FreeCAD working philosophy?

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inscrutable_objects
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FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by inscrutable_objects »

I'm trying to learn FreeCAD and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the Workbench methodology.

My experience is primarily with 2d (pen/paper drafting, Illustrator, etc.) and 3d (Maya, Blender). Typically all of the tools are always available to you and not separated out into different modules/workbenches. Rather than cry and gnash my teeth that FreeCAD doesn't work the way I'm used to working, I'd like to better understand the mind set that FreeCAD was built in.

I've been reading through the Documentation (a bit overwhelming to start with) and watching tons of YouTube videos, but it's not the specific tech that is eluding me. I think what I'm not coming to grips with is the why of things.

So I was wondering if someone could point me the direction of some tutorials that talk about the philosophy behind FreeCAD, and workflow methodologies? I think that would go a long way in helping me get past some of the mental hurdles I'm encountering.

Thank you in advance!
chrisb
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

For one it's a simple matter of volume. All the numerous tools have to be organized and the workbenches are grouping them.
The concept is sure not suitable for every situation, but it fits a common workflow quite well:

- Starting with a sketch thw Sketcher workbench has all the tools to add elements and constraints plus some utilities.

- PartDesign workbench has all the features for adding or subtracting material, thus building a 3D object.

- Now you take the model to the TechDraw workbench and create a technical drawing.
(Please note that in classical engineering the drawing comes before the 3D object.)

- And finally you take the model to the Path workbench where it is prepared for machining.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
Bance
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by Bance »

The Workbench philosophy attempts to group tools suited to typical workflows depending on the type of modelling being undertaken.

For example:-

Draft/arch/bim for architectural models.

Part/PartDesign for engineering models.

Surface/curves for industrial design modelling.

Then there are numerous utility WB's.
heda
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by heda »

fc has parts that are very well thought through as well as some sharp edges.
in other words, not everything has a planned philosophy behind it, its more of an organic growth kind of thing that can be in a state where it does not make much sense to anyone else than the person having coded it (which even that could be wishful thinking :-)).

anyways, most sharp edges has workarounds, might be clunky, but it works most of the time.

when things do not make sense, i try to ignore that part, or find another way which makes more sense at the time.
trying to find logic in a spot which simply is not logic - then one is best served just accepting for time being,
or if you have the ability to code - take a stab at changing it, might be easy - or might just be the hardest thing you ever attempted...

btw, the concept of 3d cad is quite different from 2d cad, also parametric solids are a completely different concept than meshes (like blender).
when working with meshes, one basically drags a point to where one wants it to be, when working with para 3d it is all about describing type, location, orientation and how things are connected, in the end that results in a description of the boundary of a volume and how those boundaries are connected with eachother.

also some commands are repeated in different workbenches, just because it is convenient for the general workflow (not needing to switch wb).

any specific mental hurdle in mind?
GeneFC
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by GeneFC »

inscrutable_objects wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:04 pm I'm trying to learn FreeCAD and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the Workbench methodology.
You have received a lot of good advice, but it is not clear why you want to use FreeCAD. Personally I make models to then create objects in my workshop. I use the Part Design and Path WB about 99.9% of the time. Some use FreeCAD to prepare for 3D printing. Others use FreeCAD for architecture, etc., etc.

You simply do not need to know very much about the grand scheme to get started. If you are actually trying to accomplish some specific goal then you will likely need only a couple of WBs.

If you want more help just ask. Don't try to eat the elephant in one bite. ;)

Gene
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sliptonic
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by sliptonic »

inscrutable_objects wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:04 pm I'm trying to learn FreeCAD and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the Workbench methodology.
...
I think what I'm not coming to grips with is the why of things.
There's a couple things about FreeCAD that took me a while to grok.

First, part of the rationale for workbenches is to limit how much is loaded into memory. Some of the workbenches are quite complex with many commands and tools. If you're never going to use the Arch tools, it doesn't make sense to load them into memory. Workbenches serve to partition both the user interface and the code. That means faster load times and less resource usage.

Second, It helps to think of FreeCAD not as a single CAD tool. In many ways it is a platform for building CAD related applications. For example we have a sheetmetal workbench, a frame and pipeline tool (dodo). A technical drawing tool (TechDraw) A CAM tool (Path) and FEM analysis tool (FEM) and many others. Many of these have sufficient complexity that they could be implemented as entirely separate engineering applications. But they all share the need for geometry visualization and manipulation. They need to store user preferences and options. They need a document structure, a scripting language, etc. Reinventing all those wheels is a bad idea and counter to how open-source works.

FreeCAD is designed to provide those common tools to make it easier for developers to build the unique stuff. This is an incredibly powerful idea.

The downside is that many of the user-facing 'workbenches' are implemented by different people, with different skills. Some of the workbenches date back to the beginning of FreeCAD and others are very new. The result is that the UI is often inconsistent and confusing. That's something we need to get better at.
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sliptonic
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by sliptonic »

Also, FreeCAD is very configurable. You can customize toolbars, automatically load workbenches at startup, Disable unused workbenches and many other things. When you're learning, it's probably best to use a stock configuration so what you see matches documentation and tutorials but after you know your way around, you can tailor the UI to the way you work and eliminate the noise.
drmacro
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by drmacro »

you could have a look at the link in my signature below.

It is a 3 pdf quick look at working from an thing, to a model, to a technical drawing.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
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thomas-neemann
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by thomas-neemann »

inscrutable_objects wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:04 pm .... I'd like to better understand the mind set that FreeCAD was built in.
....
i watched a lot of freecad videos on youtube. I was able to easily find the methods and workbenches that I liked. I then used these methods and workbenches for test projects and real commercial projects. now about 3000 hours.
freecad surpasses everything I have seen and tested in 3d software in the past 30 years. Marvelous.
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
inscrutable_objects
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Re: FreeCAD working philosophy?

Post by inscrutable_objects »

Thank you everyone for your well thought out replies! The friendliness of the community here is fantastic.

I should have answered the question of "what am I hoping to do with FreeCAD" upfront. My primary use is with designing items to be cut out with a laser cutter. I've dabbled in AutoCAD a bit, but find it prohibitively expensive for my wallet. Mostly I've been using Illustrator, which is perfect for the art side of things. However, when it comes designing boxes and even simple machines, it isn't great. So, I set out looking for an alternative when designing my creations.

I love designing gear based machines that I can cut out in plywood. With a single layer, it's complicated enough to manage parts that need to retain alignment in an art program. It becomes extremely complicated once there's several layers of gears interacting.

What I'm interested in is a CAD program that I can either bring in SVGs of gears (or create them here, just found the gear WB), arrange and rearrange them, design an enclosure, and then output SVGs of the parts to be cut out by the laser cutter. I'm fascinated by parametric modeling and even more so if that can be carried over into the assembly of parts.

I'm looking forward to interacting with you all in the future, but please don't feel like this is me shutting down the conversation. If you have more to share, please do! Thank you again.
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