the new features. Do you know who will replace Abdullah with Sketcher merges? Is there anyone who can help you with some advanced issues like he used to do?
@@MangoJellySolutions I'm new to free cad. I believe I have the latest Version. I just wanted to know, is there a way in settings so it automatically updates and downloads the newest version? and how to go about setting those settings? if they exist .
I thought the title sounded like click-bait, but I've always liked your videos so I watched it. I was wrong, it's not click-bait. These are seriously fantastic improvements! Most of them address complaints I've seen (many of which I agree with) when people make comparisons with other (expensive commercial) CAD packages, so this may just be the best update yet!
Very nice improvements in this version. I haven't been using FreeCAD too much, specifically cause of the missing offsets and really awkward constraints. Now next I'd like to see similar quick menu as ie. Fusion 360 has had for ages. Press S to type search for features, mirroring, dimensions etc.
This is going to be great for the community. Will make the learning curve a lot flatter than what it is now. And we need to make that learning as flat as possible to attract new users of FreeCAD. Thanks for the video, and thanks to Paddle the awesome developer.
umh what r u talking about? if it werent for topological naming prob, i found freecad to be wayyyyy simpler than even the solidworks. sure, if some capability is not there in FC, thats a different matter; but whats available - is much better than SW.
Wow, I’m very excited about all these changes. These are the features I’ve missed since switching from the similar “free to hobbyists” commercial cad/cam program. Thank you for making this great tour/tutorial.
Thank you for that, wow, they have sure added some really nice features... Hard to believe its still "free".. Thanks again, Prosperous New Year to you, Darren and your family.
It's really coming on. I am not sure if they have a feature freeze now where they are just working on bugs rather than new features so not sure if anything else is going to be added. I can't wait to see this old in the wild. I have a lot of work ahead of me lol. It's been great making all these videos for such a supportive community and happy new year to you. Thank you for all your support.
@@MangoJellySolutions There’s no feature freeze yet since we are far from the release of FreeCAD 0.22/1.0. So new features still can (and hopefully will) be added. The main goal for this release is TNP fix and it’s nowhere near being completed. I guess that this release will be postponed significantly but let’s just hope it will happen this year.
Looks like some serious and well thought out quality of life improvements in the sketcher! The only slightly puzzling thing is why the auto dimension for circles is based on radius and not diameter. But it's still going to speed up creating sketches quite a lot and make FreeCAD more user-friendly.
Oh wow! This is so nice :) I'm learning FreeCAD for 3D printing at home and I've done a number of things already, I'm liking it a lot! But it is clunky, this changes make it so much simpler!
Looking forward to the release of .22. Definitely worthwhile sketcher improvements. Offset is huge. Hopefully they will improve error reporting - I still find it tedious to chase down problems. And, clipping/trimming is still pretty tedious and error prone.
Thank you for the video! Those usability improvements are looking great, especially all the M key mode switching, and that arc slot tool will save so much time for modelling such shapes ^__^
The other day I called FreeCAD my favorite software of 2023… and it has good chances to become my 2024 fav, too. These are really awesome improvements!
Man brilliant video, the offset tool long awaited, thanks to all the people who make it to be comparative to professional software, it's getting there. Thanks for the demo video brilliant.
This is a massive improvement. This is how Fusion 360 does a lot of these things. This would potentially change what I'm using if they keep down that road! Go Paddle!!!
What a great video to start 2024. :) Thank you, Darren, for showing the new features, which look very promising. This will considerably accelerate the creation of STEMFIE parts. ;-)
Hi Darren, yesterday I was surprised by knowing that after the 24th of August FreeCAD meeting in USA the version 1.0 will be finally release as the TNP was solved. Good news for the community don't you think? Cheers
Powerful improvements which mean a step forward, making the interface more friendly and easier to work with. I like them very much. Thank you for the video, you are doing a remarkable job in spreading the knowledge about Freecad.
Would be nifty if lines (including the ones making up polygons) included a midpoint by default. I keep sketching, dimensioning, chamfering or filleting, and then wondering where my dimensions went because I am apparently not very smart... Dimensioning from the midpoint would make that so much simpler.
