New to FreeCad but not to CAD

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thatguy
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2017 5:41 am

New to FreeCad but not to CAD

Post by thatguy »

Hi all,

I'm new to freeCAD, and must say I'm struggling to get the basics right. The end goal for me at this stage is to produce a part that has an extrusion in the middle, and 2 mirrored multi sketch lofts (1 either side of the extrusion). Is this something that is achieveable in FreeCad (the lofts will not be simple sketches and will likely need guide curves - does freeCad support this functionality?)

Here is my FreeCad info

OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.16.6706 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-16
Hash: f86a4e411ff7848dea98d7242f43b7774bee8fa0
Python version: 2.7.8
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 6.8.0.oce-0.17


I have experience with Solidworks, Creo, Inventor etc. which is possibly why I'm finding it hard to start in freeCAD.

I've been able to draw sketches on different planes (just by defining an offset from the X-Y plane) but cannot view them all at the same time, and they do not appear in the loft tool (only one sketch appears). My model tree shows all 3 sketches.

For now what I want to know is how I show all of my sketch planes and sketches in 3D - I need to be able to see everything together so I know what I'm doing.

Appreciate any help

Cheers
chrisb
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Posts: 53923
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: New to FreeCad but not to CAD

Post by chrisb »

thatguy wrote:For now what I want to know is how I show all of my sketch planes and sketches in 3D - I need to be able to see everything together so I know what I'm doing.
You can toggle the visibility by selecting the element in the tree and hit the space bar. To prevent users from forking their model by default previous elements are usually hidden.

I am not sure what you mean by "guide curves". In 0.16 FreeCAD Draft Workbench contains splines and bezier curves. In the upcoming 0.17 (which can be installed in parallel) splines have just been added to Sketcher as well.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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bejant
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Posts: 6075
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:06 pm

Re: New to FreeCad but not to CAD

Post by bejant »

Hi thatguy, and welcome!
thatguy wrote:The end goal for me at this stage is to produce a part that has an extrusion in the middle, and 2 mirrored multi sketch lofts (1 either side of the extrusion). Is this something that is achieveable in FreeCad
Without seeing the part I'll say that yes, it's possible in FreeCAD.
thatguy wrote:(the lofts will not be simple sketches and will likely need guide curves - does freeCad support this functionality?)
Yes, see the Part WB > Sweep tool.
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.p ... Part_Sweep
thatguy wrote:I've been able to draw sketches on different planes (just by defining an offset from the X-Y plane) but cannot view them all at the same time, and they do not appear in the loft tool (only one sketch appears). My model tree shows all 3 sketches.
I suspect that the two Sketches that don't appear in the Loft tool have crossing geometry or don't form an enclosed area.
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NormandC
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Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:52 pm
Location: Québec, Canada

Re: New to FreeCad but not to CAD

Post by NormandC »

Hello thatguy,
thatguy wrote:I have experience with Solidworks, Creo, Inventor etc. which is possibly why I'm finding it hard to start in freeCAD.
I have experience with a few CAD packages myself, and I've always thought that it helped me come to grips with FreeCAD. But I have to admit that I've had the advantage of learning FreeCAD along its development in the past 7 years. I can tell you that back when I started, there was a lot less tools in the GUI (Sketcher didn't exist, nor did Loft and Sweep in the Part workbench)
thatguy wrote:I've been able to draw sketches on different planes (just by defining an offset from the X-Y plane) but cannot view them all at the same time
They don't all appear if you apply a zoom "fit all"?
chrisb wrote:I am not sure what you mean by "guide curves".
In Solidworks, when creating a Loft you have the option to define multiple guide paths between the lofted profiles vertexes.

See https://www.cati.com/blog/2015/02/how-d ... t-feature/

Unfortunately there is no such functionality (yet) in FreeCAD, and the Sweep tool only supports a single path. You may be able to work around this limitation by adding more loft profiles...
chrisb
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Posts: 53923
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: New to FreeCad but not to CAD

Post by chrisb »

NormandC wrote:In Solidworks, when creating a Loft you have the option to define multiple guide paths between the lofted profiles vertexes.

See https://www.cati.com/blog/2015/02/how-d ... t-feature/
Thanks for the explanation.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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