Hi folks:
I imagine you are all up to your ears just getting FreeCAD working, but I'm trying to decide where to start with my own project. Which is:
I want to apply bootstrap manufacturing techniques to the construction of plans-built aircraft, specifically the Cozy (http://www.cozyaircraft.com/). Essentially, I want to have a builder start by building a simple CNC router/plotter, then fab the tools and many part cores using distributed CAM files and software. I want everything to be open (i.e. FOSS software and Creative Commons for the plane stuff).
I know nothing about the current state of the art of CAD/CAM/PLM since the last thing I used was AutoCAD about 15 years ago. But I've already made some technology choices, namely: Python as the core integration language, and QT as the GUI platform.
So I need a CAD platform. Is FreeCAD the right one? At the very lest: you have made the same core technology choices, and Open Cascade seems like a pretty solid framework, and you explicitly make FreeCAD embeddable/extendable. Biggest drawback seems to be project immaturity.
What about CAM? I've looked around and found some CAM stuff using Open Cascade. Have you guys thought about CAM?
Just looking for some brainstorming help. Cheers!
CAM? PLM?
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Re: CAM? PLM?
Hi!
Jürgen
There are other OpenSource CADs out there, but I fear they are also not that mature
Anyway, CAM is not our focus at the moment. We concentrate on CAD, but if you want to develop CAM in FreeCAD we would be pleased to help.
Just looking for some brainstorming help. Cheers!
Your right, we are struggling at the moment with the part design.I imagine you are all up to your ears just getting FreeCAD working, but I'm trying to decide where to start with my own project. Which is:
CheersI want to apply bootstrap manufacturing techniques to the construction of plans-built aircraft, specifically the Cozy (http://www.cozyaircraft.com/). Essentially, I want to have a builder start by building a simple CNC router/plotter, then fab the tools and many part cores using distributed CAM files and software. I want everything to be open (i.e. FOSS software and Creative Commons for the plane stuff).
Jürgen
From the standpoint of usability for a design project, we are immature. But as a base for a project like this I think we are a good starting point. Depends on what a time frame you have.I know nothing about the current state of the art of CAD/CAM/PLM since the last thing I used was AutoCAD about 15 years ago. But I've already made some technology choices, namely: Python as the core integration language, and QT as the GUI platform.
So I need a CAD platform. Is FreeCAD the right one? At the very lest: you have made the same core technology choices, and Open Cascade seems like a pretty solid framework, and you explicitly make FreeCAD embeddable/extendable. Biggest drawback seems to be project immaturity.
There are other OpenSource CADs out there, but I fear they are also not that mature
We have a CAM module which was written bei Joachim for its PhD thesis. It has some path planing for milling, but its at the moment not in a usable shape. May be Joachim has some time to work on it after writing his thesis. But thats not sure.What about CAM? I've looked around and found some CAM stuff using Open Cascade. Have you guys thought about CAM?
Anyway, CAM is not our focus at the moment. We concentrate on CAD, but if you want to develop CAM in FreeCAD we would be pleased to help.
Just looking for some brainstorming help. Cheers!
Stop whining - start coding!
Re: CAM? PLM?
I'll play and see. I'm having problems (errors) importing DXF files from various sources so I'll use that as a test case to learn a little more. I'd really like to see some convergence on FOSS Cad, because there are tons of "boutique" apps, but without some convergence there will be nothing that will challenge the commercial apps.
BTW, is there anyone thinking of partnering with a commercial provider a-la OpenOffice? It might be a savvy move for a good second tier CAD/CAM firm to dual-license their code (GPL and commercial). Example: TrollTech with QT.
BTW, is there anyone thinking of partnering with a commercial provider a-la OpenOffice? It might be a savvy move for a good second tier CAD/CAM firm to dual-license their code (GPL and commercial). Example: TrollTech with QT.
Re: CAM? PLM?