Exactly, automatic symmetry constrain for line midpoints or something like that is badly needed. It has been discussed a few times on the forum and let’s hope that Paddle (the guy behind all those new features) will add it eventually.
this is coming on really great. i just hope they overhaul the constraint indications too because it can get really confusing and hard to see on complex sketches. but idk, does anyone else struggle with this? because it might very well be user error on my part lol
Thanks for the informative video, and thanks to the Freecad team for all their hard work. I can hardly wait for the stable version to be released. Just one question, how's the naming problem coming along?
Wow, you weren't kidding about game changing. These were the features I missed most when I came over from fusion 360. Is there a way to activate points other than the origin for live offsets? Something like hover to activate?
Good job! I can't wait for the official one. I actually only use 2D sketch. I ask myself: Is it now easier to make 45 degree fillets in sketches? I think that would make drawing much faster for many people. Thank you very much to everyone who is committed to Freecad. And best wishes for the coming year.
Interesting that you only use the sketcher. I am guessing you making plan drawings? I am not sure if the 45 degree filter is easier with these new additions. If your only using sketcher it may be worth getting ahead and downloading the dev version. There is a link in the descriptive to a video of how to download and set them up. If you don't know how. No compiling necessary.
Thanks for your reply, and you're right I draw in 2D to use in my CNC router. I watched the video and that was exactly my problem, I couldn't extract it without errors. But that's fixed now. And it's true: It's much easier to add dimension. But 45 degree fillet or chamfer is still a problem takes a lot of time and you have to trim and give it a new dimension. Why is a round fillet very easy and 45 degrees chamfer not? Sorry another irritation, separating decimal with a Comma instead of a Point. Make it possible to do both without increasing the size 10 times if you make a mistake. I will continue to follow Freecad and your channel, maybe one day it will be perfect for me and for many people, thanks again to everyone.
There's a lot of excellent things here that will make FreeCAD faster, easier and more flexible to use. Those quick dimensions: Can they take expressions/references to spreadsheets etc. or only literal values?
It's getting better and better :) At the moment those quick dimensions don't have a formula button on the end to add an expression. I have tried adding an expression via typing it into the box but I can't. I am not sure if this feature will be added.
Can we see construction and or reference geometry when the sketch is closed so we can reference them in other sketches? This is standard in other software.
05:20 but surely, since the rectangle you dropped is green, it's also fixing the position of the rectangle with respect to the origin, without have to set additional constraints?
These all look like great changes to me. All will be very welcome. I was wondering if it is possible (I'm probably asking too much here, I should be grateful enough for offset) to change the dimensions input so that tab will keep cycling through them, even if they already have been inputted, and an enter key or left mouse to drop the geometry? I'm not going to winge if it's not to be fair, the changes shown here are a great improvement.
I have just been playing with this and I have found that instead of using tab if you enter the value and press enter to go to the next dimension, if you hit tab it cycles back and you can edit the previous one but only if you haven't started editing the second one. So looks like that functionality is sort of there but it needs a little work.
Finally!!! It's not quite an Inventor- or even Fusion 360 dimensioning tool, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. I was trying FreeCAD a few months ago and discarded it - number one reason was dimensioning. It was aweful.
I really love that Free CAD is advancing in this way. This is exciting! I have a question, sorry for my ignorance on this matter. Has the naming problem been fixed as of this latest release? Thank you! I just saw the answer to this question in previous comments. GO FREE CAD!
I'd love to know that, as well. Last I checked, there was a branch somewhere that had a proposed fix, and this is one of the reasons I've been holding off on adopting freecad, the sketcher's ease of use being the other - which seems (mostly) resolved by recent updates - minus midpoints.
I am happy with these features. Feels like some good progress for Freecad. Possible video idea or just a question: I recently started designing a 3d printer build in Fusion and adopted the workflow of designing every part in a separate file and combining them in a master assembly file. I am also using the "derive" function to make versions of the parts "printable" (mouse ears and single layer bridging holes and stuff) without changing the base part. How would you adapt this workflow for Freecad?
You can create links to parts in another file. I have a whole library of parts I use commonly (like certain buttons, connectors) or need as reference (like 18650 lion cells and their holders), that I link into my main file. To "derive" a part without changing the original, I would go with a clone ("part design" or "draft" workbench). That's then your base shape (that stays in sync with the original) you can modify to your liking.
