Assembly 4 workbench

Discussion about the development of the Assembly workbench.
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly4 - Parts not visible anymore

Post by Zolko »

niethitwo wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:32 am Problem:
I started a project on my notebook and it synced onto my other PC.
very bad idea: you trust your files to some unknown entity using some unknown magic located in an unknown place somewhere on this planet, and you're surprised it doesn't work as you imagined in your dreams.

Before, every inserted part was a yellow building block and was visible in the 3D view. After reopening the synced file on another computer, now it shows as a rounded blue rectangle with green arrow. The same now happens when reopening the file on the original computer
the first sync screwed something up in your project, then you saved this screwd-up state, and the back-sync screwed-up the original project. Every-thing happened as expected.

I guess the green arrow indicates, that it successfully linked?
no, it means that it's an empty link, a link to nowwhere, a link with missing target.

How can I fix it?
open the assembly file, open all files that are (should be) linked in the assembly, and for each missing link, click the small button with ... on the right of the LinkedObject property field, this will open a dialog where you can re-assign the linked object.

or at least understand where my usage went wrong to avoid this issue in the future.
don't use "the cloud" blindly. It can be done but it must be done very carefully. In the engineering world it's called product lifetime management (PLM) and it's an own skill to set up correctly.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
ooCAD
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by ooCAD »

Hi,

I like the Assembly4 concept with its parts store, assembly model and LCS.

However, it is a pity that it is not possible to link the same part to several parts in the model. This will greatly facilitate the assembly operations.

A part, of course, can have multiple assembly points (LCS). Why limited it to one ?
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

ooCAD wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:18 pm However, it is a pity that it is not possible to link the same part to several parts in the model.

A part, of course, can have multiple assembly points (LCS). Why limited it to one ?
an LCS fixes all 6 degrees of freedom of a part, therefore if a part is fixed by an LCS it contains to an LCS in the assembly, the position of the part is given. If you attach it to another LCS you will have conflicting positions.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

Hello folks,

a new version 0.9.15 of the workbench is out. Along some small fixes, it has now a symmetry tool that allows to create (and then insert) a symmetrical of a part. This original part can be either a Part or a Body, and also a Link to a Part or a Body. If you do the symmetry on a link in the assembly, a new Part will be created in the assembly document. This symmetrical Part can be manipulated like any other Part, although it will have at creation only the origin LCS of the original part. You can add more LCS and HoleAxis after creation.

This sounds more complicated than it is, please try and report if something doesn't quite work.

There are still some small quirks with object placement that I'll try to fix before going to a bigger change: I'll try the variant Link and Arrays.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
LHC
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by LHC »

Any plans for some documentation or a tutorial on new features as they are implemented ? I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed and tend to benefit greatly from such things :lol:

I'm happy to report that after some time I am starting to understand and appreciate the assembly 4 workbench as a very powerful implementation. Massive thanks for your developments on this and great to see that there is continued improvements and additions.
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ppemawm
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by ppemawm »

Zolko wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:33 pm it has now a symmetry tool... please try and report if something doesn't quite work.
Thank you for the valuable enhancement. It is quite straightforward in use and saves many steps compared to the alternative. No problems so far.
(Also, it is easier for some of us to understand than trying to use a negative link scale.) :?

BTW I have been thinking about reassembling this engine with Assembly4 which might be a good stress test for your workbench. This model was originally built and assembled without an assembly workbench by design-in-place using V0.18.13826/14838. It is a 190 Mb file.
Assembly4: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... _Model.gif
Original model: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29354

As you can see the first attempt was to simply assemble the various original sub-assembly files with Assembly4 which was easy enough. The biggest problem is that it takes about 16 minutes to load on an I7-32 Gb laptop. The next step would be to assemble each sub-assembly with Assembly4 and then assemble those into the top assembly which would probably take a much larger bite out of my limited spare time. Any thoughts about strategy?
"It is a poor workman who blames his tools..." ;)
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Kunda1
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

super short screencast of the new feature? :mrgreen:
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Zolko
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Zolko »

Kunda1 wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:33 pm super short screencast of the new feature?
I'd do it but I don't know how to screencast to gif (like what realthunder does): can you point to a good solution for that ?
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
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Kunda1
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by Kunda1 »

Zolko wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:33 pm
Kunda1 wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:33 pm super short screencast of the new feature?
I'd do it but I don't know how to screencast to gif (like what realthunder does): can you point to a good solution for that ?
SimpleScreenRecorder works for me (@oficinerobotica told me about it). I'm on Linux though.

realthunder wrote: pinged by pinger macro
@realthunder what do you use?
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realthunder
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Re: Assembly 4 workbench

Post by realthunder »

I use Peek on Linux. It can record as GIF or other video format. I use their AppImage release. But it looks like they are not releasing AppImage for the recent versions. The 1.3.1 one works fine for me.
Try Assembly3 with my custom build of FreeCAD at here.
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