Frustrations with FreeCAD

[openBrain]

Is there some good tutorial about this subject? Video, anything will be helpful

I can remember those previous examples :
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 73#p291421
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 10#p294532

The first applies expressions on Datum plane, but it works the same on sketches.
In the second link you have 2 different files in 2 following threads.
I think you can get good clues by analyzing the files and eventually reading the threads. Feel free to ask for details if needed.

[chrisb]

There is something between the prone-to-break attachment to faces and using expressions: You can reference sketches. A rather robust possibility is the aforementioned master sketch, but others can be referenced as well.

[bejant]

What you mean by "you can place the Sketch by using Expressions" ?

As a simple example, instead of Mapping a Sketch onto the top face of a Pad you can use the Data tab > Property column > Attachment Offset > Position field, and use an Expression to locate the Sketch at Pad.Length. Or you can instead reference a Constraint in an earlier Sketch to locate a subsequent Sketch (you have to give the earlier Constraint a name first).

Is there some good tutorial about this subject? Video, anything will be helpful

I don't know off the top of my head but I'm sure there are others besides those that openBrain provided, you'll just have to search for them. (Maybe others can give a better answer than this one.)

[chrisb]

I think Harra Geier's videos respect the placement without attaching to faces, IIRC his youtube name is HaGei.

[jmaustpc]

This is a link to the Expressions page in the FreeCAD wiki

Expressions

[Cruicky2340]

I think this is either going to fall on deaf ears or I will get yelled at.

But I just cant handle the way this whole thing works.

For example, I create a shape in Part design.
Then I need to create another shape to be used a cutting object.
I create the second shape but I move it a bit so that they intersect at the correct position to create the end result I need.
I then do the Cut function, but the second object cuts from its original position instead of where I moved it to.
I cant understand why when the 2 objects are in the postion in relation to each other on screen why the Cut function shifts the 2nd object back to a different origin to perform the cut. The sketch associated with the 2nd object is also n the correct position.
How am I supposed to work with this?
Paid or free, whats the point if it does not work properly

Another issue I found the hard way was that I designed a complex object using Jpg images as a guide for sketches to help me get the shapes.
I had done considerable work (In my opinioin anyway) and thought it wise to Save my work a that point.
When I tried to save, the program hadan unexpected error in that it could not locate the image files that it claimed were being stored in a sub folder within the Freecad program folder. I never put them there and the Jpg files were still in their original location from when I added them.
The program then forgot to save my work and all I was left with was the start of my project.
Strengely enough I could load the original project and the images were still in it. I could even work on the project some more and save ok fro that point. So why did it chuck a hissy-fit? I still dont know, but it cost me a lot of effort.
I am constantly worried it will crash on me and loose all my work.

Also I cannot re-arrange the object tree so that it is logical and each Body is made up of all of its parts.
EG: Car body is made up of Sub parts like Wheels, Engine, Seats etc.
Because Its "parametric" every step has to remain linked to the step before, but that makes it almost impossible to locate a part and adjust it later once things get complicated, which is ironic really because thats what parametric is supposed to be best at.
I want to open a Project and see a tree of all of its parts, not the steps I took to get there. Now everyone might not agree with me, and maybe I just dont know enough yet, but my brain cant be expected to remember all the steps I did when creating a complex object. That the whole purpose of breaking it down into its parts rather than the steps.

For these reasons I have lost pretty much all my faith that I can deal with this program to achieve my design goals.
There is no one doing any decent tutorials that explain the management of a project.
All the tutorials throw you into banging a bunch of shapes together using tools without any consideration for planning and dealing with the program itself.
Its like a tour of a wood working shop where they want to show you each tool and how this one drills, or that one cuts, or this one sands down. But they totally forget to tell you how to open the front door and leave you standing out in the hallway with the door locked while they yell out how awesome each tool is while saw dust flies everywhere.
Its maybe not my best analogy, but its a try.

As I said, Im going to be ignored or told to shut up because its free.
And maybe thats what I deserve.
I might sound like I'm complaining, but along with the complaining are some valid points.
I dont expect anything to change, which is disappointing, but understandable.
It just saddens me to see that so much effort has been put into this by many incredibly talented people, but its misses the mark on a level and by a small amount that perhaps has not been noticed like forest for the trees.

Hats off to you all.
I just cant deal with it.