@@superdau I tried the clone and it works exactly like derive. Awesome. The links to parts thing I am going to need a bit more explanation for, but if that is just called linking I might be able to do my own research. Thanks :)
@@Giekeme Yes, it's just called a link. It's described on the FreeCAD wiki, found under "Std LinkMake". Or the first Google search result for me for "freecad link object".
These are little-huge updates. Flow was always pain of FreeCAD (before topology naming problem). "Exploded" UI is something user can adapt to if software tries to "cooperate" with user. Really appreciated!
I don't know if you have any sway with the developers, but it would be awesome if they had a mode key (say 'm') that would jump to a spreadsheet reference on those new dimension things (this very first thing you showed). It IS and awesome feature just as it is though!
2:44 That is an mayor improvement !!! Finally they got rid 5 - 10 klicks/steps and reduce it to 3 !!!! Altho it is sad do se that same thing about "dimensions on the go" is not used for poly line.
I wish on-view-parameters was were a toggle button in the toolbar. There are many situations where you might want to have this on or off and having to access the setting via preferences dialog seems overly complicated.
I just installed the weekly build. I´m very interessted in the offset feature (sketcher). Is it correct that I can not ust the offset feature with spline-curves? This would be very useful, especially if I create a contour with the spline function and then want to construct a wall for it. Now I have to create the offset in "part"
Yes, the M key cycles through them in 0.22, but the feature you describe is already in FreeCAD 0.21. If you use the automatic mode ("constrain arc or circle") instead of selecting specifically diameter or radius, it uses diameter for circles and radius for arcs by default.
FINALLY , offset. to say I hated sketcher was an understatement. I could never understand why a "cad" drawing workbench had drawing methologies different to other 2d cad ( im thinking librecad ) I ( just me) found it easier to draw 2d in librecad ( because of offset ) Thanks paddles !
Hi Do we have a better icon set and can the screen pointer and dimensioning text be altered in the parameters as its all a little garish and the icons are .. meh is the only word
I have changed the theme to make it easier to see the demonstration but there are a number of themes to choose from which make it look like more modern day software.
Have they set up anything like a FreeCAD Foundation kind of like what blender has with the Blender Foundation, where some of the larger large companies or individuals can donate funds (or even some resources, like sponsoring via providing coders to help the project, etc) so we can see some more dedicated development?
Thank You for this video. An issue I couldn't solve for years with Freecad is to describe an outer angle. E.g. I got an inner angle of 170°, but in my case i needed the outer angle of 190° it's still impossible to patch it to my sketch. Do You know a solution?
I'm really keen to see these in the stable release - any idea how long that might be? (I.e. are we talking weeks, months, sometime this year, etc?) One feature I'm used to in CAD software that id love to see in FreeCAD is a quick command window. The hotkeys are great, but if i couldnt remember the hotkey for a shape or constraint or tool then it would be great to just start typing it anywhere and get a list of suggestions. But i guess a feature like that would require the command window be implemented in base FreeCAD and then hooked into by each workbench, which would be a lot of work 😞
Do dates as of yet, all I know is they are trying to aim for this year. I know exactly the feature you are talking about, I used to use the same in Rhino3D. Made it so much easier to use. I haven't heard of any such feature though unfortunately :(
Do you know if it will be updated to accept parametric parameters while drawing shapes? When I hit the equal sign, it does not bring up the dialog that lets me enter .something. Thanks for the exciting video!
Hi, I have a small challenge to you, that I have not seen on other CADs I do crane liftplans. (I would love to include this onto my liftplans) I need a quick calculation reference line from the top of the hook of the crane and down to the 4 corners of a typical 20foot container, the angle has to be no greater than 90 degrees on diagonal from the hook of the crane (4 legged chain), taking into consideration. Then I need to know the length of the line (chain) Thanks.
I am trying to learn from scratch it’s overwhelming I am wondering can you go from freecad to universal gcode sender then to arduino for a plasma cutter or am I wasting my time I can’t find any videos simple and straightforward thanks for any help
The path workbench allows you to do GCode for CNC milling. You can setup your tool paths and cuts from there and export out the GCode of the finished project. But, with my limited knowledge of plasma cutters, I believe in some cases you need lead in where the cut is slightly oversized ? I am not sure you can count for this in this workbench.
