Anyone use freecad ?

[totoxraymond]

In freecad, the 2d tools are in the "sketch" workbench.

Then use the "part design" workbench to extrude the sketch. I think the tool is called "pad".

There are lots of tutorials online. And the wiki is pretty good too.

Thomas

 

[Rob Flinn]

In freecad, the 2d tools are in the "sketch" workbench.

Then use the "part design" workbench to extrude the sketch. I think the tool is called "pad".

There are lots of tutorials online. And the wiki is pretty good too.

Thomas

Thanks Thomas, I will look this up.

 

[ruffrecords]

In freecad, the 2d tools are in the "sketch" workbench.

Then use the "part design" workbench to extrude the sketch. I think the tool is called "pad".

There are lots of tutorials online. And the wiki is pretty good too.

Thomas

It is that kind of basic info that helps non CAD users to get started. Thanks for that.

Cheers

Ian

 

[ruffrecords]

I just found this FreeCAD guide for makers on the raspberry pi website:

FreeCAD for Makers - Raspberry Pi

Cheers

Ian

 

[neowalla]

I tried Freecad a few years ago when I first got my CNC and was frustrated trying to learn it as the online documentation and tutorial videos were so far behind the current version of the program they were useless. FreeCAD wasn't even at version 1.0 at the time. Maybe it has slowed down a little now and worth a second look??

 

[totoxraymond]

I was struggling when i started freecad a few years ago. It evolved a lot since then, but the basic workbenches like part design and sketch not so much.

A few years ago assembly and CAM were quite bad. (At least i didn't understand how they worked back then).

But i tried again later and these workbenches did improve a lot. I ised it to modelize my diy DAW controller and generate CAM jobs to CNC my front panels all worked very good. Much better than the soft I used before. (Which admitedly were not professional solutions, but FOSS)

The first thing you have to understand in freecad, is how different tools are separated in different workbenches.

Cheers,

Thomas

 

[Blondino]

I use freeCAD since a couple of year and I got around stuff thanks to some knowledge I have from autocad because “sketch” doesn’t really behave right on my computer. More or less all the cad programs works the same…
True is I would like to be able to programming so I would be able to make my own software

Anyway, freecad is not that bad and works fine once you learn some drawing basics!
Cheers

 

[Whoops]

I used FreeCAD but was never happy with it's user interface, GUI and how it works.
Now I got a free account of Fusion 360 and it's great, great GUI and user interface, although I'm still pretty bad in CAD drawing, maybe you day I will have time to learn it better...

 

[13engrsapper]

Thanks Paul. I used to draw stuff as flat in autocad when I was at college, & then there was an extrude fuction to make it 3d. I gues that's the process I am trying to discover in freecad.

There is a function like that in Fusion 360 (press/pull). Your part would be simple to knock out there. This part could be machined with the fins facing upward using two or three tools.