Is it time for a new workbench?

[freedman]

I'm not trying to start anything just curious. It seems that Part Design has been established and the concept works but if you need more than a solid there really isn't a structured workbench, you go here for this and here for that. Can't there be a "Product" workbench and it holds all the parts and the future (assemblies). The experts here could say "only these items go in the "Product toolbar" to meet the future goals. It just seems really confusing where to go to do certain things and users are constantly asking.

Thanks

[NormandC]

It seems that Part Design has been established and the concept works

IMO that is a misconception. There is still much work to do in PartDesign, ironing out the quirks (there are big ones) and adding missing features. Unfortunately nobody is in charge of its development anymore. ickby, who drove its development in the past 2-3 years, said he had no time for development for the foreseeable future. Apart from bug fixing, there has been no new stuff in PD for at least 9-10 months.

And a Product wb would just bring a new level of confusion.

[freedman]

What I like most is the structure. I see it Part Design where you go to Sketch and then back to Part Design automatically. I see a new button in Part Design that says "Solid finished" and that takes you back to "Product" to do the next step, all the bodies in part containers. Definitely easy to see the concept.
My view; the easier and more structured the program, more users, then you get more support. That might be a misconception also.

[triplus]

Hi @freedman.

Thanks for the feedback. What is likely ahead of us is a lot of feedback will need to be provided first. For situation to build up and mature enough in the sense of saying this needs to be done and after for it to actually be done.

P.S. As for the question if the time for a new workbench is now or not. When it comes to FreeCAD it's always time for a new workbench.

[yorik]

I find the idea of building "meta workbenches" interesting, that's basically what I'm trying with the BIM workbench. On the technical side, the functionality offered by FreeCAD is already pretty powerful. However, it is often hard to learn for newcomers and many aspects are counter-intuitive, or unclear, or different from one WB to another.

Having these workbenches on top of other workbenches allows to explore stuff and experiment with UI/UX design and find better and more intuitive workflows without disrupting the workflow of existing users.

[freedman]

I thought I would give BIM a try. Just added it to the workbench I got a bunch of warnings ( I monitor) about IP comm. After scanning thru some of the .py files I see internet connection.
I'm not saying it is spam but I don't know, I should have looked thru the code first.
I see a conection to Cambridge,Mass
A server.
Cloud delivery; AKAMAI NetRange

Anyway: Thanks for the examples, I will learn alot from them.

[Joyas]

Some time ago I tried to create a workbench with some random stuff like antiprism, a tool with leaves the edges of an object with a certain thickness... but It was too difficult for me. I remember that I could not create a parametric wire from object properties.

[yorik]

I thought I would give BIM a try. Just added it to the workbench I got a bunch of warnings ( I monitor) about IP comm. After scanning thru some of the .py files I see internet connection.

The BIM workbench doesn't attempt to connect to the internet. Neither do any built-in component of FreeCAD, we made sure of that before the 0.17 release. Are you sure this is caused by FreeCAD??? In which .py file did you find that?