Been reading about these improvements can't wait for a formal release of this. To be honest can't wait till they release FreeCAD 1.0 with features from the RealThunder branch.
There's not really a need to wait - and by the way it is not a "sold" product so it may never get that '1.0' release. In any case the RealThunder things are being ported over. But I'm also mostly using RealThunder ATM.
@@pizzablender Fully aware that parts of RealThunder are already being ported; personally I'm sticking with the standard branch so I'll just wait and I don't like messing with development versions.
I'm going through all the tutorials at the moment and noting which ones really need a update due to 0.22 changes and add on updates such as no image workbench and assembly 4 changes. Then I can make a start. I need to figure out at what point in the series I switched to 0.22. Then I can update the rest once the major ones are out the way.
All of that was developed by a new guy named Paddle. The old Sketcher dev was reviewing and merging his PRs but he decided to leave FreeCAD development a few days before Christmas. I hope that this situation will be resolved somehow and Paddle will be able to continue making those wonderful and long-awaited improvements. His new Translate (rectangular array+move+copy+clone in one tool), Scale and Copy/Paste tools are already waiting for review. Hopefully, someone will help with that.
Bravo to the new guy (and thank you for giving him credit)! This is absolutely fantastic work!
I can easily see mapping only a few buttons on my SpaceBall and being able to work significantly more efficiently with these additions. 😀
Paddle here,
Glad people seems to like these features!
It's sad that Abdullah left :(
Yes there are a few more features in the queue. I need to fix a few bugs in scale and translate before they can go in.
Copy paste probably needs a bit of additional work.
I'm just struggling to find time as I'm focusing on the assembly workbench.
@@pierreboyer9277 Great to meet you here and see how many people appreciate your efforts and enjoy the new features. Do you know who will replace Abdullah with Sketcher merges? Is there anyone who can help you with some advanced issues like he used to do?
@@pierreboyer9277 These are great improvements helping very much in everyday use. Thanks!
Superb work Pierre, thank you 🍻 and I'm really looking forward to the new assembly workbench too, what I've seen so far looks really promising 👏
I think of the sketcher as the heart of any CAD program and as such these improvements mean a lot for FreeCAD imho.
I must be getting older because I was GENUINELY excited to see new sketcher tools! Offsets! Finally!
I think your not the only one :) So glad that's been added!
@@MangoJellySolutions me too
@@MangoJellySolutions I'm new to free cad. I believe I have the latest Version. I just wanted to know, is there a way in settings so it automatically updates and downloads the newest version? and how to go about setting those settings? if they exist
.
I thought the title sounded like click-bait, but I've always liked your videos so I watched it.
I was wrong, it's not click-bait. These are seriously fantastic improvements!
Most of them address complaints I've seen (many of which I agree with) when people make comparisons with other (expensive commercial) CAD packages, so this may just be the best update yet!
I love all these upgrades. Especially dimensions and being able to enter values while drawing an object. Great implementation of the Mode key.
Very nice improvements in this version. I haven't been using FreeCAD too much, specifically cause of the missing offsets and really awkward constraints. Now next I'd like to see similar quick menu as ie. Fusion 360 has had for ages. Press S to type search for features, mirroring, dimensions etc.
This is going to be great for the community. Will make the learning curve a lot flatter than what it is now. And we need to make that learning as flat as possible to attract new users of FreeCAD. Thanks for the video, and thanks to Paddle the awesome developer.
umh what r u talking about? if it werent for topological naming prob, i found freecad to be wayyyyy simpler than even the solidworks.
sure, if some capability is not there in FC, thats a different matter; but whats available - is much better than SW.
Wow. What a hit list. Offset would've saved me *hours* on my last big project. Lots of other new features to explore. Looks like a winner for sure!
Wow, I’m very excited about all these changes. These are the features I’ve missed since switching from the similar “free to hobbyists” commercial cad/cam program. Thank you for making this great tour/tutorial.
Thank you for that, wow, they have sure added some really nice features... Hard to believe its still "free".. Thanks again, Prosperous New Year to you, Darren and your family.
It's really coming on. I am not sure if they have a feature freeze now where they are just working on bugs rather than new features so not sure if anything else is going to be added. I can't wait to see this old in the wild. I have a lot of work ahead of me lol. It's been great making all these videos for such a supportive community and happy new year to you. Thank you for all your support.
