Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

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Celica_Supra

Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by Celica_Supra »

Hi All;

I was asked to make a video outlining some differences between SolidWorks and Freecad in a side-by-side comparison. To do that I made a compressor wheel and talked about the differences of both.

I really like FreeCAD, the more I use it the more impressed I am. This is a great community too.

Hope this helps someone out there. Here are links to the files if anyone is interested:

https://file.io/9HUdaM

https://file.io/5kooJr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX8-3rM ... e=youtu.be
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chrisb
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by chrisb »

I appreciate your free minded attidude towards FreeCAD. We often see here people knowing some other CAD system and they seem to expect from FreeCAD exactly what they are used to - only for free. So it is good to see you taking FreeCAD as it is and trying to get out of it whatever possible.
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Celica_Supra

Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by Celica_Supra »

chrisb wrote: Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:29 am I appreciate your free minded attidude towards FreeCAD. We often see here people knowing some other CAD system and they seem to expect from FreeCAD exactly what they are used to - only for free. So it is good to see you taking FreeCAD as it is and trying to get out of it whatever possible.
Thanks a lot!

I really love this program. I hope to bring some more attention to it with my channel, and provide some documentation for those who use SolidWorks.
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by saso »

hiding and showing objects in freecad is just selecting them and hitting space.

problem with the recreated profile is most probably because of the topological issues that freecad still has (in sketcher it is specially common if you add or remove lines from the sketch). realthunder has made some improvements to this in his version, would be interesting to try if it would work https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_ ... /tag/0.8.6

as for some of the 3d lines/wires and surfaces, have a look at the surface wb and curves wb (an addon from the tools -> addon manager)
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by chrisb »

Some comments, which you don't have to follow, as some of them increase parametricity while slightly reducing robustness.

- For a distance constraint between the origin and a point you dont have to select both points it's enough to select the single point and apply distance.
- 8:00, you can use an external reference to keep both distances equal
- 8:20, you can use Expressions to get the same thickness of the blades
- 10:55, Sketching from the back is difficult, because the points lie behind the lines. Consider to set in the sketch properties "Map reverse" to true.
- 11:00, you may consider to hide the DatumPlane after the sketch is created, so it won't obscure the sketch with its highlighting.
- 13:50, not quite sure about this: I guess the small arc makes the construction circle obsolete.
- 25:15, clipping while sketching is done with Image. Of course you can hide the last feature completely
- 31:45, instead of attaching the sketch to the face you can attach it to XY plane, making your model more robust against topo naming issues.

I would like to try to get the final change in the sweep path working, and others may try it too, can you upload your model to some publicly available file server like dropbox?
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by chrisb »

Here is a simple trick for making the end of an arc vertical without the need of a construction line: Just make the endpoint and the center horizontal.
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by hammax »

… I also made a trial study for a compact APU (auxiliary power unit) containing compressor and curtis wheel.

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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by chrisb »

The file size shows that there is much optimizing potential in the PartDesign pattern operations.
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by Jee-Bee »

chrisb wrote: Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:05 am The file size shows that there is much optimizing potential in the PartDesign pattern operations.
True!!
not only within bodies but also patterns of bodies!!
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Re: Making a Compressor Wheel - SolidWorks and Freecad Direct Comparison

Post by chrisb »

Can we convince Ickby to continue his great work? Or even force him? With money? With all of our christmas sweets?
ickby wrote: ping
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