Freecad

Your own 3D parametric modeler - What’s new / v0.2 / Real Thunder version & release / FreeCAD France

Basics

choose your prefered mouse navigation - blender/cad/gesture - gesture is the easiest, but may be restricting in sketch for eg (you cannot see move the camera in sketch mode). Cad is closer to fusion360 I think. - you can switch mode on the fly from the main windows in latest version.
Personnaliser l’interface de FreeCAD - 0.19
- FreeCAD interface customization(using LinkStage3 dev. branch) - Glass Add on
- display Shadows - even on transparent materials

Shape Color => Random (/preferences/Part Design/Shape appearance/Shape Color)
quick pres (vs Fusion360)
- chanfrein / symetrie / rotation / contraintes (esquisse completement contrainte)
- assemblage (contraintes entre piece)
- mettre des visses (addin)
- pliage / depliage / 2
- deplacement d’une piece d’un fichier a un autre
- create link sur fichier qui contient une piece (mis a jour synchroniser)
Combo View
- Model View (treeview) / Taks view (model selection / workbench sensitive)
- The file holding the object - body container (for part design) - origin - features ordered by history - sketches
Align object / set origin
- Part design alignment - to set position in local coordinates
- Part - refine shape - to redefine transform to this local coordinate (create a new shape)
- show also how to do it with 2D

when severe changes are made, the model can break due to the topological naming problem that is still unresolved in FreeCAD. It refers to the issue of a shape changing its internal name after a modelling operation (pad, cut, union, chamfer, fillet, etc.) is performed. This will result in other parametric features that depend on that shape to break or be incorrectly computed.

Advice for creating stable models
- Use dress ups, like fillets and chamfers, as late in the feature tree as possible
- When creating datum geometry, do not attach it to generated geometry
How to stop fearing the topological naming problem
- reattach sketch
- Datum Plane
FreeCAD Is Fundamentally Broken! - topological problem.

Different workbench

Each workbench provide a different set of tooling that can be applied on the same model.

About the differences and ramifications of using the Workbench Part and the Workbench PartDesign workbenches.
There has been much discussion over the years about the differences and ramifications of using the Workbench Part and the Workbench PartDesign workbenches.

It is a good idea to use one or the other until the user is comfortable with one, then learn the other. It is also typically recommended that new users not mix them until the ramifications of doing so are understood.

Part Workbench

The objects created with the Part Workbench are relatively simple; they are intended to be used with boolean operations (unions and cuts) in order to build more complex shapes. This modeling paradigm is known as the constructive solid geometry (CSG) workflow. it was the traditional methodology used in early CAD systems.

Make a dice with FreeCAD
Refine A Shape In FreeCAD - Remove Model Lines
Thickness modifiers
Part Offset - this tool creates parallel copies of a selected shape at a certain distance from the base shape, giving a new object.
clone tool - duplicate parts that are synchronized (maybe up to some feature) to each others. (They are created on top of the original and have to move with transform)
link tool - very similar to clone, but they are treated as the same body in the model (same color by ex).

Part Design Workbench

The PartDesign Workbench provides a more modern workflow to constructing shapes: it uses a parametrically defined sketch, that is extruded to form a basic solid body, which is then modified by parametric transformations (feature editing), until the final object is obtained.

Scale Part in Part Design Workbench - using sub ojbect binder
Complex Modelling With Substracting Groove - cut profile into extruded pieces.

Sketcher Workbench

The Sketcher Workbench is used to create 2D geometries intended for use in the PartDesign Workbench. the Sketcher also forms the basis of the feature editing methodology of creating solids.

The Sketcher workbench features “constraints”, allowing 2D shapes to follow precise geometrical definitions in terms of length, angles, and relationships (horizontality, verticality, perpendicularity, etc.). A constraint solver calculates the constrained-extent of 2D geometry and allows interactive exploration of degrees-of-freedom of the

Copy sketch to another plane
Point on mid-point / bisect
scaling sketch
- using draft workbench and converting back to sketch
- using a calculated cell
Constraint - can be used to measure without constraining by marking them as reference.
Polyline modifier tools - swithch between arc&tangent with the polyline tool

Draft Workbench

The grid that appears can be very usefull when working from photography, see Model from picture.

But it is not evident to remove see:

How to remove the grid / Draft ToggleGrid

Assembly3 Workbench

As of FreeCAD 0.19 there is no official assembly workbench. However, several external tools have been created or are in development to manipulate objects to produce assemblies.

Note that the assembly workbenches are generally incompatible with each other. If you create an assembly with one of them, you should stick to the original workbench, and not use another assembly workbench in the same document.

The assembly3 workbench use the constraint library from solvespace and integrate it into freecad.

Alternatives to assembly is just to position part by hand, which can work in most case. see Placing Parts in FreeCAD.

using draft move, edit placement and edit alignment (which can be customized in toolbars)
using Manipulator Workbench, can align pars
FreeCAD’s coordinate systems
- placement point - in global space
- attachment point - offset in local coordinate space - when attached to a face

Manipulating object / Model

Std LinkMake - a type of object that references or links to another object, in the same document, or in another document. It is especially designed to efficiently duplicate a single object multiple times
Groups
- A regular Std Group does not possess a DataPlacement property, so it cannot control the position of the objects inside of it. However, when Std LinkMake is used with Std Group, the resulting Link behaves essentially like a Std Part, and can also be moved in space.