[feature announcement] system-wide macros

[abdullah]

Since yesterday, system-wide macro support is available in FreeCAD master (and since today it is available in the Ubuntu PPA).

What does this mean?
- You can put macros under Apphome/Macro (in Ubuntu this defaults to /usr/lib/freecad/Macro) and they should work.
- This mainly means that now it is practical to package macros using your distribution packaging solution (deb packages for Debian/Ubuntu, rpm for RedHat, a windows installer for windows, ... ) and you can easily deploy them within seconds. For Ubuntu there is already a list of available WB/macros in here:
https://launchpad.net/~freecad-communit ... ubuntu/ppa

freecad-extras-animation
freecad-extras-assembly2
freecad-extras-bolts
freecad-extras-cadquery
freecad-extras-drawing-dimensioning
freecad-extras-eaglepcb2freecad
freecad-extras-fasteners
freecad-extras-idfimporter
freecad-extras-kicadstepuptools
freecad-extras-lattice
freecad-extras-lattice2
freecad-extras-sheetmetal
freecad-extras-timber
freecad-extras-workfeature

- System macros are available for all users using the system, whereas user macros are user specific.
- Now you have two places to put your macros, the legacy "home" and the system-wide macro, so you can actually have two macros with exactly the same name.
- Note that for new installations the default user-macro has changed to be .FreeCAD/Macro instead of .FreeCAD. Of course you may configure the route in the configuration settings. Using .FreeCAD/Macro was perceived as a tidier solution to separate macros from Modules/WB and other files.

If you are using Ubuntu, you can get the latest daily (yes it is updated daily, you get always the latest version with the cutting edge features and bug fixes... and a new bug from time to time to report) FreeCAD from the official PPA by executing in a terminal:
apt-add-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-daily
apt-get update
apt-get install freecad

You can install Community contributed Workbenches and Macros by executing in a terminal (example for freecad-extras-animation WB ):
apt-add-repository ppa:freecad-community/ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install freecad-extras-animation

Type it now and get not only the cutting edge FreeCAD daily build, but also all the WB/Macros packaged by the Community for you directly on your Ubuntu machine. Start taking advantage of a wide range of the 3rd party FreeCAD community macros and workbenches within seconds. Empower your FreeCAD. Unleash your imagination... I have seen too much ShopTV lately,

Of course, it would be great if somebody interested would do some packaging for other distributions/Windows.

[r-frank]

Of course, it would be great if somebody interested would do some packaging for other distributions/Windows.

Already done.
Yorik and Rockn have made a macro-based solution for installing updating workbenches.
Works TERRIFIC with Windows (and also with Ubuntu ...)

Roland

[abdullah]

Of course, it would be great if somebody interested would do some packaging for other distributions/Windows.

Already done.
Yorik and Rockn have made a macro-based solution for installing updating workbenches.
Works TERRIFIC with Windows (and also with Ubuntu ...)

Roland

I have missed that thread for a while. I see there is much advancement. Cool!!

[yorik]

I have missed that thread for a while. I see there is much advancement. Cool!!

Those are different approaches IMHO. The macro is handy (specially for poor windows users with no packaging system ) but having your freecad addons managed by the packaging system is obviously the best, for comfort reasons but also security-wise