Hi bwithrow,
The DXF importer we have now in FreeCAD is something quite limited, and made more for the purpose of the 2D drafting module. So most probably you'll get many things that don't import (blocks, hatches, dimensions, etc) and possibly files that won't import at all. If you are interested in trying to do some debug, I can maybe help (I'm the culprit for the dxf import script
About FreeCAD maturity, like Jürgen said, I think it depends much on what you need. If you need a usable CAD program, then definitely it is immature. If what you need is a platform on which you want to build your own application or extension, then I would say it is very mature already. For example, the 2d drafting module you find in FreeCAD is a 100% python extension, built on top of basic FreeCAD. To build such things, there is about everything you need already. Another example is a fold module being developed here: http://ja.orgfree.com/freecad.htm
I would say FreeCAD can provide you at the moment a qt interface base, a very good geometry kernel, and a fast scene viewer with all kind of user interactions possible. There are also import/export facilities for a couple of common file types. The rest will still take a little time.
I guess by convergence you are talking about file formats (dwg?)... I think that's indeed a problem with all opensource cad projects... Most cad formats are proprietary. But I've never seen any of those big companies show the smallest interest in opensourcing anything
I sure would love to see an open dwg library!
The DXF importer we have now in FreeCAD is something quite limited, and made more for the purpose of the 2D drafting module. So most probably you'll get many things that don't import (blocks, hatches, dimensions, etc) and possibly files that won't import at all. If you are interested in trying to do some debug, I can maybe help (I'm the culprit for the dxf import script
About FreeCAD maturity, like Jürgen said, I think it depends much on what you need. If you need a usable CAD program, then definitely it is immature. If what you need is a platform on which you want to build your own application or extension, then I would say it is very mature already. For example, the 2d drafting module you find in FreeCAD is a 100% python extension, built on top of basic FreeCAD. To build such things, there is about everything you need already. Another example is a fold module being developed here: http://ja.orgfree.com/freecad.htm
I would say FreeCAD can provide you at the moment a qt interface base, a very good geometry kernel, and a fast scene viewer with all kind of user interactions possible. There are also import/export facilities for a couple of common file types. The rest will still take a little time.
I guess by convergence you are talking about file formats (dwg?)... I think that's indeed a problem with all opensource cad projects... Most cad formats are proprietary. But I've never seen any of those big companies show the smallest interest in opensourcing anything
I sure would love to see an open dwg library!
Re: CAM? PLM?
Hi bwithrow,
It's a bit off-topic, but usually, when speaking about PLM, SLM topic is not quite far.
For this purpose, there is an existing integration platform for numerical simulations: OpenSalome.
http://www.salome-platform.org/home/pre ... /overview/
It includes also a CAD module built on top of OCC, but not as ambitious as FreeCAD to me.
(actually, OpenCascade is developping among other big french companies this platform)
Ideally, it would be very nice in the tab "add-on" to have FreeCad one day!
I go definitely off-topic, but if you are also interested in mature open source simulation software, you should have a look at the CAE Linux website (http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/), a company from Switzerland releasing yearly a Linux portable system including several interesting open source simulation tools, and most notably SalomeMeca, a subset of OpenSalome with pre/post processors and Code_Aster as simulation tool.
What is interesting is as these tools are based on OCC for the pre-processing part, you can well draw your CADs in FreeCAD to then study your aircraft in Code_Aster (for structural simulation) or Code_Saturne (for CFD) (both are developped by EDF, a very large french company dealing with energy business, also implied in openSalome)
Cheers,
Yoh
It's a bit off-topic, but usually, when speaking about PLM, SLM topic is not quite far.
For this purpose, there is an existing integration platform for numerical simulations: OpenSalome.
http://www.salome-platform.org/home/pre ... /overview/
It includes also a CAD module built on top of OCC, but not as ambitious as FreeCAD to me.
(actually, OpenCascade is developping among other big french companies this platform)
Ideally, it would be very nice in the tab "add-on" to have FreeCad one day!
