Assembly 4 workbench

Discussion about the development of the Assembly workbench.
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Alex76
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Alex76 »

Thanks so much,
do you plan to enhance the Variant Part with the LCS option or not?
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

Alex76 wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:15 pm do you plan to enhance the Variant Part with the LCS option or not?
what do you mean by "the LCS option" ?
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
LarryWoestman
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by LarryWoestman »

Just wanted to say thanks to Zolko and any others that have worked on FreeCAD and the Assembly 4 workbench.

I was able to efficiently draw our current kitchen layout with the appliances and cabinets using Assembly 4 without having to learn too much :)
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FreeCutter
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by FreeCutter »

Hello,
maybe this is a bug in "Create symmetric of part":

Pockets based on sketched circels became quads in the mirrored part (?).
mirrored part.png
mirrored part.png (16.18 KiB) Viewed 7242 times

Code: Select all

FreeCAD Assembly 4 workbench
Current version 0.11.5

OS: Windows 10 Version 2009
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.25645 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 37d9757399b4c2ec30318eb88d7cd7c508246345
Python version: 3.8.6+
Qt version: 5.15.2
Coin version: 4.0.1
OCC version: 7.5.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)
Attachments
Assembly4_symmetric_of_part.FCStd
(33.18 KiB) Downloaded 76 times
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Philip Rayment
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Philip Rayment »

As a relative newbie, I find that a lot of the documentation for FreeCad, and in this case the Assembly 4 workbench, is very hard to follow. So here I want to point out the problems I see in the hope that they can be improved.

I have used FreeCad before, but only a little, so have learned some things, but not a lot. I had installed a workbench before, so installing this one was not an issue.

My starting point is the Release notes page for FreeCad 0.19. It has a section for Assembly4, which has links to the forum discussion for the original idea, this forum discussion, and the repository. There are no links that purport to be to instructions on how to use it. The third of those links might seem the most promising, and indeed at that third link you'll find under the Getting Started there is a link to "user instructions". Great! It would have been good for that to be on the release notes page, but no biggie.

One of the problems is that it seems that terminology has changed in the software but not in the instructions. For example, the first 'command' is 'New Model', which creates a Part called Model. Except that the command is actually 'New Assembly', which creates something called 'Assembly'.
This also affects things like Tutorial 1, which has a screenshot of the Assembly menu that does not match the actual menu of the workbench. And instructions like "In one document, create a new Model: Menu > Assembly > New Model", but it's actually now Menu > Assembly > New Assembly. These sorts of discrepancies can be a big problem for a new user struggling to get to know the software. Similarly, another step says "Create a new Local Coordinate System (LCS) (Menu > Assembly > New Coordinate System)...". But this is now Menu > Assembly > Create Datum Object > New Coordinate System!

Then there are the references to things like "App::Part" What on earth do these mean? Earlier on the page it says "For those interested in more technical details please read the technical manual". So this page is not meant to be technical. But English has no circumstances where you use two colons in a row. So this is actually some technical term! (I presume that it means something in Python, but this page should not require the reader to understand Python.) I understand that a "Part" is a specific FreeCad term for something in FreeCad, as is "Body", but I have yet to understand what the difference is between a Part and a Body. They might as well both be "things" for all I know. Okay, these are FreeCad terms, not Assembly4 terms, so you shouldn't have to explain them, but references to things like "App::Part" should just say "Part" and be hyperlinked to somewhere else in the FreeCad documentation that does explain them.

A further comment about the lack of clarity here: The New Body command creates a body in a part, and the Body can be used with the PartDesign workbench. The New Part command creates a Part. So the PartDesign workbench is used to work with a Body, but not a Part? Again, these sorts of things only cause confusion to new users.

There are probably many other things that could be mentioned, but I'll finish with reference to the tutorials, or lack of them. There are links to three. The first is to "a quick assembly from scratch". It's not a bad tutorial, apart from those issues of the terminology and screenshots not matching the software. But tutorials should never be a substitute for good instructions. First, a tutorial is only useful if it explains the process that you want to follow. I want to design things like bookshelves or desks, not rotating shafts. It's not a great tutorial for my purposes.. Second, a tutorial is not a good reference source to go back to, to find out how to do a particular thing you want to do.

The next tutorial is "a cinematic assembly in one file, using a master sketch". I have no idea what the word "cinematic" ("of, relating to, suggestive of, or suitable for motion pictures or the filming of motion pictures") means in this context, and the tutorial doesn't even use the word. But again, it's not much use for designing static objects with mostly rectangular shapes, like I mentioned.

The third tutorial is "a Lego assembly". Why on earth someone would want to design in FreeCad a lego model I have no idea, but at least it is made out of rectangular shapes, so it might be some use. Except that the "tutorial" comprises nothing more than the words "An assembly of Lego parts" and a single screenshot. It is useless.
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

FreeCutter wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 9:29 pm maybe this is a bug in "Create symmetric of part":
yes, that tool is not very good
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
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fred-3d
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by fred-3d »

Hi,

I'm using FreeCAD weekly build 0.20.27078 and recently upgraded to Assembly 4 version 0.11.6. The workbench is working fine for me, but I noticed one minor thing that I thought I should mention.

The workbench Release Notes list the current version as 0.11.6 while Tools-->AddOn_manager-->Assembly4 reports the installed/current version as 0.11.5. I am not sure if this is an AddOn_manager glitch or what. I have attached a screenshot.
OS: openSUSE Leap 15.1 (KDE//usr/share/xsessions/plasma5)
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.27078 (Git) AppImage
Build type: Release
Branch: (HEAD detached at bcdd926)
Hash: bcdd926686f2245fe60baface1cce1ab3dff7a5b
Python version: 3.9.9
Qt version: 5.12.9
Coin version: 4.0.0
OCC version: 7.5.3
Locale: English/United States (en_US)
Attachments
Assmbly4_version_Screenshot_20220120_141004.png
Assmbly4_version_Screenshot_20220120_141004.png (50.18 KiB) Viewed 5337 times
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Kunda1
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

fred-3d wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:59 pm The workbench is working fine for me, but I noticed one minor thing that I thought I should mention.
Thanks for mentioning. We know about this. Here is the issue:
https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_As ... age.xml#L5

Zolko is fixing this in the development branch, so this is temporary. It should be fixed imminently. Cheers :+1:
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

Kunda1 wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:51 am
fred-3d wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:59 pm The workbench is working fine for me, but I noticed one minor thing that I thought I should mention.
Thanks for mentioning. We know about this. Here is the issue:
https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_As ... age.xml#L5
hello, a new version 0.11.7 is out, which has the package.xml file for the new AddonManager
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
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Kunda1
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

Zolko wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 8:11 am hello, a new version 0.11.7 is out, which has the package.xml file for the new AddonManager
Thanks Zolko!
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Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
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