FreeCAD Forum

I found this in Getting started: If you are struck at some point, don't forget that the friendly community of users on the FreeCAD forum might be able to get you out in no time.

I have v0.18. I've gone through some of the beginner documentation plus a handful of beginner videos. While going through the videos, the movements are so fast that I can't tell what's being done. Pausing and replaying helps, but it doesn't tell me if the person is right clicking, left clicking, scroll bar clicking, or any combination. And often I can find no way at all to do the same thing the person is doing. For example, I could not at all create a spreadsheet. I could not get FreeCAD to join 2 points.

I'm trying to create a pretty simple box with lid. I've watched that video, trying to follow it exactly. But I always get hung at some point that prevents me from getting very far. I cannot find a complete design file for it which I can load into FreeCAD, thinking I could intuit how it is built. Couldn't find that. In fact, I have been unsuccessful in finding any complete designs similar to a plain box with lid that I could de-construct.

So, I stuck getting through the videos because I can't duplicate what they show. I'm stuck with the documentation for the same reason.

Where do I go to learn more? Are there pre-constructed projects I can see?

Thanks.

Dave

Read the pink bar above.
Are you using Part design?

Along time ago I wrote a tips for new users, please give it a read. Not being new to FreeCAD it's hard for me to know if it helps.
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... ps#p258352
Thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum!

There are so many videos out there, and admitted, many of them are rather bad, that you should give a link if you refer to a certain one. I would recommend to work through the PartDesign Tutorials in the wiki. If anything is unclear, ask back here and you sure will get help - and deficiencies in the tutorials can be rectified.

Beyond that I remember the videos of forum member HarryGeier showing the clicks explicitely.

Thanks freedman. Your document has a lot of generic stuff that is helpful. Unfortunately, my problems are much more specific. This will be tedious and I don't know if I'll get responses, but below is a list (out of many things I've done and already forgotten) that I can't get to work.

Thanks for the link chrisb. I will follow that and look for more videos after posting this.

- I don't see a Prefernces->Sketcher->Marker size. I'm using a MacBook Pro with 2880x1800 resolution but don't see a way of making the marker larger.

- Freecad course - Assembly, example: plastic casing by freecascourse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhPxrHwLFuc:

I thought this would be pretty close to what I want to do. This video is an example of having no idea what buttons are being clicked. It is also quite fast with no description.

Uses the lock icon to set the position from the center line. Seems like the wrong thing to do if the sketch is symmetrical.

Creates a sketch on the surface and draws a polygon. With my resolution, it's impossible to create a new line at the exact position of the old line. At about 1:33 two points are selected and the "Create a point in the sketch" icon is pressed to merge the two points. I can select two points, they turn green, but clicking that icon creates a new point at the second point.

At this time, I gave up on this video since I couldn't replicate it.

- Design and Print an Arduino Box with FreeCAD by mathcodeprint, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97EFZvmnAA:

The Spreadsheet option looks like a nice feature. I can open that tab, but I can't add a spreadsheet.

I followed anyway for a while, but gave up at external geometries.

I'm guessing that some of what I'm missing is I need to be in a particular view (sketch, body, part, etc.) for the option to work right and if I'm not I don't get what I expect.

There are more roadblocks that I'm just not thinking of right now. I'm going to go study some more videos and see what I can learn.

Thanks again.

Dave

I don't see a Prefernces->Sketcher->Marker size. I'm using a MacBook Pro with 2880x1800 resolution but don't see a way of making the marker larger.

Edit-preferences-display-marker size

There are many ways of constraining a sketch, I would recommend you start off by drawing at least a dozen sketches and fully constrain them, then we can move on to solids.

You really need to read the pink bar above and post your info, there are many different versions of FreeCAD out there, to get the best help we need to know what your using.

freedman wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 12, 2020 5:03 pm

I don't see a Prefernces->Sketcher->Marker size. I'm using a MacBook Pro with 2880x1800 resolution but don't see a way of making the marker larger.

Edit-preferences-display-marker size

There are many ways of constraining a sketch, I would recommend you start off by drawing at least a dozen sketches and fully constrain them, then we can move on to solids.

You really need to read the pink bar above and post your info, there are many different versions of FreeCAD out there, to get the best help we need to know what your using.

No marker size. I've looked at all the options and don't see it. What am I missing?
I don't think I'm stuck on constraining a sketch. I have seen odd things where the "><" would pop up an error on the same point/line selections a bunch of times, and then mysteriously work. Of course each fail caused a constraint error which I had to go back and delete.

The first thing I said in my original post was I was stuck and why I got to this forum. The second thing I said was "I have v0.18." I did read the pink bar before posting. Forums like this are invaluable, as are people like you who spend their time helping people like me. That is a privilege to me, and I try not to abuse it.

Thanks again for your valuable time.

Dave

Umm...you answered your own question in the pic above:
And, if you really read the pink bar how come this isn't included in one of your posts, as it asks:

OS: Ubuntu 19.10 (XFCE/ubuntustudio)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.
Build type: Release
Python version: 3.7.5
Qt version: 5.12.4
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)

freedman wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 12, 2020 5:03 pm

Edit-preferences-display-marker size

That's only half of the truth. Consider changing Preferences->Display->Colors->PickRadius too.

drmacro wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 12, 2020 7:38 pm

Umm...you answered your own question in the pic above:

marker.png

And, if you really read the pink bar how come this isn't included in one of your posts, as it asks:

OS: Ubuntu 19.10 (XFCE/ubuntustudio)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.
Build type: Release
Python version: 3.7.5
Qt version: 5.12.4
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/United States (en_US)

Consider me smacked on the side of my head.

The marker size complied with the rules of invisibility. A scan didn't show it. Sorry.

OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.4 (GitTag)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-18
Hash: 980bf9060e28555fecd9e3462f68ca74007b70f8
Python version: 3.6.6
Qt version: 5.6.2
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: English/UnitedStates (en_US)

Now that I've been rightfully chastised , can I ask about 2 specific issues previously posted?

I've tried to follow 2 different tutorial videos. In one, I can open the spreadsheet tab but have no option for creating a spreadsheet. I've looked all over and searched the web. Lots of stuff about spreadsheets. Nothing as to why the create button is grayed out.

The other is why when I select 2 points at the end of lines then select Create a point, it does not join the 2 points as in the tutorial but just creates a new point.

Thanks.

Dave