Parts -> Assembly and more

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HCP-DK
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:38 am

Parts -> Assembly and more

Post by HCP-DK »

Hi,
I worked last 25 years with ACAD programs as Mechanical Desktop, Inventor as well as SolidWorks, little bit CREO. Now I try FreeCad and used tutorials quite a lot. This is needed since the logic behind SW and Inventor is quite different to FreeCAD. I use latest stabile version FreeCad 16.08 run on SUSE Enterprise.

Part Design. I produced some Girders (beams) made of pads, sweeps - different sketches in different plans but as one part. (part design module)
Expected this is one part. Is this really one part? I can see all "features" are there.

1) Connection between parts via constrains and ensured result was "green", means part o.k. In some cases I used edge "linked to external geometry"
When changing dimensions, I lost regularly constrains need to be redone. Why?

2) I managed mirroring one half of girder, but end up only see the mirror parts in tree, full part as model. Maybe I made a failure mirror all elements in tree as sketches? Why can't I see original solids and mirror solids in tree?
Questions: In SW and Inventor sketches are part of geometry. in FreeCad it looks like the solid is build of sketch, but both a seperat? It seems I can delete sketch or path, but solid is still there. How is the logic behind the 3D models?

3) I tried to use these Parts made of different sketches and features as mentioned above in Assembly. But this doesn't worked. I got failure message. After some work I used "Union" operation and got a kind of one part, still see the features below. (smart). Now I could use the parts in Assembly. Why?

4) Is it possible using sub-assemblies, means make an assembly and use this in a larger assembly later?

5) I can see there are some good modules available. Will these modules get part of FreeCad in future? Is there a more simple way of adding modules and features than installtion of each of them?

Thanks for support
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r-frank
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Re: Parts -> Assembly and more

Post by r-frank »

HCP-DK wrote:1) Connection between parts via constrains and ensured result was "green", means part o.k. In some cases I used edge "linked to external geometry"
When changing dimensions, I lost regularly constrains need to be redone. Why?
Hard to tell without looking at the model. Maybe you ran into topological naming issues.
HCP-DK wrote:2) I managed mirroring one half of girder, but end up only see the mirror parts in tree, full part as model. Maybe I made a failure mirror all elements in tree as sketches? Why can't I see original solids and mirror solids in tree?
Nearly impossible to tell without looking at the model.
Mirror in Part workbench and Mirror in Part Design workbench work different.
Mirror in Part Design can only be used on pad/pocket and not on single solids.
Maybe you just did hide the solids ?
HCP-DK wrote:3) I tried to use these Parts made of different sketches and features as mentioned above in Assembly.
Which assembly ?
Did you use assembly2? Or did you try to move Part Design features (only basic sketch can be moved)?
Please be more specific
HCP-DK wrote:4) Is it possible using sub-assemblies, means make an assembly and use this in a larger assembly later?
Yes, with assembly2 add-on this is possible
HCP-DK wrote:I can see there are some good modules available. Will these modules get part of FreeCad in future?
No, normally not (but who knows for sure ?)
HCP-DK wrote:Is there a more simple way of adding modules and features than installtion of each of them?
No, not that i know of.
If you are on UBUNTU (or Linux Mint) you could install the community PPA.
That way you will be notified of updates on an add-on.
Deutsche FreeCAD Tutorials auf Youtube
My GrabCAD FreeCAD-Projects
FreeCAD lessons for beginners in english

Native german speaker - so apologies for my english, no offense intended :)
HoWil
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Re: Parts -> Assembly and more

Post by HoWil »

HCP-DK wrote: 5) I can see there are some good modules available. Will these modules get part of FreeCad in future? Is there a more simple way of adding modules and features than installtion of each of them?
Hi,
If you are more interested in testing Freecad then you maybe give the development version a try. The is a addon -manager included allowing to easily install/update /remove additional workbenches and scripts.
BTW: part design workbench (and others) improved tremendously.
BR,
Howil
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NormandC
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Re: Parts -> Assembly and more

Post by NormandC »

HoWil wrote:The is a addon -manager included allowing to easily install/update /remove additional workbenches and scripts.
On FreeCAD 0.16 it's a macro that can be downloaded then run.

See https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Install ... repository
HoWil
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Re: Parts -> Assembly and more

Post by HoWil »

NormandC wrote: On FreeCAD 0.16 it's a macro that can be downloaded then run.

See https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Install ... repository
Thanks! Did not know that it also runs under 0.16. An additional reason to to like it :D !
BR,
HoWil
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