@@MangoJellySolutions There’s no feature freeze yet since we are far from the release of FreeCAD 0.22/1.0. So new features still can (and hopefully will) be added. The main goal for this release is TNP fix and it’s nowhere near being completed. I guess that this release will be postponed significantly but let’s just hope it will happen this year.
Absolutely worth it. TNP fix is critical above all else. Thank you!@@Gumball_W
I would be happy with an 0.22 without tnp fix, it's got so much great stuff in it, I will just keep using the 0.22 builds this year anyway
I'd be happy to use it myself, but I teach using FreeCAD, and TNP is the main thing that trips up my students.@@pellcorp
Oh, thank God! The ability to type dimensions on the fly is the biggest holdup I'd had keeping me from moving over from SketchUp!
I download every new version of the Dev .22 and really have enjoyed watching and trying all of the sketcher changes.
Looks like some serious and well thought out quality of life improvements in the sketcher! The only slightly puzzling thing is why the auto dimension for circles is based on radius and not diameter. But it's still going to speed up creating sketches quite a lot and make FreeCAD more user-friendly.
Rounded rectangles are amazing - that removes a lot of steps I'd normally need to make them.
Rounded rectangles have been in 0.21 as well, unless that's what you mean. They are indeed amazing
but the Arc Slot , and Offset and the Frame feature are absolutely the big ones. it saves a huge amount of time
Great job, Paddle!
I had wait for offset and dimensions so long...
Oh wow! This is so nice :)
I'm learning FreeCAD for 3D printing at home and I've done a number of things already, I'm liking it a lot! But it is clunky, this changes make it so much simpler!
I have used weekly and daily builds exclusively for years. My experience is that they are very stable with few , if any , bugs .
Looking forward to the release of .22. Definitely worthwhile sketcher improvements. Offset is huge. Hopefully they will improve error reporting - I still find it tedious to chase down problems. And, clipping/trimming is still pretty tedious and error prone.
Thanks!
Thank you so much, much appreciated 😊😊👍👍
Thank you for the video! Those usability improvements are looking great, especially all the M key mode switching, and that arc slot tool will save so much time for modelling such shapes ^__^
The other day I called FreeCAD my favorite software of 2023… and it has good chances to become my 2024 fav, too. These are really awesome improvements!
Love the new Sketch features. I'll have to change one of the thumb buttons on my mouse to be "M" now!
Oh I love the contextual dimensions tool already!
the context dimensioning is really cool.
Nice! The contextual dimensioning in particular reminds me very much of using Solidworks 20 years ago.
we got offset which is awesome ....need arc length constraint too...
Man brilliant video, the offset tool long awaited, thanks to all the people who make it to be comparative to professional software, it's getting there. Thanks for the demo video brilliant.
Glad you enjoyed and I echo your thanks, the devs and community are doing a great job.
A real gamechanger for ease of use - many thanks Paddle and others who worked on this ;)
These features are really nice! Thanks for the intro!
These are great improvements. Will take getting used to, but it is real progress for usability.
That option to enter dimensions directly is great.. This was one of my biggest productivity annoyences in Freecad tbh
A video like this would be a perfect use case for chapters...
Excellent new tools and functions. I am excited to see the next new dvelopment tools. Well done and keep going with development.
Thanks for the heads up on some real useful improvements
The "Quote" button !, I never understood why they didn't do it before just like the more famous software. I like the new features. Happy New Year
This is a massive improvement. This is how Fusion 360 does a lot of these things. This would potentially change what I'm using if they keep down that road! Go Paddle!!!
They have done an amazing job. It's looking good, I'm going to be doing some more videos on the newer versions in the future.
What a great video to start 2024. :) Thank you, Darren, for showing the new features, which look very promising. This will considerably accelerate the creation of STEMFIE parts. ;-)
Heck yeah! What an upgrade! 🎉
Hi Darren, yesterday I was surprised by knowing that after the 24th of August FreeCAD meeting in USA the version 1.0 will be finally release as the TNP was solved. Good news for the community don't you think? Cheers
I've been away for far too long. It's like I have to learn it all over again. LOL. Just glad you're still making videos.
great video thanks for taking time to create and share
Powerful improvements which mean a step forward, making the interface more friendly and easier to work with. I like them very much. Thank you for the video, you are doing a remarkable job in spreading the knowledge about Freecad.
