Adaptive components?

[dimitar]

Adaptive components in Revit are few of the tools that Revit offers that are actually great. In case you are not familiar with the logic, adaptive components are based on points. From these points it then becomes possible to build lines, curves, arcs, etc. Also from the points, it's possible to get normal planes and use those planes to sketch on top of. They are in some ways like freecad 3d sketches and are quite useful for panelization

I am wondering if such adaptive point logic exists in freecad? I am thinking for example of starting with a surface, subdividing it, adapting a sketch between the 4 points of the subdivided cells.

[bitacovir]

The Pyflow project could do that...
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36299

[dimitar]

The Pyflow project could do that...
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36299

Will take a look at it...at a first glance thought, it seems like there is no easy way to use it in Freecad yet?

[bitacovir]

Yes that project is at an early stage.
Another option... you could try sverchok in blender ant export/import to FreeCAD.

[Cyril]

Dimitar could you show a small example/use case ?
I know Revit pretty much and currently with my little knowlegde on FreeCAD everything works much better for objects creation. Constraints are more consistant stable and understandable. But I admit I almost never use adaptive component in my field but it seems strange to me that something could easier on Revit as the rest for all my use case are clearly easier on FreeCAD. If there is it could be a good FreeCAD Challenge.

[dimitar]

Dimitar could you show a small example/use case ?
I know Revit pretty much and currently with my little knowlegde on FreeCAD everything works much better for objects creation. Constraints are more consistant stable and understandable. But I admit I almost never use adaptive component in my field but it seems strange to me that something could easier on Revit as the rest for all my use case are clearly easier on FreeCAD. If there is it could be a good FreeCAD Challenge.

Here is an example:

phpBB [video]

[saso]

Such workflows should be the default for FreeCAD and it should eat them for breakfast since they are the core principles of fully parametric models, unfortunately there is not enough interest to focus on this as much as some of us would like to...

But it is not all bad, attached is an example similar to yours:
- you can use the transform gizmo on the vertices (select one of the vertex in the tree, right click, transform)
- you can map vertices to other objects and drive their positions (and so the shape) with them
- you can change the sketch of the profile
- you can change the sweeps to solids (property solid true) and you can do Part Fuse or Part Connect on them and refine (property refine true)
- you can select the group and make a copy of it (the new copy will be fully connected and ready to use)
- you can also select just one or two sweeps (pick just the sweeps and always pick at least the one with the sketch) it will ask you if you want to copy the dependencies, click yes then paste to get a functional copy of the selection
- I doubt it is possible to get a nice connected sweep all around, maybe someone else will know some trick for that
- and maybe you can do something more, who knows

Regardless of this example, play around with the Attachment Map Mode of the objects, use and understand the Dependency graph to understand such fully connected models and also have a look at the Lattice2 addon, it has many tricks for such similar workflows.

[dimitar]

Such workflows should be the default for FreeCAD and it should eat them for breakfast since they are the core principles of fully parametric models, unfortunately there is not enough interest to focus on this as much as some of us would like to...

Totally agree. This could be a an amazing feature in Freecad.

I suppose what's need is a sketch on top of a sketch. in this case a sketch of adaptive points. Then another sketch could be a profile that could be smartly cloned on top of the adaptive points sketch. Or maybe dozen sketches that can follow the points.

This approach could create an interface to curtain walls as well, which is how it tends to get used quite a bit in Revit.

[saso]

I suppose what's need is a sketch on top of a sketch. in this case a sketch of adaptive points. Then another sketch could be a profile that could be smartly cloned on top of the adaptive points sketch. Or maybe dozen sketches that can follow the points.

No, the general structure of my example is good. FreeCAD users that come from other non fully parametric CAD programs often tend to badly misuse sketches (specially if they want to use them as 2D "AutoCAD" drafting).

I would recommend to forget about Revit and Grasshopper, I mean not fully, just to stop thinking and trying to do things in the same way in FreeCAD. Better start learning some of the basic construction methods and workflows of fully parametric CAD programs, if you learn from videos then https://www.youtube.com/user/netwulf61/playlists could be a good start and for more advanced surfacing some of the older videos here https://www.youtube.com/user/ClassASurfacing/playlists or find some other tutorials or courses for programs such as Solidworks, Inventor, Catia,... does not really matter, what ever fits you. At first don't search for architecture examples, just the normal "mechanical" stuff that this programs are normally used for.

For architecture some good links for later are this https://www.youtube.com/user/GehryTechnologies/videos (training materials for it https://www.digitalproject3d.com/downloads.html), https://www.youtube.com/user/cadmakersinc/videos, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtbP0U ... YeA/videos, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJT-Ww ... uGg/videos

You will later see how it all connects back also to Revit and Grasshopper but you will look at it from a different perspective... Start to love and respect the history tree

[dimitar]

I suppose what's need is a sketch on top of a sketch. in this case a sketch of adaptive points. Then another sketch could be a profile that could be smartly cloned on top of the adaptive points sketch. Or maybe dozen sketches that can follow the points.

No, the general structure of my example is good. FreeCAD users that come from other non fully parametric CAD programs often tend to badly misuse sketches (specially if they want to use them as 2D "AutoCAD" drafting).

I would recommend to forget about Revit and Grasshopper, I mean not fully, just to stop thinking and trying to do things in the same way in FreeCAD. Better start learning some of the basic construction methods and workflows of fully parametric CAD programs, if you learn from videos then https://www.youtube.com/user/netwulf61/playlists could be a good start and for more advanced surfacing some of the older videos here https://www.youtube.com/user/ClassASurfacing/playlists or find some other tutorials or courses for programs such as Solidworks, Inventor, Catia,... does not really matter, what ever fits you. At first don't search for architecture examples, just the normal "mechanical" stuff that this programs are normally used for.

For architecture some good links for later are this https://www.youtube.com/user/GehryTechnologies/videos (training materials for it https://www.digitalproject3d.com/downloads.html), https://www.youtube.com/user/cadmakersinc/videos, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtbP0U ... YeA/videos, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJT-Ww ... uGg/videos

You will later see how it all connects back also to Revit and Grasshopper but you will look at it from a different perspective... Start to love and respect the history tree

Thanks for these playlists!! Will definitely check them out. I actually started using freecad because of Catia

I have been getting really familiar with freecad for the past few days at the office for a 3d axon section of a competition for a pretty complex project at the moment (hence me posting all over the place). And as powerful as I am realising it is, it feels like it could be even more powerful, with not too much additional effort I will continue to post my observations here: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=37017

What you show in your freecad file does not quite work the way that adaptive components work. I am sure it doesn't need to be the same workflow, but something that can create complex panels from a series of points or UV divisions would be something rather interesting, with clean sweeps and all.