I go definitely off-topic, but if you are also interested in mature open source simulation software, you should have a look at the CAE Linux website (http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/), a company from Switzerland releasing yearly a Linux portable system including several interesting open source simulation tools, and most notably SalomeMeca, a subset of OpenSalome with pre/post processors and Code_Aster as simulation tool.
What is interesting is as these tools are based on OCC for the pre-processing part, you can well draw your CADs in FreeCAD to then study your aircraft in Code_Aster (for structural simulation) or Code_Saturne (for CFD) (both are developped by EDF, a very large french company dealing with energy business, also implied in openSalome)
Cheers,
Yoh
Re: CAM? PLM?
Hi all!
I find interesting to share with you this link found on the OpenCascade website, and presenting a project dealing with one of the CAM topic: assembly sequence management (not part manufacturing).
The project is presented on this page (a little bit old (2000), it was apparently the subject of a Ph.D):
http://projects.opencascade.org/projects/assembly.html
A power point link presenting the results can be found at the bottom of the page:
http://projects.opencascade.org/project ... eri-UK.ppt
I don't know if the programs downloable at the same page are now by default included in the OCC library.
Anyway, it may be a start to implement CAM features dealing with assembly in FreeCAD.
I don't know if the work carried out by Joachim for its PhD thesis is dealing with the same topic.
From what I read from your post, Jürgen, it doesn't exactly seem to, as the project I'm giving a link to is more related to assembly management, and assembly sequence, not how should be manufactured individually the parts.
Cheers,
Yoh
I find interesting to share with you this link found on the OpenCascade website, and presenting a project dealing with one of the CAM topic: assembly sequence management (not part manufacturing).
The project is presented on this page (a little bit old (2000), it was apparently the subject of a Ph.D):
http://projects.opencascade.org/projects/assembly.html
A power point link presenting the results can be found at the bottom of the page:
http://projects.opencascade.org/project ... eri-UK.ppt
I don't know if the programs downloable at the same page are now by default included in the OCC library.
Anyway, it may be a start to implement CAM features dealing with assembly in FreeCAD.
I don't know if the work carried out by Joachim for its PhD thesis is dealing with the same topic.
From what I read from your post, Jürgen, it doesn't exactly seem to, as the project I'm giving a link to is more related to assembly management, and assembly sequence, not how should be manufactured individually the parts.
Cheers,
Yoh
Re: CAM? PLM?
Im not quite shure what he did in his project!? Its french, so I cant read it 
Joachim did mostly Tool path planing. Im not shure what machining on assamblies mean?
Joachim did mostly Tool path planing. Im not shure what machining on assamblies mean?
Stop whining - start coding!
Re: CAM? PLM?
Jürgen,
I gave a link to the english version of its presentation.
I think these are two very different topics.
- I guess the study on machining is related to machining one part at a time using robots.
Let's say it is in phase 1 of manufacturing.
- The work I'm giving a link is how to study the assembly sequence of a given set of parts.
Which parts have to be assembled first together, and so on...
...taking into account interference aspects (the fact that an area of a given part become unreachable after having assembled it with another for instance),...
...and also taking into account process constraints (to weld a part to another, you need some room to get the robot close to the part for instance).
This is phase 2 of manufacturing, once each part is available for assembly.
So, these are 2 topics related to Computer Aided Manufacturing.
And only the first one is related to Computer Aided Machining...
Cheers,
Yoh
I gave a link to the english version of its presentation.
I think these are two very different topics.
- I guess the study on machining is related to machining one part at a time using robots.
Let's say it is in phase 1 of manufacturing.
- The work I'm giving a link is how to study the assembly sequence of a given set of parts.
Which parts have to be assembled first together, and so on...
...taking into account interference aspects (the fact that an area of a given part become unreachable after having assembled it with another for instance),...
...and also taking into account process constraints (to weld a part to another, you need some room to get the robot close to the part for instance).
This is phase 2 of manufacturing, once each part is available for assembly.
So, these are 2 topics related to Computer Aided Manufacturing.
And only the first one is related to Computer Aided Machining...
Cheers,
Yoh