FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

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OficineRobotica
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FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by OficineRobotica »

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BooleanTools2.jpeg
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First in a series of video tutorials on how to use the part design boolean tools present in the LinkStage3 branch from @realthunder.
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Last edited by OficineRobotica on Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
carlopav
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by carlopav »

looks super professional! bravo!
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Zolko
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by Zolko »

carlopav wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:54 pm looks super professional! bravo!
I agree, impressive.
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

So good! Thanks for posting OR!
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OficineRobotica
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by OficineRobotica »

Thank you guys. You are too kind. I would share the model but it is too big for the forum. Perhaps set up a github repo? Suggestions are welcomed.
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by Vincent B »

Very nice. I like the "cascade" workflow.
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by realthunder »

Here is a brief summary of the new features in PartDesign, available in my daily build, currently 20201013.

First, two new features, GenericPattern and Extrusion.
Screenshot from 2020-10-14 08-01-02.png
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Extrusion is mainly for creating non-solid and use them as datum or pad/pocket. You can extrude vertex to edge, edge to face, face to shell, or face to solid if you want. GenericPattern allows you to use an expression to control the pattern, including the number of patterns, and since you can call Python function in expression using my branch, you can practically do anything with it. There is also the new TransformOffset property in every pattern feature, that allows you to specify an offset of the original feature before patterning. This effectively provides an easy way to move a solid and then merge it. The task panel for TransformOffset is hidden by default, because it may interfere with feature selection in the normal task. You can expand it manually, which will auto hide the normal task.
Screenshot from 2020-10-14 08-17-10.png
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The green SubShapeBinder will now create edges if you bind to a series of vertices, and if there are more than two vertices bound, it will form a closed loop and create a face. It can now create non-planar face, which will be a face with BSpline surface, so yes, it works with BSpline edges as well. If you do not want to create face, just toggle 'MakeFace' property. And if you bind multiple faces, it will try to create a solid if possible. To turn off that behavior, toggle the 'Fuse' property.
Screenshot from 2020-10-14 08-08-21.png
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There is also enhanced support of multi-body modeling. Every additive feature now exposes a 'New solid' option in their task panel. Click that, then a new solid will be created with that feature without fusing to its base feature. And you'll see a new tag color in the tree view. The features with different tag color can toggle visibility independently. Within the same tag, only one feature can be visible. But if you have SelectionOnTop enabled (which is by default), just select or mouse over in the tree view can reveal any feature. You can use boolean feature to operate on features from different tag within the same body. This means you can easily do fork and merge with different solids in the same body. The 'Tip' feature is marked by a tag with its middle colored green.

You can now reorder features easily using drag and drop. Currently drag and drop only support moving feature within the same tag. If you really want to move them across, then use the original 'Move tip' action. Not sure if it is going to work, though.

And of course, you can still do it across multiple PartDesign body using binder as usual if you prefer.
Screenshot from 2020-10-14 08-10-20.png
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dulouie
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by dulouie »

Wow realthunder, i tested your linkdev branch yesterday, Partdesign finally becomes really great:)
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OficineRobotica
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by OficineRobotica »

realthunder wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:51 am
Wow man....only this morning I had some more time to play with the new modelling features. The possibilities that this opens. Could this workflow be called hybrid ConstructiveSolidGeometry/FeatureBaseModelling? Someone should come up with a cool name for branding purposes. Really.

While exploring the options I found a strange behavior that I still have to understand if it is a small bug or me that I don't get how things work. Notice in the screen recording below:

-create a new body based on a feature
-try to select anything(face/edge/vertex) from the "BaseFeature" of the newly created body -> the whole geometry gets selected !!!
-point the cursor at a face and click -> create sketch ...the sketch gets created on the correct face although the whole geometry was highlighted
-similarly try with an edge -> chamfer .... it will fail because I think that now it takes in to account the whole selection

Not really obvious in the video but I think more important. After I create "Pad002" I select it then Canc (for deleting that feature). After that "Body001" will report: "Linked object is not a PartDesignFeature" . The only way I found to get it out of that state is to Ctrl-Z operations until I roll it back to the state of creation of "Body001" . This happens only with the first feature after "BaseFeature" . If I go ahead and model then delete features, everything will work correctly until i get to "Pad002" then the error is back.

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I'm not asking to implement it, I promised not to for a while lol. I'm just thinking out loud

While modelling the vase showcased in this thread, I realized, and was pointed also in the comments under the video that there is no clearance between the 2 components alignment tabs. That would make them impossible to fit.

The 2 components were created by heavy use of the green SubShapeBinder and the split functionality. If one would want to give clearance to components to allow fit it would be enough to have a option of "thickness" of the SubShapeBinder. This way the shape binder eats material from the 2 matching components before the split. Similarly, if the user wants to create clearence on some faces of the model at the end of the model it could select those faces -> create the ShapeBinder and set the desired thickness -> Boolean cut between the ShapeBinder and the last feature of the component. I really hope that made sense.

Is it technically challenging to give a thickness option to a SubShapeBinder? Do you see any troubles or hidden consequences to a option like that?

This feature would be really useful for the 3d printing community or the mold makers. If there are better ways of obtaining the same result I'm not ware of them but this workflow seems intuitive and fast at least for me. Anyway, man, PartDesign is becoming a power house.

P.S. SOME of the things I love about your latest release:
1- the new colorfull icons and tree tags really stand up visually with a dark css
2- the way now CTRL-D on a body with base feature works is intuitive and after wrapping my head around the way mapping face colors works I see the power and flexibility of your implementation
3- This applies to a small, laptop screen form factor. If one should distill the goals for a 3d CAD interface would be maximize the 3d view and minimize clicks/scrolls necessary to complete a given task. With your latest interface tweaks we can get a full screen 3d view with a automatically raising and hiding task view. And I simply love it. I noticed that things change a bit when switching to a bigger screen or a 21:9 aspect ratio but there is so much flexibility now in the interface that it is difficult that anyone could complain.
4-of course the new tools

BR.
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Re: FreeCAD _ LinkStage3: Design using the boolean tools in PartDesign workbench

Post by realthunder »

OficineRobotica wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 7:39 am While exploring the options I found a strange behavior that I still have to understand if it is a small bug or me that I don't get how things work. Notice in the screen recording below:
I'll fix that and make a release soon.
The 2 components were created by heavy use of the green SubShapeBinder and the split functionality. If one would want to give clearance to components to allow fit it would be enough to have a option of "thickness" of the SubShapeBinder. This way the shape binder eats material from the 2 matching components before the split. Similarly, if the user wants to create clearence on some faces of the model at the end of the model it could select those faces -> create the ShapeBinder and set the desired thickness -> Boolean cut between the ShapeBinder and the last feature of the component. I really hope that made sense.
Maybe an extrusion is more fit for this task than thickness? Simple pad the face with some length and use it to cut?
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