FreeCAD: Command and Operation notes

[last updated: 2024-02-28]
FreeCAD home page
FreeCAD Python macro's and scripts
Install external workbenches
-----

Disclaimer: These are an ongoing collection of rough study notes.
---------------

• My Recommendation:
  Learning FC for the first time?
  Start with the Spreadsheet WB
  Learn parameterization from the very first.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

• Opacity: Select Body, View tab, Appearance, Transparency
  Note these settings work on the whole Body.
  If you want two different objects in your drawing to have different color or transparency, they must each be in their own Bodies

• For 3d Printing:
  • Import and edit an .stl file:
  • Export stl file

• Groups
• Layers
• Datum Planes
• Assemblies
• Macros
• Spreadsheet WB
• Create a coil spring
• Create a screw thread
• Insert image
• Shape Binder
• Sketch on Curved surface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93LIxgRXeew
• Part Slice
• Draw special shapes:
  • Sketch (top menu bar) --> Sketcher geometries -->
    select desired shape, arcs of ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, many more...

• Creating and Manipulating Drawing elements:
  • Make a Pad on top of another entity
  • Make a solid of Revolution
  • Move, copy, & trim commands
  • Text & Labels
  • Edges - Chamfers & Fillets
  • Gears
  • Flat Torsion Spring
  • Lofts & Sweeps
  • Boolean Cuts

• Make a hole:
• Pocket a Part Design circle:
  • in Part Design, Model, highlight the face where you want to put your hole
  • click on the face in the drawing, click on new sketch
  • select the circle icon, click in your drawing about where you want the center to be, drag to your approx desired radius
    exit the circle command with right-click, then select the circle, click on Constrain an arc or a circle icon, select radius, enter desired radius, click OK
  • click on the center of the circle, click on some other constrained point, click the padlock
  If you can't see a point that you want, it may be necessary to hide some elements.
  • enter desired constraint dimensions to locate the part where you want it, then close edit session
  • Pad Design, Model, highlight the sketch you created, click Create a Pocket tool
    in Type field, enter Dimension or Through All or whatever desired, click OK
• Part Design Hole command:
  • make a sketch with a circle, with diam of the through-hole you want
    Close the sketch
  • select the sketch in the model tree
    Part Design (upper menu bar) --> create subtractive feature --> Hole
  • Hole Parameters window opens on the left sidebar
    Note the "Diameter" parameter is default 6.00 mm
    which may Not be the diam you had for the circle in your sketch.
    The center of the PD hole however will be at the place of the circle in your sketch.
    If you want a diam and/or depth that are different than the 6.0 and 25.0 defaults, then enter them here
  • If you want a simple, straight-through hole, then leave
    Hole cut at default "None"

  • If you want the head of your screw to be flush with the top surface, then select:
    Counterbore for pan-head screws,
    or Countersink for flat-head screws:
    Note: This operation creates both the Hole and the countersink in one step.

    In the Hole cut section of the menu:

    • enter the diam of your flat-head screw head in the Hole cut diameter field
    • enter the countersink angle:
      this is the angle between the countersink slopes on opposite sides of the head (?)
      Most common is 90deg
  • Note: if your model contains two holes with different sizes, you must do a separate sketch and Hole feature for each different size.

  • If you want a threaded hole, you can do that too, but I can't advise you, since I haven't done it myself.
• Make a mirror image:
  Suppose you have a model, and you want to make a mirror image of it:
  • Part workbench
    select Body in model tree
    Part -> Mirroring...
    in Mirror Plane field, enter the plane desired
    if you want to move the plane from its default position, enter desired values in Base Point fields
    click OK
  • Notice a new element in model tree: typ. "Body (Mirror #1)"
  • To create stl's for printing:
    Mesh Design workbench
    Meshes -> Create mesh from shape
    select Body
    select desired meshing options
    click OK
    repeat for Body (mirror)
  • Note new elements in model tree:
    Body (Meshed) and
    Body (Mirror #1) (Meshed)
    export these meshes as stl's

• Regarding creating a solid from edges, there are several ways,
  Part WB shape builder...select edges, create a wire then Part Extrude thick make a solid,
  or first upgrade the wire to a face in Part Shape Builder,
  Also you can use Draft WB Upgrade tool after selecting edges once or twice

  Once you have a Draft Wire, you could use Draft to Sketch in Draft WB to push it into a sketch, but you could do a more sophisticated workflow with PartDesign at least in 0.18 if not 0.17, by creating the new solid in a new Body but reference the first solid/body to define the sketch for the second body.

• The user.cfg is the file you are looking for. You have to exit FreeCAD, then move or delete the file and then restart FreeCD. Instead of deleting you can use the Reset button in the Preferences.

• Part WB Extrude? If so the Part Extrusion of a Sketch should give you a surface. Extrude a line you get a surface, extrude a surface and you get a solid.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Cute trick:
  https://wiki.freecad.org/Macro_Shake_Sketch
  This macro "shakes" your sketch, ie. displaces it some small random amount, so you can see which points are un-constrained.

.

.

.

eof