understanding "applications"

[proudfatherde]

First of all, thanks in advance. Everything about Freecad is free so I am thankful to all of you. That said, after many, many hours I am about to throw in the towel Freecad in utter frustration. I am a hobbyist woodworker trying to create very simple structures (e.g. a cart) made of plywood and 2x4's in freecad. This is proving almost impossible. After watching hours of videos on youtube here is where I am getting confused:

1) I am not grasping the concept of "applications" vis-a-vis "bodies". Let me explain: I want to design several lengths of 2x4 cut at various angles and join them to several pieces of plywood. In some videos it instructs you to create each piece as a separate "application" (i.e. file) and then create a final application at the end to join them together. While other videos instruct you to have all of the "bodies" under one "application." This is confusing
2) You must have an "add-in" to join/assemble you bodies (e.g. a2plus). This seems like a fundamental functionality that would be central to the software and not an add-in. Also, the various joining add-ins work very differently and impact how you create your "bodies"

Can someone please give some guidance?

thanks
Mark

[chrisb]

There is not yet an assembly workbench in the FreeCAD core system. We hope that the future will bring it, and we hope it will include the advantages of all current addon assembly workbenches, namely A2plus, Assembly3, Assembly4, while avoiding all disadvantages.
If you just start with FreeCAD, I recommend to stay in one file. Model each solid in a separate PartDesign body. If you have the feeling you have to outsource parts of your model, then you look again at the assembly workbenches.

[proudfatherde]

Thanks for the quick reply. What assembled should I use under your method? I would think I need to join the faces of the objects correct?

[heda]

you do not need to use any of the assembly add-ons,
everything in one file, and you can use Std_Group to organize the tree a bit.

it is just to position the different parts/bodies relative to each other by Placement property.

in contrary to most people around here, I tend to recommend that a beginner starts with part wb, rather than part design wb.
yes, it is less fancy, but in general if one is new to 3d software, at least I imagine that it is easier to see how the software works on a more basic level.
once you know a bit more about the fundamentals of 3d modelling and fc, then it is easier to absorb the workflow and get things "working" in part design wb.

tutorials like this should take you more or less all the way in terms of simple wood working (and also learn a bit about 3d-lingo).
Traditional_modeling,_the_CSG_way
Aeroplane

this write up also gives some hints of how to move things around.
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 76#p462576

[jpg87]

Can someone please give some guidance?

in contrary to most people around here, I tend to recommend that a beginner starts with part wb, rather than part design wb.

I'm not sure Part WB is the easiest way to start using FreeCAD.
It seems interesting to me to consult this wiki page for this purpose, paragraph 6 "Comparison", in particular the organization of the construction tree (at the end) :
https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Part_and_PartDesign

PartDesign WB has a very linear build flow while Part WB for a novice has an almost unreadable flow after build.

I am a hobbyist woodworker trying to create very simple structures (e.g. a cart) made of plywood and 2x4's in freecad.

You can very well build all your parts in the same file by relying on master sketches.
See presentation page
http://help-freecad-jpg87.fr/015_pi_astucesPdN.php
and example:
http://help-freecad-jpg87.fr/015c_pi_astucesPdN.php

[TheMarkster]

Part workbench is where I decided to begin my video series. I think the CSG concepts are very intuitive, especially if someone is coming to FreeCAD with a background in woodworking or machine shop. It's critical that the new user is able to get some early victories or else most will give up thinking FreeCAD is too hard for them, which is almost never the case. But with my models I make I almost always do them in Part Design.

[chrisb]

This may sound a bit silly, because teaching a learning are two sides of the same medal. However:

When teaching FreeCAD, I have experienced Part workbench to be quite suitable for a start. The primitives come as they are known in "real life" or from mathematics lessons in school.
And they can be combined with boolean operations - again quite natural.
Then they can serve to demonstrate some very basic notions such as Placement.

But that's it, I don't go much into detail.

Then I switch to PartDesign, where now e.g. the slightly more complicated usage of Placement can be applied.

However, it sems a different thing if FreeCAD is learned, probably by self education. Many people don't want to start learning the basics, they want to start right away with modeling something. In that case PartDesign is a good start, although the learning curve is a little bit steeper than with some preparatory in Part workbench.

[GeneFC]

Primatives are clearly quite intuitive for almost anyone with even the slightest experience in real life. Booleans are understandable for most people with ordinary math skills.

The biggest problem with the use of CSG in the Part WB is that the primitives quickly get buried into the morass of hierarchical layers. This may be OK for folks who understand what they are doing, but it makes it very hard for beginners to see what is happening.

My Part Design WB to Part WB usage ratio is about 99:1.

Gene