@ravenslikewritingdesks You're welcome. Don't let the initial learning curve discourage you. FreeCAD is a versatile tool with a lot of potential, and with practice, you'll be able to harness its full power.
Nice. A few comments: The popup window for the VarSet is asking you to add properties, exactly what you did immediately after. It can be helpful to select the VarSet to show the list in the data view while using it. You can also use the Group field to group your variables, e.g. for board or joint parameters. You can perform an Array followed by Mirror in Part Design, in this case by setting the Mirror Transform Mode to Transform body to mirror the entire body rather than the latest feature. You could also draw the full length of the board and both array and mirror the pocket in one MultiTransform. I'm guessing the origin based formulae to reference the opposing edge are meant to avoid inversions if you make big changes (e.g. having the socket appear outside the board). It makes me wonder why you didn't just start from the bottom though. Another option is to offset the sketch attachment. Still educational; I hadn't realized FreeCAD's Part boolean operations only allowed 2 objects. Part Design's body boolean can use multiple tool bodies for one cut.
@0LoneTech Thank you for your feedback. You are correct that your proposed workflow would streamline and expedite the creation of the mirrored array within the Part Design workbench. This approach is particularly beneficial for users transitioning from alternative software. I close the first varset dialog box, because it places the first property at the bottom of the list of variables and I wanted to have them in an alphabetic order.
@ravenslikewritingdesks Yes, you can use varset as an alternative. Both methods are effective, but spreadsheets can be particularly useful when dealing with numerous or intricate formulas.
Back with more comments ... don't you want a small gap between the male and female pieces so that they can go together ... I am talking somewhere around 0.008" or .2 mm.
@carlslater7492 Yes, you can add a small gap. After performing the Boolean cut, make a very slight scale change. I didn't want to overcomplicate the file.
Thank you for these tutorials. It makes Freecad less intimidating for me
@ravenslikewritingdesks You're welcome. Don't let the initial learning curve discourage you. FreeCAD is a versatile tool with a lot of potential, and with practice, you'll be able to harness its full power.
You can use the MultiTransform to do both linear pattern and mirror in PartDesignWB.
Really really great.
Thank you :)
Awesome tutorials. Have you got any suggested technical lecture to learn more about cabinetry?
@IlVanza Thank you, I can recommend you the Bob Lang's The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker which is very good.
@@deltahedra3D Super gentle!! Looking forward for some other awesome parametric ideas!
Nice. A few comments:
The popup window for the VarSet is asking you to add properties, exactly what you did immediately after. It can be helpful to select the VarSet to show the list in the data view while using it.
You can also use the Group field to group your variables, e.g. for board or joint parameters.
You can perform an Array followed by Mirror in Part Design, in this case by setting the Mirror Transform Mode to Transform body to mirror the entire body rather than the latest feature.
You could also draw the full length of the board and both array and mirror the pocket in one MultiTransform.
I'm guessing the origin based formulae to reference the opposing edge are meant to avoid inversions if you make big changes (e.g. having the socket appear outside the board). It makes me wonder why you didn't just start from the bottom though. Another option is to offset the sketch attachment.
Still educational; I hadn't realized FreeCAD's Part boolean operations only allowed 2 objects. Part Design's body boolean can use multiple tool bodies for one cut.
@0LoneTech Thank you for your feedback. You are correct that your proposed workflow would streamline and expedite the creation of the mirrored array within the Part Design workbench. This approach is particularly beneficial for users transitioning from alternative software.
I close the first varset dialog box, because it places the first property at the bottom of the list of variables and I wanted to have them in an alphabetic order.
Is it also okay to use varset instead of spreadsheet in the cabinet tutorial?
@ravenslikewritingdesks Yes, you can use varset as an alternative. Both methods are effective, but spreadsheets can be particularly useful when dealing with numerous or intricate formulas.
Too bad there's no FreeCAD macro to add various joints to existing designs. Would be cool for 3D printing. I know Orca has basic joints support.
Back with more comments ... don't you want a small gap between the male and female pieces so that they can go together ... I am talking somewhere around 0.008" or .2 mm.
@carlslater7492 Yes, you can add a small gap. After performing the Boolean cut, make a very slight scale change. I didn't want to overcomplicate the file.