FreeCAD - Flatten / Unwrap Lofts for CNC or Paper Cutting. Scale boat pattern layout / cut template

[@markervice2936]

I'm so glad I learned ProSurf for hull design wherein with ONE click on a nurb surface is laid flat. Export DXF, nest, send off to cutter, every part a continuous line thus no quibbles with tool paths. I admire your tenacity but boy howdy what a lot of steps!

[@BrainDeadEngineering]

NICE ! 😜The take away from this video to myself is the multitude of benches and techniques that were used ( an all in one) Ty!

[@chrisBruner]

Freecad has so much in it. Keeps going deeper and deeper.

[@sstevenson638]

Great tutorial! I learned so much about tools and features I wasn't even aware of yet.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great to hear

[@victorldunn9638]

It is interesting to see Part WB as the focus of a workflow supported by other workbenches 'as required' (compared to the Part Design WB that generally used in the previous videos in this series). I somehow had 'skipped' this video as I had (incorrectly) assumed that the tutorial was only about the unfolding of a completed design - were I am not yet at that point and still very much on the FreeCAD learning curve. 🤔 The Part WB workflow may require moving from one workbench to another (in a systematic way) - but I feel as if this workflow is 'simpler' and 'more flexible' than a Part Design based workflow. The use of 'create new part' as a container for a stage in the design process - and the 'shape builder' looks promising for the project I have been working on. Thank You.😊

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Glad you enjoyed. Yes I favor the part workbench over part design. Because the part design does basically an automatic boolean operation when you pad or pocket then it can restrict things. But I do like the linear workflow that it offers which makes the working tree so much easier to navigate.

[@adrianram5524]

very very useful ... THANKS !

[@andhemills]

This was helpful, esp. starting at the 25:00 mark. I'm intending to make a surfboard made of paper towel cardboard core tubes. I could cut the majority of the tubes in the interior region of the board, but as I approach the edges (rails), I will struggle to get nice shapes and proper curvature. I worked out a single tube through the whole process. I've had to do some other figuring out not exactly related to this video. Next, I have to add another tube, start labeling them (in FC) and having associated marks on the print-outs. I also need to look into ways to easily place so many tubes (I'll need 250 or so, 125 for half the board to mirror) The first output was rather satisfying, especially since the cutout wrapped perfectly around the tube as it did in FC. This is going to be a ridiculous amount of work. Wish me luck, as I do you!

[@MangoJellySolutions]

This project sounds amazing. I can't even figure in my head how you are going about this and how your getting strength, water proofing etc. It sounds like this a huge project. I don't know if the lattice workbench will help you with tube placements. Amazing job, please keep us posted of your progress.

[@gryphonista]

This is great. Really great. It's the best intro to Curves anywhere. One point on this though: using CrossSections. CrossSections is handy, but not parametric. If you alter your design you need to recreate everything from that step. It would be better to use planes and intersections to create the cross sections Another point: the cross sections are Edges. You can create Faces from there using ShapeBuilder. Again, fabulous, much needed work.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thank you for the comment and feedback, It's funny you should comment on the cross section as I have been doing some experiments lately trying to get parametric sections and I think I found a technique that works. Going to put a video together and upload hopefully by the weekend as I have only just done the work. Would be great to get your comments to know if it's a step forward.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I have found a solution to this problem and just uploaded a video which explains how to make parametric cross sections. Thanks for commenting on this, was really enjoyable to work on.

[@victorldunn9638]

@@MangoJellySolutions Is the follow on tutorial "FreeCAD: Quick and Easy Parametric Section / Ribs / Bulkheads / Cross Sections with Curves Workbench"? kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3OVmGpnpL-Cpc0

[@j121212100]

Peeling layers! Extremely valuable lesson!

[@Suliman-iq]

Hello I have 3d file of seabreacher and I want to build it with woods and then fiberglass, how to transform 3d to 2d like the way you did it?

[@yvon8488]

Thanks for this tutorial. This is exactly what I was looking for. I am working on a boat project and this will help me move further in my project.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

That's great news, thank you for sharing. Good luck with your project. I am trying to find somewhere where people can submit pictures of what they have used my videos for to show the potential of freecad.

[@IGBeTix-Electronique]

Ready to build a kayak !

[@marcink8655]

Great tutorial! Wondering if the reverse of this process is easy to do with FreeCAD. I mean: flat having shapes can one wrap them to a boat hull?

[@oddlytimbotwillison6296]

This is really well done, wonderful walk through the whole process.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great to get feedback, thank you, glad you like.

[@joshuabedford997]

Mate your an absolute hero. Thank you

[@sar2908]

Is there any way to add an image to the model before unwrapping/flattening? So the image is reproduced when printing on to paper or card.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

No I don't believe there is but you could export to Svg and then load this into Inkscape.

[@sar2908]

@@MangoJellySolutions I don’t think I would be able to marry the image seamlessly across the flattened panels. Maybe using Blender unwrap UVs would be the way to go?

[@joaquimfontenelle4068]

Awsome! Superb and great video! You´ve fullfilled my expectations, you are the best, my hero ! Congrats

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thanks for the kind words, great to hear!!!! 😊 I really need to setup something so viewers can submit pictures of what they are working on. Curious to see the projects that people are using the videos for.

[@tenlittleindians]

It looks like a fast method to get a boat design ready for a company with a waterjet so they can cut it out of sheet aluminum for you.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

@@tenlittleindians that is a fantastic idea! Didn't think of that. I surpose the same for laser cutting as well. I don't have any experience with any of those but I am guessing they would want a SVG file? Or even a PDF which you can just print to file as pdf so that's covered.

