An Introduction to FreeCAD 1.0 Part 3

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thanks for watching this new series. I am trying to cover the things that make you go ahhh! That way you won't be looking at FreeCAD totally mistified. - Let me know your thoughts and if there is anything else you would like to see.

[@MelEliot]

Your approach is exactly perfect in showing all the operational choices and options. This was the hardest part for me to grasp and find. How to change the background color, how to add/remove tool choices, how to... etc. I have been a mentor/teacher/DIYer for the last half of my life and this is really, in simple terms, presented just perfectly. You are by far the most thorough at explaining manipulation of specific program attributes I have experienced (and I have been through a lot of education/classes/tutorials). You impressed me so much I actually made a comment about a video for the very first time. If you do not show something specific that I must know and can not figure out I will certainly leave a comment about it. Thank you so much for your time, insight and knowledge.

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thanks, I am glad it was helpful for you.

[@DanAz617]

I learned FreeCad from you way back, got good enough to do what I needed, 3d printing and such, but now that the new whizbang version is finally out, I'm back! Best teacher on youtube, and I have made the rounds of them all. Some are good for just banging stuff out to get practice, but this is the only place that thoroughly explains the logic/concept of what is going on! Best Regards

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot.

[@jonathanrichards593]

@@Adventuresincreation I came to say just what @DanAz617 has said - I got quite a long way with the 0.x versions, but 1.0 is so much different (and better!) that I'm appreciating the from-the-ground-up approach. Thanks!

[@DonovanBrown]

Great job. I have learned something in each video so far.

[@Adventuresincreation]

I am glad to hear it!

[@ollimovement1419]

I learned a lot so far, thank you so much for the effort. I could follow you along and replicate everything. So again: thank you.

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback

[@georgeg8856]

Thanks for making these videos! Great pace and information. Like another commenter below, I had redundant constraints and and orange lines when I followed along. Setting "Auto Remove Redundant" constraints fixed it! There's lots to learn here!!I

[@Adventuresincreation]

Perfect, I am glad you found the solution.

[@Ed_Downunder]

Paced and comprehensive. Nothing beats practice, So much information for a new user, and they will be confused. For the 'experienced novice' there are gems in here. The only solution for a new user is to follow along and practice. Great series, looking forward to the next video.

[@Adventuresincreation]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rodneysmith1750]

Excellent! I see several things that I can do in the current release, but this version is so much easier, like sketching on a surface. I also appreciate showing the point around which the sketch is being revolved. Just one more thing, and I'll switch to the release candidate for sure. Thanks for all your work and fantastic explanations at the speed I can absorb the data. So, excellent!

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thanks Rodney, I am glad there are some take aways for you.

[@Pixelwaster]

The series is coming along nicely. I can hardly wait until you get to complex curves like aircraft and 50s hot rods.

[@Adventuresincreation]

That might be a while ;-)

[@hymermobiler]

Thanks for making the video for this latest release. Changes like sketching on faces will now make things much easier without breaking the models. Looking forward to more videos.

[@Adventuresincreation]

You're very welcome!

[@JottyOL]

Mainly I want to thank you for your videos! I learn a lot about the concepts of modeling things for my 3d printer. But as a former teacher I see a way of doing things better. You are describing things slowly, which is good, but very abstract. Showing things on examples of real practical use os way better. Show the result first and then the way to get there. When I planned my lessons for my students, half the time was about to find the best examples. I hope this sounds like constructive criticism, I‘m not a native speaker. Greetings from Germany and carry on please!

[@Adventuresincreation]

I am glad you gave me your input. The first 3 videos have been laying the foundation of the concepts, the next one will focus on an actual model using everything we have learned so far. To that end, I will be showing the end result and discussing my workflow and how I approach the sketches and modeling. - It will include some linear patterns.

[@bme-uk]

TY for part 3

[@Adventuresincreation]

You are welcome 😉

[@stringmanipulator]

very nice work

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thank you

[@dylanfroment9698]

Awesome I've watched a load of your videos.

[@Adventuresincreation]

Thank you

[@landlocked4771]

Getting exicted. Awesome

[@Adventuresincreation]

The next video will cover some important concepts

[@user-eo2ow8mi4g]

I've been subscribed for some time and I see that your presentation style has become much easier for me to follow. In some of your older videos, things were happening so fast that my brain couldn't keep up with you ! Recently you have become MUCH more suited to this Aging Engineer's Brain of mine ! I applaud that and wanted to let you know someone had noticed. 🙂 - Chuck In Belize p.s. Running 1.0 RC2 I have not yet had the geometry break on me due to the "topological naming problem." Have you ??

[@Adventuresincreation]

Glad to hear it. I am trying to go a pace that new users can quickly get on board. I have had some things break with the TNP but not nearly as many. I still try to use techniques that aren't going to encourage problems.

[@Jdlucas44]

These tutorials are fantastic and just what I need to learn the latest FreeCAD. I'm in the process of designing longer caliper jaws to be able to measure bigger diameter camera lenses. Tried downloading stl files, but none fit my digital caliper. Wish me luck!

[@Adventuresincreation]

Good luck. Follow along, you will soon be able to design your own.

[@frybucket]

Excellent vid. I watch it in the background while I work on my own lame projects. Strictly use it for 3D printing at this point. A couple problems I’m constantly running into: 1) If I make a change in my design most of the part is hosed with errors I just can’t fix and I practically have to start all over again. Getting used to that and just go with it now. 2)can you go over tricks to select just certain elements of a sketch? For example just the circumference of a bunch of circles so that an equal constraint can be applied. Thanks for the great content over the years! I’m using the v1.0RC😊

[@Adventuresincreation]

I am not sure why your models are hosed when you make changes, that's not supposed to happen. - I will definitely go over tricks to select elements in a sketch.

