FreeCAD online part repository

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atzensepp
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FreeCAD online part repository

Post by atzensepp »

Just an idea - probably not new:

In the Web there are some ineresting part libraries for various CAD systems such as http://www.tracepartsonline.net .

It would be great to have an integrated wizzard to import parts and/or plugins from an online "bazar" of FreeCad parts/macros with parametric search and online preview. If one would like to make it "right" one should use a proper descriptive "Ontology" for the parts and also include version dependency (version of FreeCad version & Version of Part). As for some popular successful programming languages this might drive the popularity of FreeCad even more. I think it should be possible to use standard online repositories such as github.
ulrich1a
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by ulrich1a »

H
atzensepp wrote:It would be great to have an integrated wizzard to import parts and/or plugins from an online "bazar" of FreeCad parts/macros with parametric search and online preview.
The following things are already available:
http://www.bolts-library.org/de/downloads.html
http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?ti ... rtsLibrary
http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?ti ... w_maker1_2

Ulrich
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r-frank
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by r-frank »

There is the

FreeCAD-Library
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atzensepp
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by atzensepp »

Gentlemen, many thanks for your respnses! Indeed the libraries look already very good.

For me FreeCad is essentially an IDE for 3D desings. Programming IDEs such as Eclipse have
- upgrade option
- plugin installation utility
- wizzard/mechanism for obtaining software Artifacts from central repositories (e.g. Maven)

Translated into FreeCad this would mean having built-in capabilities for:
- upgrade option
- Macro/Plug-in installation utility
- wizzard/mechanism for obtaining Parts and part libraries from central repositories

Would you think this makes sense? Or would you say: Well in principle yes but this is not first priority.
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r-frank
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by r-frank »

atzensepp wrote: Translated into FreeCad this would mean having built-in capabilities for:
- upgrade option
- Macro/Plug-in installation utility
- wizzard/mechanism for obtaining Parts and part libraries from central repositories

Would you think this makes sense? Or would you say: Well in principle yes but this is not first priority.
1) Upgrade Option
Depends on the platform.
On Ubuntu/Linux Mint, if you use the daily ppa-version, you can update "automatically" and have the newest version.
On Windows, you can download development snapshots.
They don't need installation. Just uncompress archive and double-click the exe-file.
So - already present

2) Macro/Plug-In
Already present.
Macro recipes-Page
Additonal Modules

3) Plug-In to use Internet-based-services for downloading parts (Traceparts or similar)
Nice to have, but atm assembly, drawing (dimensioning), CAM, FEM have IMHO higher prority.

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yorik
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by yorik »

atzensepp wrote:- Macro/Plug-in installation utility
At some point indeed we'd need to do something about it. It's actually not that hard (only modify the web WB to recognize the URL of our macros repository, and install the downloaded macro accordingly), but we need to find a way to make the wiki serve pure .FcMacro files...
atzensepp wrote:- wizzard/mechanism for obtaining software Artifacts from central repositories (e.g. Maven)
It's not that hard either, the web WB can already access and download models from such sites... What it still lacks is cookies management, so you don't have to log in each time...
jreinhardt
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by jreinhardt »

Regarding macros: I recently found http://theupdateframework.com/ which provides all the difficult bits to build a macro packaging and updating mechanism. Apart from some web space, someone would need to take care of the macro repository.

I want to use it to provide updates for BOLTS parts data.

Regarding parts repo: I have many ideas and a bit of code for that, see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7305, but at the moment I have not so much time and some other projects (BOLTS) that take precedence.
BOLTS, standard parts library for FreeCAD Thread, Help with Translation
atzensepp
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Re: FreeCAD online part repository

Post by atzensepp »

Hello jreinhard,
jreinhardt wrote: Regarding parts repo: I have many ideas and a bit of code for that, see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7305, but at the moment I have not so much time and some other projects (BOLTS) that take precedence.
it seems that there are already some very exciting ideas and even some code I should try. At the moment I would like to learn how
self-made parametric objects could be made.

kind regards
atzensepp
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