Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Need help, or want to share a macro? Post here!
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
hamish
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:08 am

Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by hamish »

Hi Folks,

As with drawing_dimensioning, I do not have time to properly maintain the workbench anymore.
Are there any users who are interested in taking over the project?
If so, do you think it is time to merge assembly2 with the FreeCAD 0.17 branch.

Many thanks,
Hamish
User avatar
DeepSOIC
Veteran
Posts: 7896
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 12:45 am
Location: used to be Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by DeepSOIC »

Hi!
I am interested in taking over assembly2 and extend/port it to 0.17
I am busy with other stuff at the moment, but I may eventually come to this.
User avatar
easyw-fc
Veteran
Posts: 3629
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:34 am

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by easyw-fc »

hamish wrote: If so, do you think it is time to merge assembly2 with the FreeCAD 0.17 branch.
Hi Hamish, looking forward for Assembly2 integration in FC 0.17
I found Assembly2 and DrawingDimensioning extremly useful!!! Thanx a lot for your work!!!
Maurice
jmaustpc
Veteran
Posts: 11207
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:28 am
Location: Australia

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by jmaustpc »

Hi Hamish
Are you able and happy to change the license to LGPL2?
Jim
hamish
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:08 am

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by hamish »

Thanks for the interest DeepSOIC.
Pleasure Maurice.

Jim, I am happy to change the licence to LGPL2.
How exactly do I change the licence,
do i simply update the licence in the hamish2014/assembly2 repo?
ickby
Veteran
Posts: 3116
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2011 7:36 am

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by ickby »

Personally I'm highly against merging assembly2 into FreeCAD. I do appreciate the work done on the workbench and see its usefulness. However, due to FreeCAD implementation restrictions the workbench needed to use hacks to make assemblies work. This by no means a critic or depreciation on hamishs work, it is just what he needed to do to get it working. FreeCADs object model currently does miss many many things the workbench worked around, the topological naming too what also has seen many workarounds in the workbench.

Now merging it in means essentially making it the standard, even if we know it is bad design in many aspects. We will become responsible not only for updating but also fixing bugs in the future for something that we know we must deprecate one day or another. It will bind developer time which is already spare. And most likely people will start working on the workbench and even less time goes into the needed changes for a real full functional assembly workbench.
User avatar
DeepSOIC
Veteran
Posts: 7896
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 12:45 am
Location: used to be Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by DeepSOIC »

Just to make it clear: I don't plan merging assembly2 into FreeCAD. Just porting (taking advantage of containers, fixing bugs) and maybe improving.
User avatar
easyw-fc
Veteran
Posts: 3629
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:34 am

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by easyw-fc »

just to show how Assembly2 is an useful and popular WB
https://youtu.be/dhaYJKDk4GI
27,624 views :D
triplus
Veteran
Posts: 9471
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:45 pm

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by triplus »

I would probably be fine with either way.

That is drawing dimensioning module provided by default in FreeCAD 0.16 or as a 3rd Party module. Or Assembly2 module provided by default in FreeCAD 0.17 or as a 3rd Party module.

I am thankful this options exist.

As for general rule i guess if a module for some area doesn’t exist and there is willing developer wanting to do some job on it that should be possible. Usually hacking to find the proper way ends up being the proper way in the end anyway.
jmaustpc
Veteran
Posts: 11207
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:28 am
Location: Australia

Re: Merging hamish2014/assembly2 into v0.17, help wanted

Post by jmaustpc »

ickby wrote:Personally I'm highly against merging assembly2 into FreeCAD. I do appreciate the work done on the workbench and see its usefulness. However, due to FreeCAD implementation restrictions the workbench needed to use hacks to make assemblies work. This by no means a critic or depreciation on hamishs work, it is just what he needed to do to get it working. FreeCADs object model currently does miss many many things the workbench worked around, the topological naming too what also has seen many workarounds in the workbench.

Now merging it in means essentially making it the standard, even if we know it is bad design in many aspects. We will become responsible not only for updating but also fixing bugs in the future for something that we know we must deprecate one day or another. It will bind developer time which is already spare. And most likely people will start working on the workbench and even less time goes into the needed changes for a real full functional assembly workbench.
Ickby is right, he makes sense.

This code would be a dead end hack from a code perspective. As an optional plug-in that is OK but code going into master should following the long term goals and plans, standards and quality, other wise the code would eventually become low quality mixed up mess or even unmaintainable in the long term. From a users point of view it might seem useful but once in master, FreeCAD becomes obliged to support it for the long term, even if it was something that went in a direction we knew we were not going to go in the long term.

I don't want to sound negative about Hamish's great work but there is a lesson in this for anyone wanting to write code for a project...."talk to the project first". Hamish did what he did for his own reasons and that really is OK, :) but my point is that in general cases you can save duplicated or misdirected effort if you discuss your plans first.

If someone wants to take over the maintenance of these add-ons, that would be nice. But I think we all see that they are (and I believe were always intended by Hamish?) only as a short term helpful add-on until the relevant functionality arrived in master.

I can't make a detailed judgement on Drawing Dimensioning, its not something I have used, but I think it could likely be better for a developer to spend the time fixing and bugs/missing functionality in TechDraw rather than spending too much effort on what is a dead end, but perhaps the effort is not that great? And anyway that decision is up to who ever wants to spend their own time however they choose, of course. :)
Post Reply