[roerich_64]

...
Also I cannot re-arrange the object tree so that it is logical and each Body is made up of all of its parts.
EG: Car body is made up of Sub parts like Wheels, Engine, Seats etc.
Because Its "parametric" every step has to remain linked to the step before, but that makes it almost impossible to locate a part and adjust it later once things get complicated, which is ironic really because thats what parametric is supposed to be best at.
I want to open a Project and see a tree of all of its parts, not the steps I took to get there. Now everyone might not agree with me, and maybe I just dont know enough yet, but my brain cant be expected to remember all the steps I did when creating a complex object. That the whole purpose of breaking it down into its parts rather than the steps.

For these reasons I have lost pretty much all my faith that I can deal with this program to achieve my design goals.
There is no one doing any decent tutorials that explain the management of a project.
All the tutorials throw you into banging a bunch of shapes together using tools without any consideration for planning and dealing with the program itself.
Its like a tour of a wood working shop where they want to show you each tool and how this one drills, or that one cuts, or this one sands down. But they totally forget to tell you how to open the front door and leave you standing out in the hallway with the door locked while they yell out how awesome each tool is while saw dust flies everywhere.
Its maybe not my best analogy, but its a try.
...

Hi,

have you found this: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=34101

BR
Walter

[drmacro]

...

As I said, Im going to be ignored or told to shut up because its free.
And maybe thats what I deserve.
I might sound like I'm complaining, but along with the complaining are some valid points.
I dont expect anything to change, which is disappointing, but understandable.
It just saddens me to see that so much effort has been put into this by many incredibly talented people, but its misses the mark on a level and by a small amount that perhaps has not been noticed like forest for the trees.

Hats off to you all.
I just cant deal with it.

I started to write a long comment, but just decided to skip it.

I for one don't seem to have the issues you speak of. But, that may be because I've been using it for years, and just know what to avoid. (and, I'm happy to help anyone who asks, to avoid them as well.)

No one is ignoring you.

But, it is free. And there are a handful of volunteers maintaining it and some attempting to improve it.

Have you looked at the tracking and feature requests? Just how fast do think a handful of people can address such a list?
(Don't know what rev you're using, but, there have been thousands of commits between 0.18 and 0.19. And, 0.19 is definitely an improved product.)
And, yes, someone has to prioritize the list...maybe not to your liking.

I think a lot of your frustrations stem from the, as you note: " tutorials throw you into banging a bunch of shapes together". Yes, lots of "do this", but, short on the "why do that". And that is unfortunate. At this point, the only way around it is to ask here.
And, yes, modeling of any sort takes some planning, being parametric doesn't avoid that.

There is the topo naming issue. But, if you learn to model in ways that avoid it, you can minimize or even eliminate the problem.

Many people do manage to achieve their design goals.

PS: I could not duplicate the cuts not cutting at new positions when moved. Could you provide an example file?

[vocx]

...
I just cant deal with it.

You just aren't very good with computers, it's fine, and understandable. Not everybody can pick new skills quickly. It takes significant time to build expertise. This is the reason engineering degrees aren't given away for free; it takes many hours and dedication. There are many long time users of FreeCAD who are good at one thing, but who are still bad at others, and the reason is they don't exercise their muscles in other areas.

Many of the issues you see are known, but the diagnosis is the same, it's free software; this isn't going to improve itself, we need people to contribute to make the software and the documentation better; it takes time, money, and people but we don't have enough of these resources. So start contributing.

[Kunda1]

I think this is either going to fall on deaf ears or I will get yelled at.

But I just cant handle the way this whole thing works.

FreeCAD is a pretty active project and community. Many many times have I seen people report bugs (especially when they report them well with posting their About info and giving very clear and precise step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce it - even testing it on both the stable (0.18.4) and development (0.19.x) version - and a dev coming along and pushing a fix to the FreeCAD code repository. This is something very special to see.

Sure there is a learning curve. Looks like you lost some work that you spent some time on. Most likely it sounds like you were using version 0.18.4 and perhaps not saving your work enough. There is also that darn Toplogical naming problem to boot.

It's your call what you want to do. Do you want to stick around and see perhaps you approach the software and your problems coming from a more informed perspective? Perhaps you can file some bugs and help improve things for yourself and everybody else potentially?

You may be thoroughly unimpressed enough not to come back. Just know that we'll be here continuing to work to make things better.