[@jeffholloway8345]

I'm really liking this series. Thanks! Question: I notice that when you apply the symmetry tool (4:44 in this 3rd video), the previous horizontal constraint disappears. In my app it doesn't and I have to manually remove it. Is that a setting?

[@Adventuresincreation]

There is an auto remove setting

[@jeffholloway8345]

@@Adventuresincreation Ok, I found it: Edit > Preferences > Sketcher > General > Auto remove redundants. Thanks

[@Adventuresincreation]

@@jeffholloway8345 Excellent! Thanks for the update.

[@jb510]

Trying to follow along, but it's crazy difficult to select vertices, and when I finally do and try to set symmetry constraints I just get errors that things are over constrained or DoF (whatever that is). Maybe a lesson in dealing with common errors and how to resolve them. Also keep getting dimensions trying to snap to the origin instead or letting me pick a second point. TY again for the videos though,.

[@Adventuresincreation]

I will add a lesson with that. It seems a lot of people don't have the auto remove constraints selected in their set up. DoF is degrees of freedom. You want a fully constrained model, i.e. no degrees of freedom. Over constraining simply means you are limiting the DoF in more than one way. There is a setting that allows you to automatically remove overconstraints. It works very well. Not sure why your vertex selection is so difficult, when you put your mouse near a vertex do you see it change color, maybe the pointer is slightly off the the vertex, mine is that way sometimes. If you zoom in, it usuall makes that selection much easier.

[@jb510]

@@Adventuresincreation TY that'd be great. It's super confusing. I'm on a MBP with touchpad most of the time so a few setup things seem odd. Dimensions are tiny (found setting), vertices are tiny (found setting), picking vertices I doubled the "pick size" but it's still a challenge. I think FreeCAD isn't "retina/4k" screen aware. It's getting better. I greatly appreciate your responsiveness to feedback. I found a an old video titled FreeCAD For Beginners p.1 from thehardwareguy that covered constraints reasonably well, would be great to see one updated for v1 and include some UI/UX tweaks to make things like seeing dims/vertices easier. TY TY TY

[@ggburleigh]

Learn something new each tutorial thanks. GrahamB

[@Adventuresincreation]

Glad to hear it!

[@tomthompson7400]

A great series so far ,,, Im following along as you do your sketch , but when I do the distance from the line , and set the 6mm as you do , then click ok in the box , I dont get the dimensions on the view of the part as you do a red report box pops up at the bottom , did I miss something obvious ,, ?

[@Adventuresincreation]

I am glad you are enjoying it. I am really trying to get to all those things that often get forgotten and leave you scratching your head.

[@tomthompson7400]

@@Adventuresincreation Im aiming to follow along , but its tricky when the basic bits dont work ,,, remember some of us dont think as fast as you work ,,, Ive even dropped the playback speed but still rewind lots , but I dont mind as long as it gets to the same end point as you get to .

[@karlsangree]

Interesting to think that FreeCAD was first released in October of 2002, 22 years ago, and we are just now at version 1. 🙂

[@Adventuresincreation]

It is crazy for sure, I wonder how long it will take to get to version 2.0

[@Pixelwaster]

@@Adventuresincreation With the TPN and UI fixes along with the cloud and subscription only versions of the big boys; FreeCAD 2.0 will be out in a couple of years. Look at KiCad - slow out of the gate but once it was really useful ( and the others went subscription and cloud only) updates came fast along with donations and programmers.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

Is there a simple command to find where it thinks the "Wire is not closed" as this drives me nuts sometimes trying to find the issue.

[@Adventuresincreation]

You can use the "sketch validation" option, it will find the issues for you. Use "highlight troublesome vertices" you may have to zoom in to see the highlights on the sketch.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

@@Adventuresincreation thanks found it, strange that it's greyed out in sketch. that's were i expected to find it, not once you have closed the sketch.

[@puaspiton]

Thank you for the video. I'm struggling with the Constrains. I follow step by step on what you were doing but my sketch is getting all Orange and I'm getting the error that I have too many constrains. At one point I deleted all the ( - and | ) vertical and horizontal constrains and it worked but in the second instance of your video I try to delete them and when I move the measuring it will give me very odd shapes.

[@Adventuresincreation]

Go into the settings and make sure you have autoremove redundant constraints checked.

[@ollimovement1419]

@@Adventuresincreation Thank you. Wouldn't have found it.

[@justinorwen1739]

How do you get this version of freecad?

[@Adventuresincreation]

Take a look at part 1 it explains it.

[@peejayw]

At the beginning, when making the top line symmetrical to the axis, I get an over-constrained message and I have to delete the constraint that shows on the y axis.

[@maxmn5821]

Such cases got me sometimes drawing the sketch deliberately slightly rotated and moved away from the original. Only when done, I add last two constraints.

[@Adventuresincreation]

That's interesting, do you have any other constraints that were added "automatically"?

[@peejayw]

Not sure, I just followed along what you were doing.

[@adrianclark8247]

I think I know the answer to this... it's because we constrained the horizontal lines I think, but those constraints become redundant when we then constrain them symmetric to the axis... There's a setting in Preferences... Sketcher... General... where there's a tick box called Auto Remove Redundants which wasn't set on mine... When I ticked it the Horizontal constraint was removed when I set the Symmetric constraint. Hope this helps

[@davivify]

I enjoyed the first two videos but this one I just don't get. I see a disembodied circle, like a ghost just hanging in space and don't know what to make of it. Where does it fit within the mdoel? I don't have a background in solid modeling and I'm not used to sketches on top of sketches on top of sketches. Just not jelling for me.

[@Adventuresincreation]

I am not sure which part you are referring to, can you tag the time stamp so I can see what you are struggling with?