[@leonorehamer3025]

Is there any free software or plugins to optimise the layout? To reduce wastage when cut out.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I was trying to find something that I found a while ago before I posted. There is a tool in the arc workbench that deals with panels. The tool is called Nest. Wiki.Freecad.Org/arch_nest this may help you. There is also svgnest which is an online.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Deepest.io is awesome!!!

[@MrMenes123]

how can I modify the Shape after unwrap mesh , i like to add on extera material to on the sides for joining with owerlapp, like offset to one side. and make holes for rivets.

[@alessandrochianello3683]

Great video, outstanding! Thank you so much!

[@SomeTechGuy666]

Fantastic content ! You must be a boat builder ?

[@TheAndrian463]

Hi, interesting tutorial. The unwrap feature in the Mesh Design WB is not available in my version (latest downloadable stable release Windows 64bit version 0.19). Did you use Conda for your installation?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I installed straight from the freecad website. I have ran into problems before installing using third party tools so I always go to the original website.

[@TheAndrian463]

@@MangoJellySolutions Hi, thanks for the reply. I will probably have to try a reinstall, have read that some others have had this feature missing. Looking forward to your next upload.

[@paulathomas4944]

@@TheAndrian463 I also noticed this and have been doing some investigation. It turns out that the flatten mesh option is disabled in the CMake files by default. I've done a build from source with the option enabled and I now get the unwrap menu options in the Mesh workbench. Why it's not built by default I have no idea.

[@TheAndrian463]

@@paulathomas4944 Hi, yes you are right really weird that it is not built in by default. I will stick with the downloadable stable 0.19 until 0.20 is officially released. The unwrap feature will be very handy for metal sheeting and wood laminates.

[@kokodin5895]

i been wondering, is there a way to do the reverse? let's say we already have a paper scale model, scan it in, trace parts and try to virtually gle them back into 3d shapes (because this is perhaps the closest thing we have to technical drawing and want to 3d print scaled down version of the model)

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I can see where you are coming from. With shapes that don't need bending you can trace using the image workbench and the sketcher using the scaling feature to get the correct scale, and then you have a number of options from placing the shapes together and creating faces in the part shape builder tool, or extrudes and use an assembly wb. When it comes to curves such as taking the techdraw output from this video and "bending" it back into shape and putting together as a 3D, that's a good question which I would love to figure out. I am wondering if the sheet metal workbench may have some tools. Going to do some digging.

[@alexanderkozedub6638]

@@MangoJellySolutions such a nice video tutorial you've done, thank you! I'm curious, did you find any answer on the question above? I have a stitch and glue boat project, and i was wondering if it is possible to create a parametric 3d copy of it first, to be able to make some changes before building it out of plywood.

[@ajdhgsldhdgwielbw736]

Hello, this was a really helpful video as I am shortly about to dive into this field, so thanks a lot. Secondly, I recently have been experimenting with many things in FreeCAD after seeing your videos. I have one issue around which I can't find a way. I created two gordon surfaces with one edge in common. Now how do I join them and then bevel the common edge connecting them? Please help me here, as this is one crucial part in something I am trying to achieve. Thank you.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Glad you like. Try the blend surface tool. Transform both so there is a bit of space between the two surfaces. Select one face of the Gordon surface and its edge and then the other Gordon surface face and its edge and use the blend surface tool in curves wb. This will create a joining surface between the two bridging the gap. You can then play with the contiunity settings between the two. C0 for both will be a chamfer, C1 upwards you get into fillets.

[@ajdhgsldhdgwielbw736]

@@MangoJellySolutions ok, will try.

[@sivaforu2004]

Please help me to flatten / unwrap a part created using revolution tool, example a trapezoid shaped a ring to unwrapped sheet!

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Have your tried the techniques in the video kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHfIp4Z3hZaUnZI

[@AleksandrSavenko-zv1el]

Hello MangoJelly. Need help with unwrapping. How Can I reach you ?

[@hanswurst9866]

lol

[@j121212100]

What version of FreeCAD are you using? I do not have Unwrap Mesh option in my mesh drop-down.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I'm running version 0.19

[@j121212100]

@@MangoJellySolutions I finally got a new windows laptop and with it FreeCAD supporting Mesh Unwrap! That in conjunction with a script I wrote to create a normal surface at a given depth to slice apart and peel the solid one layer at a time, I now have my laser cut patterns for my blades.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

@@j121212100 This sounds fantastic, great use of a macro script. Nice job. I must upgrade my PC at some point. Sometimes I think a Raspbery PI would be probably more powerful than the old I3 I am running on.

[@j121212100]

@@MangoJellySolutions I just pasted my code into the interpreter console. Too much effort to turn this into a rigorous tool for others to also use due to inconsistencies sometimes. But maybe i do eventually share this forward as a macro instead of a GUI add-on. For me a combination of manual steps and my custom python code was enough to get the job done. The real test comes when i put it all together and see how close it is to true.

[@loicgeeraerts]

Hello, I don't understand that it is possible to flatten surfaces with more than one direction of curvature. For example, it is possible to flatten a cylinder or a cone because they have only one direction of curvature but it is not possible with a sphere. However, it seems that the parts of your hull have several directions of curvature. In naval architecture, hulls whose parts have only one direction of curvature are called chine hulls and this is not the case with yours.

[@NicolasOrdahl]

Thank you.

[@russellw5447]

28:04 That issue with the Face Binder being hidden as well as The Slices instead of Compound could have been very trying if not for your instruction. FreeCAD does have some idiosyncrasies! During this and other Tutorials I hear Terms such as Wires, Edges, Faces etc. I understand they describe various objects One can create in FreeCAD or any other Program, also from what I've learned so far is that such Objects depending on context need to be converted into other Objects We can act upon. A Tut on this CAD Theory so to speak would be helpful?