Asking for a tutorial: Snap-fit electronics enclosure

[easyw-fc]

Does anyone know if a Libre Office Writer document can be converted or imported into a wiki page?

Looking back now, creating a odt file was not the best solution.

LibreOffice (LO) Writer can send Word documents directly: go file/export/save as type Mediawiki. (for Linux user it can be necessary to install the library libreoffice-wiki-publisher)

[salp]

PDF seems to work

Section 1: Build reference skeleton
Sect 2: Build Lower Case, part-a

Sal

[probono]

Want me to turn it into Wiki pages? This way, this tutorial could be collectively edited.

[probono]

Watch me as I try to follow the tutorial from the perspective of an entriely new FreeCAD user.
Maybe there are some hints on how the GUI could be made a little more intuitive and on how the tutorial could be made more explicit.
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, just trying to show what a newcomer struggles with.

https://youtu.be/T5NYyImKcs0

[salp]

Probono,

I just watched your video and you have some valid points.
However this was not written for a complete novice, I assumed the reader would have some experience using FreeCAD.

Some quick advice, view some of the "How to Learn FreeCAD" tutorials on YouTube, that will help not get frustrated right away. I really do not want to repeat a complete beginners tutorial, they already exist.

Anyway I will edit the tutorial and post it again.
If you can turn it into a wiki that would be fantastic.

Sal

[peterl94]

Watch me as I try to follow the tutorial from the perspective of an entriely new FreeCAD user.

That was actually quite interesting. Some of the things that you stumbled on could be improved and some are things that just have to be learned. I've heard it said that "intuitive" really means "familiar." So I have to ask, since you mention "other CAD software," what has formed some of your expectations? OnShape perhaps?

I assume you are not looking for an explanation of the behavior you encountered, and are just pointing out issues? Regardless, there is two things that bugged me that I have to mention. The first is that the toolbars can be reorganized so that they are not all collapsed.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 6.25.29 PM.png (83.82 KiB) Viewed 2858 times

Secondly, always read the sketch solver messages at the top of the task panel when working on a sketch.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 6.30.30 PM.png (153.12 KiB) Viewed 2858 times

[probono]

Sure, you have a valid point when you say "rtfm". I really didn't want to criticize the tutorial (which I think is great), but to illustrate what someone entirely new to FreeCAD struggles with. Being an open source developer myself, I know that is very hard for people "in the know" to see the points novices may find difficult, in the hope that some more experienced users/developers may convert some of them into valid wishlist items. What formed my experiences? Drawing programs, DTP programs, other CAD programs.

Thanks for the great work on the tutorial so far!

[probono]

The first is that the toolbars can be reorganized so that they are not all collapsed.

Well, I always make a point of using default configurations because that is what 99% of users are gonna see. If I customize stuff no one is gonna be able to help me because my screen will look different from the default screen. Hence configurable UIs are for power users who don't need help from other people imho... everyone else should work with the default UI.

[peterl94]

I know that is very hard for people "in the know" to see the points novices may find difficult

Yes, and that is why I find your video useful. I care a lot about UX, so maybe I'll be able to fix some of the issues you pointed out sometime. But there is too many other things on my todo list at the moment.

Well, I always make a point of using default configurations because that is what 99% of users are gonna see.

I wonder if it depends on the platform? I just tried the default configuration on macOS and Windows 10, and the toolbars default to two rows. Can you try renaming user.cfg and system.cfg in ~/.FreeCAD to see if it's any different?

P.S. I won't derail this thread any further after this.

[probono]

FreeCAD-0.17.git201709021132.glibc2.17-x86_64.AppImage looks like this on a system where no FreeCAD had ever been running before.