DynFreeCAD - Nodes for managing FreeCAD from Dynamo

[Kunda1]

You can share newly added nodes often. So everyone can follow the progress of your project.

Agreed, DynFreeCAD has generated some buzz. Keep it buzzing please!

[infeeeee]

I'm trying to document everything in the Github wiki, obviously there are some nodes which doesn't have documentation, but most of them have: https://github.com/infeeeee/DynFreeCAD/wiki

I also added some examples, basically when I create a new node, I add it to one of the examples, so if you check them you can figure out how to use most them.

All of this screenshots are from the examples from Github.

Nowadays I was working on getting some geometry from dynamo to FreeCAD.

This one shows how to import an obj or similar mesh file to FreeCAD, it uses the Mesh.Insert node, you can also see how to put multiple elements into a group:

ImportMesh.png (223.95 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

This shows how to convert Dynamo points to FreeCAD PartVertices. This was a bit deadend, I don't know how you should create a geometry from vertices in FreeCAD. In Dynamo you use points to a lot of things, and basically you build most of the things from points, so I just wanted to translate Dynamo points to something in FreeCAD:

VertexFromPoint.png (172.09 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

Same graph, showing the points in Dynamo and FreeCAD (FreeCAD was opened separately, no FreeCAD gui integration yet):

gUa8HmJsog.png (469.83 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

This is somewhat usable. This creates a FreeCAD mesh from a Dynamo MeshToolkit mesh. You have to download MeshToolkit from dynamo package manager. Basically it shows, that you can use MeshToolkit's advanced tools to manage meshes in Dynamo, than move them to FreeCAD. (It's not too advanced, similar to the Mesh tools in FreeCAD). This also converts the mesh to Part at the end.

MeshFromMeshToolkit.png (300.31 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

LvgcGpYEoo.png (477.62 KiB) Viewed 1371 times

If you have some ideas about what workflows you would see as nodes, what you would use dynamo for, comment here, or open an issue on github. I'm a dynamo guy coming to FreeCAD, so basically I'm learning FreeCAD while doing these nodes, and I'm just creating some nodes randomly. If you need some nodes to play with, I would be happy to code it for anyone.

[paullee]

Looks exciting !

[infeeeee]

Dynamo is autodesk? has it some future? is it opensource?
an alternativ?

Yes, it's Autodesk.
Yes, it's open source. Core nodes' source are not open. (But you can use the progam mostly without them)
I don't know if it has a future, Autodesk builds tools around it which are not open, and integrates it into all of its products, so currently it looks like they don's want to kill it yet. If something wrong starts to happen we can fork the last usable version.
There are a lot alternative graphical programming tools, but I can't help with them. I know Dynamo, so I will work on integrating Dynamo, you can't stop me. The community can just win with more choices, also for newcomers from Revit, it could help if they can find familiar tools.

[Kunda1]

I know Dynamo, so I will work on integrating Dynamo, you can't stop me.

You had me at "you can't stop me." lol

[bitacovir]

Yes, it's Autodesk.
Yes, it's open source. Core nodes' source are not open. (But you can use the progam mostly without them)
I don't know if it has a future, Autodesk builds tools around it which are not open, and integrates it into all of its products, so currently it looks like they don's want to kill it yet. If something wrong starts to happen we can fork the last usable version.
There are a lot alternative graphical programming tools, but I can't help with them. I know Dynamo, so I will work on integrating Dynamo, you can't stop me. The community can just win with more choices, also for newcomers from Revit, it could help if they can find familiar tools.

Interesting work. Just keep working!
While this project is an external addon, the licence is not a problem. It is up to the developer if he wants to keep working on it...

Can you create nodes to integrate other technologies into FreeCAD?
Some suggestions:
1) Arduino platform (like grasshopper addon Firefly for rhino http://fireflyexperiments.com/).
2) Ladybug tools (https://github.com/ladybug-tools/butterfly/wiki)

[infeeeee]

1) Arduino platform (like grasshopper addon Firefly for rhino http://fireflyexperiments.com/).

I think this firefly only uses the UI in grasshopper, I don't understand what it can do with geometry and data from FreeCAD. It could be ported to Dynamo, but I don't get how it should be connected to FreeCAD.

For generic Arduino staff, I can't help, I don't have an arduino device and I'm not familiar with the platform.

2) Ladybug tools (https://github.com/ladybug-tools/butterfly/wiki)

It already has a Dynamo package, I will try to make it work with FreeCAD. Unfortunately Arch and Draft workbench is not usable in DynFreeCAD yet, as they require the FreeCADGui, and I couldn't find a solution to load it yet, but this is definitely on my roadmap!

[paullee]

It already has a Dynamo package, I will try to make it work with FreeCAD. Unfortunately Arch and Draft workbench is not usable in DynFreeCAD yet, as they require the FreeCADGui, and I couldn't find a solution to load it yet, but this is definitely on my roadmap!

To my understanding @yorik had made Arch separate GUI and non-GUI codes so should be fine.

I am trying to understand how to use and run this, absolutely no idea about Dynamo before, I use AppImage on Fedora Linux, so it seems it is not yet available in Linux right ?

Thanks.

[infeeeee]

so it seems it is not yet available in Linux right ?

Dynamo's gui is Windows only. You can build Dynamo on linux but you can use it only headlessly, so it doesn't really user friendly. DynFreeCAD scripts should run in this headless mode.

More info: https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/wiki ... Linux,-Mac

I tried to run full Dynamo with Wine on linux, but I couldn't make it usable, so I gave up, maybe I will try it again later.

To my understanding @yorik had made Arch separate GUI and non-GUI codes so should be fine.

I already started to work on Arch nodes, and figured out you have to install other dependenices from pip, I've written about the required steps here: https://github.com/infeeeee/DynFreeCAD/ ... raft-Setup

Also the basics of using it with FreeCAD gui visible are working, I can start full FreeCAD from Dynamo, however I didn't pushed this to github yet, as it needs some more polish.

This project is not abandoned, but I had too much work nowadays, so I couldn't work on this, but I will continue development

[paullee]

Thanks for the detailed explanation and the efforts in development.

It is apparently too advanced for me Hope to see future development and how does it works in architectural workflow later