Would be nifty if lines (including the ones making up polygons) included a midpoint by default. I keep sketching, dimensioning, chamfering or filleting, and then wondering where my dimensions went because I am apparently not very smart... Dimensioning from the midpoint would make that so much simpler.
Exactly, automatic symmetry constrain for line midpoints or something like that is badly needed. It has been discussed a few times on the forum and let’s hope that Paddle (the guy behind all those new features) will add it eventually.
this is coming on really great. i just hope they overhaul the constraint indications too because it can get really confusing and hard to see on complex sketches. but idk, does anyone else struggle with this? because it might very well be user error on my part lol
Thanks for the informative video, and thanks to the Freecad team for all their hard work. I can hardly wait for the stable version to be released. Just one question, how's the naming problem coming along?
I have just pinned one of the freeCAD contributors post to the top of the comments as it has a wealth of information regarding releases.
Great additions. Thanks, Paddle.
Wow, you weren't kidding about game changing. These were the features I missed most when I came over from fusion 360. Is there a way to activate points other than the origin for live offsets? Something like hover to activate?
i can't wait to try all those new features ! :)
Thanks Mango for informing us.
Good job! I can't wait for the official one.
I actually only use 2D sketch.
I ask myself: Is it now easier to make 45 degree fillets in sketches?
I think that would make drawing much faster for many people.
Thank you very much to everyone who is committed to Freecad.
And best wishes for the coming year.
Interesting that you only use the sketcher. I am guessing you making plan drawings? I am not sure if the 45 degree filter is easier with these new additions. If your only using sketcher it may be worth getting ahead and downloading the dev version. There is a link in the descriptive to a video of how to download and set them up. If you don't know how. No compiling necessary.
Thanks for your reply, and you're right I draw in 2D to use in my CNC router.
I watched the video and that was exactly my problem, I couldn't extract it without errors.
But that's fixed now.
And it's true: It's much easier to add dimension. But 45 degree fillet or chamfer is still a problem takes a lot of time and you have to trim and give it a new dimension.
Why is a round fillet very easy and 45 degrees chamfer not?
Sorry another irritation, separating decimal with a Comma instead of a Point.
Make it possible to do both without increasing the size 10 times if you make a mistake.
I will continue to follow Freecad and your channel, maybe one day it will be perfect for me and for many people, thanks again to everyone.
There's a lot of excellent things here that will make FreeCAD faster, easier and more flexible to use. Those quick dimensions: Can they take expressions/references to spreadsheets etc. or only literal values?
It's getting better and better :) At the moment those quick dimensions don't have a formula button on the end to add an expression. I have tried adding an expression via typing it into the box but I can't. I am not sure if this feature will be added.
What a great Christmas present.
Can we see construction and or reference geometry when the sketch is closed so we can reference them in other sketches? This is standard in other software.
Perfect updates it was really needed! 🎉🎉
Love freecad, but its QoL feature set is just a shocker, having played around with onshape for awhile. Glad to see my preferred CAD catching up
05:20 but surely, since the rectangle you dropped is green, it's also fixing the position of the rectangle with respect to the origin, without have to set additional constraints?
14:30 I wonder what it would to to a line you previously constrained to be 45 deg (but deleted that constraint)?
These all look like great changes to me. All will be very welcome. I was wondering if it is possible (I'm probably asking too much here, I should be grateful enough for offset) to change the dimensions input so that tab will keep cycling through them, even if they already have been inputted, and an enter key or left mouse to drop the geometry? I'm not going to winge if it's not to be fair, the changes shown here are a great improvement.
I have just been playing with this and I have found that instead of using tab if you enter the value and press enter to go to the next dimension, if you hit tab it cycles back and you can edit the previous one but only if you haven't started editing the second one. So looks like that functionality is sort of there but it needs a little work.
Finally!!! It's not quite an Inventor- or even Fusion 360 dimensioning tool, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. I was trying FreeCAD a few months ago and discarded it - number one reason was dimensioning. It was aweful.
I really love that Free CAD is advancing in this way. This is exciting!
