Who is behind FreeCad?
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owitte@siu.edu
Who is behind FreeCad?
I'd be interested in a quick (brief) history of freecad
Re: Who is behind FreeCad?
Mhh, as I remember 
Start January 2001 by me as so called GOM (Graphical Object Modeler), with the Idea in mind to use Qt, Python and
Cas.CADE, an commercial CAD-Kernel I used in projects in Daimler this time. CasCade gone open source shortly before so
the time seams right to try a move in the (at this time) empty space of open source cad.
I had a two year experience with OpenCascade in a project called QSpect and was at the end the main
software designer. I learned a lot in the field of 3D and CAD programming. I was also influenced by Catia
V5 and its very special User and programming interface....
sf.net registration 2002-03-17 19:42 as FreeCAD. I couldn't think of an better name. Im very bad on names....
April 2003 Werner Meyer was one of the colleges in the QSpect project switched to company called Imetric.
So the contact to Imetric was very promising since they searched for a new 3D software platform for
their 3D sensors.
So 2005 Imetric donated most of the Mesh module to FreeCAD and OpenSource and use since then FreeCAD
as basis for their sensor system software. And Werner is since then a very active part of FreeCAD.
2005 after one year of struggle I decided to rip of the OpenCascade document framework and replace it with
an own implementation. So at the end we use only the CAD kernel of OpenCascade and not the rest of the Framework.
2007 was another interesting milestone. We switched to QT4 and has there fore the LGPL and a lot of work (which did mostly Werner )
Im not quit sure when Yorik van Havre came to this project!? 2007/2008
He's not a software developer but what he did with the python interface of
FreeCAD with his Draft module was amazing! For me it was the proof that the
deep python integration was actually working and a non software C++ guy could
make a complete module/workbench. Or its not working and Yorik is just that genial!
Both possible!
Since then Yorik is also a very vital part of the FreeCAD community! He do also a lot work
in documentation and make fantastic artwork.
Also to mention is Joachim Zettler, which did code for his PhD in FreeCAD and is still
participating mostly in the field of CAM & FEM.
Since last year we are accepted as debian package and soon will be a Ubuntu regular package.
A lot other people contributed code, translation or help on porting to other platforms.
So.. thats as I remember.
Maybe Yorik and Werner can speak up them selfs to add to that mosaic.
Jürgen
Start January 2001 by me as so called GOM (Graphical Object Modeler), with the Idea in mind to use Qt, Python and
Cas.CADE, an commercial CAD-Kernel I used in projects in Daimler this time. CasCade gone open source shortly before so
the time seams right to try a move in the (at this time) empty space of open source cad.
I had a two year experience with OpenCascade in a project called QSpect and was at the end the main
software designer. I learned a lot in the field of 3D and CAD programming. I was also influenced by Catia
V5 and its very special User and programming interface....
sf.net registration 2002-03-17 19:42 as FreeCAD. I couldn't think of an better name. Im very bad on names....
April 2003 Werner Meyer was one of the colleges in the QSpect project switched to company called Imetric.
So the contact to Imetric was very promising since they searched for a new 3D software platform for
their 3D sensors.
So 2005 Imetric donated most of the Mesh module to FreeCAD and OpenSource and use since then FreeCAD
as basis for their sensor system software. And Werner is since then a very active part of FreeCAD.
2005 after one year of struggle I decided to rip of the OpenCascade document framework and replace it with
an own implementation. So at the end we use only the CAD kernel of OpenCascade and not the rest of the Framework.
2007 was another interesting milestone. We switched to QT4 and has there fore the LGPL and a lot of work (which did mostly Werner
)Im not quit sure when Yorik van Havre came to this project!? 2007/2008
He's not a software developer but what he did with the python interface of
FreeCAD with his Draft module was amazing! For me it was the proof that the
deep python integration was actually working and a non software C++ guy could
make a complete module/workbench. Or its not working and Yorik is just that genial!
Both possible!
Since then Yorik is also a very vital part of the FreeCAD community! He do also a lot work
in documentation and make fantastic artwork.
Also to mention is Joachim Zettler, which did code for his PhD in FreeCAD and is still
participating mostly in the field of CAM & FEM.
Since last year we are accepted as debian package and soon will be a Ubuntu regular package.
A lot other people contributed code, translation or help on porting to other platforms.
So.. thats as I remember.
Maybe Yorik and Werner can speak up them selfs to add to that mosaic.
Jürgen
Stop whining - start coding!