I have a question, sorry for my ignorance on this matter. Has the naming problem been fixed as of this latest release?
Thank you!
I just saw the answer to this question in previous comments. GO FREE CAD!
I'd love to know that, as well. Last I checked, there was a branch somewhere that had a proposed fix, and this is one of the reasons I've been holding off on adopting freecad, the sketcher's ease of use being the other - which seems (mostly) resolved by recent updates - minus midpoints.
Oh this looks so helpful!! Will I regret using a development version? What is the risk history?
A lot of people use development versions and just keep them updated throughout the life cycle util they are released. They are quite stable.
Intuitive shortcuts, improved tools. 0.22 will be a big change
I am happy with these features. Feels like some good progress for Freecad.
Possible video idea or just a question:
I recently started designing a 3d printer build in Fusion and adopted the workflow of designing every part in a separate file and combining them in a master assembly file. I am also using the "derive" function to make versions of the parts "printable" (mouse ears and single layer bridging holes and stuff) without changing the base part. How would you adapt this workflow for Freecad?
You can create links to parts in another file. I have a whole library of parts I use commonly (like certain buttons, connectors) or need as reference (like 18650 lion cells and their holders), that I link into my main file.
To "derive" a part without changing the original, I would go with a clone ("part design" or "draft" workbench). That's then your base shape (that stays in sync with the original) you can modify to your liking.
@@superdau I tried the clone and it works exactly like derive. Awesome. The links to parts thing I am going to need a bit more explanation for, but if that is just called linking I might be able to do my own research. Thanks :)
@@Giekeme
Yes, it's just called a link. It's described on the FreeCAD wiki, found under "Std LinkMake". Or the first Google search result for me for "freecad link object".
Found it. That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again!
Great improvements! Can't wait when it will be merged into LinkTip
The offset is the best new feature
Wov amazing feature for freecad lovers
Finally offset is implemented
These are little-huge updates. Flow was always pain of FreeCAD (before topology naming problem). "Exploded" UI is something user can adapt to if software tries to "cooperate" with user. Really appreciated!
I don't know if you have any sway with the developers, but it would be awesome if they had a mode key (say 'm') that would jump to a spreadsheet reference on those new dimension things (this very first thing you showed). It IS and awesome feature just as it is though!
2:44 That is an mayor improvement !!! Finally they got rid 5 - 10 klicks/steps and reduce it to 3 !!!! Altho it is sad do se that same thing about "dimensions on the go" is not used for poly line.
I wish on-view-parameters was were a toggle button in the toolbar. There are many situations where you might want to have this on or off and having to access the setting via preferences dialog seems overly complicated.
Great update😊
I just installed the weekly build. I´m very interessted in the offset feature (sketcher). Is it correct that I can not ust the offset feature with spline-curves? This would be very useful, especially if I create a contour with the spline function and then want to construct a wall for it. Now I have to create the offset in "part"
These are great updates!
Looks like great improvement
The sketcher dimensions are a big improvement - although I'd prefer 'diameter' for circles but 'radius' for arcs - does the 'M' key do this?
Yes, the M key cycles through them in 0.22, but the feature you describe is already in FreeCAD 0.21. If you use the automatic mode ("constrain arc or circle") instead of selecting specifically diameter or radius, it uses diameter for circles and radius for arcs by default.
@@glabifrons Thank you - I hadn't noticed that!
@@philip_fletcher Glad to be able to help. :)
Happy New Year!
Holy fuck. An offset tool in sketcher! This is huge
Great new features!!!!
FINALLY , offset. to say I hated sketcher was an understatement. I could never understand why a "cad" drawing workbench had drawing methologies different to other 2d cad ( im thinking librecad ) I ( just me) found it easier to draw 2d in librecad ( because of offset ) Thanks paddles !
It's been one of my pet hates as well, it's speed up my build times tenfold 😊
this upgrades are awesome, and you explained them very good thanks, keep up the good work
Glad you enjoyed and thank you 😊
Hi, 2:00 Is possible to input data from spreadsheet? Nice changes.. But Gamechanging? 😁
Hi Do we have a better icon set and can the screen pointer and dimensioning text be altered in the parameters as its all a little garish and the icons are .. meh is the only word
I have changed the theme to make it easier to see the demonstration but there are a number of themes to choose from which make it look like more modern day software.
A video on preferences, setting up tool icon menus and themes etc might be beneficial to new users like me !@@MangoJellySolutions
Have they set up anything like a FreeCAD Foundation kind of like what blender has with the Blender Foundation, where some of the larger large companies or individuals can donate funds (or even some resources, like sponsoring via providing coders to help the project, etc) so we can see some more dedicated development?
Brilliant improvements 😍
This looks really good. Stable enough to use?
Yes people are using it at this time and the new Ondsel FreeCAD will be building on top of this as well.
Egads, homebrew is installing like a hundred new packages. Maybe I should have just waited for it to be released normally.
I don't understand how not every other sketching software has dimensions on the go. For a profane like me it seems a must for intuitive drawing...
Good video! When the topology issue is planned to be solved?
It's high up on the list and they are working on it. Once that's solved then we will be moving into a new era.
Thank You for this video. An issue I couldn't solve for years with Freecad is to describe an outer angle. E.g. I got an inner angle of 170°, but in my case i needed the outer angle of 190° it's still impossible to patch it to my sketch. Do You know a solution?
I'm really keen to see these in the stable release - any idea how long that might be? (I.e. are we talking weeks, months, sometime this year, etc?)
One feature I'm used to in CAD software that id love to see in FreeCAD is a quick command window. The hotkeys are great, but if i couldnt remember the hotkey for a shape or constraint or tool then it would be great to just start typing it anywhere and get a list of suggestions.
But i guess a feature like that would require the command window be implemented in base FreeCAD and then hooked into by each workbench, which would be a lot of work 😞
Do dates as of yet, all I know is they are trying to aim for this year. I know exactly the feature you are talking about, I used to use the same in Rhino3D. Made it so much easier to use. I haven't heard of any such feature though unfortunately :(
Is mouse hovering not implemented fully? maybe a quick cheatsheet into the Help Menu can help
Is there a way now to make a coincident point on Bsplines?
Attaching to a bspline you can use point on object constraint, if your attaching to the ends you can use the coincident constraint.
This is starting to make FreeCAD what I am looking for. Looks like someone knows how to design a GUI.
Do you know if it will be updated to accept parametric parameters while drawing shapes? When I hit the equal sign, it does not bring up the dialog that lets me enter .something. Thanks for the exciting video!
I don't know but that would be a very useful feature.
Hi, I have a small challenge to you, that I have not seen on other CADs
I do crane liftplans. (I would love to include this onto my liftplans)
I need a quick calculation reference line from the top of the hook of the crane and down to the 4 corners of a typical 20foot container, the angle has to be no greater than 90 degrees on diagonal from the hook of the crane (4 legged chain), taking into consideration. Then I need to know the length of the line (chain)
Thanks.
Sounds like sketcher is getting to be similar to autocad. Which is great in my opinion.
I am trying to learn from scratch it’s overwhelming I am wondering can you go from freecad to universal gcode sender then to arduino for a plasma cutter or am I wasting my time I can’t find any videos simple and straightforward thanks for any help
The path workbench allows you to do GCode for CNC milling. You can setup your tool paths and cuts from there and export out the GCode of the finished project. But, with my limited knowledge of plasma cutters, I believe in some cases you need lead in where the cut is slightly oversized ? I am not sure you can count for this in this workbench.
Thanks the info !
Been reading about these improvements can't wait for a formal release of this. To be honest can't wait till they release FreeCAD 1.0 with features from the RealThunder branch.
There's not really a need to wait - and by the way it is not a "sold" product so it may never get that '1.0' release.
In any case the RealThunder things are being ported over. But I'm also mostly using RealThunder ATM.
@@pizzablender Fully aware that parts of RealThunder are already being ported; personally I'm sticking with the standard branch so I'll just wait and I don't like messing with development versions.
Yes, yes, yes and yes again.
Offset?! woot!
thank you
Any timeframe oh a tutorial for 0.22 if you're going to do it?
I'm going through all the tutorials at the moment and noting which ones really need a update due to 0.22 changes and add on updates such as no image workbench and assembly 4 changes. Then I can make a start. I need to figure out at what point in the series I switched to 0.22. Then I can update the rest once the major ones are out the way.