FreeCAD Tutorial - Basics - Connecting Block

[@goeland86]

Just want to point out something that confused me until I paid closer attention to how it was done: @1:35 the symmetry constraint needs the exact order of the selection respected. If you select, naively like I did, top left, middle then bottom right, it will use the bottom right point as the center of symmetry. Center of symmetry should be the last point selected in the sequence of clicks made.

[@Nick-ye5kk]

Excellent presentation, correct pace and level of detail.

[@MarthamEngineering]

Thank you for the wonderful feedback. Really appreciated.

[@ianl.7545]

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch a goooood tutorial !!! Thank you. Simple, straight forward, and to the point. This is the best learning tool for me. Step by step that shows the function of the tools!

[@allanjacobs977]

Tutorials are very helpful for me. I'm totally new to CAD so I'm repeating the videos multiple times to help ingrain steps. Still stumbling a bit when it comes to planes though. Thanks for helping this old dog learn a new trick.

[@fremandn]

Perfect pacing and explanation. Great job

[@johnswoyer936]

Thanks so much! You have helped this beginner to grasp the first concepts and not give up.

[@JosephsPlaytime1096]

I’m going to start learning how to use free cad on my computer, and once I’ll gather enough knowledge from the epic free cad tutorials I will Hopefully buy a 3D printer.

[@granav5240]

Great tutorial! The only one I actually followed with successful results. Thanks so much!!!

[@MarthamEngineering]

It's great to know the videos are helping people!

[@MrKyogre14]

Excellent content! Thank you so much for helping the community

[@franksberlin4447]

I just started to learn Freecad. The videos are great.Thanks.

[@MarthamEngineering]

Thank you for your kind comment! I hope you enjoy FreeCAD!

[@JZ1917]

Great content! Coming from Inventor and Solid Edge, this tutorial was perfect for my needs

[@epilotdk]

I have just started looking at Freecad and found this tutorial tremendously helpful, so many thanks for posting it. I have a very specific use case in mind that I have not quite gotten my head around in terms of how to add the right constraints. It is an oscillating steam engine. I can draw it out in 2D CAD but it is a bit tedious and it would be wonderful to have it as a parametric design. Basically the placement of the steam ports changes with the stroke and distance from pivot to crankshaft.

[@MarthamEngineering]

If you know the relationships between the parts it should be relatively straightforward to model it all. I would suggest modelling what you can then posting the file in the FreeCAD forum as the support is second to none.

[@epilotdk]

@@MarthamEngineering Thanks, I have just signed up to the forum.

[@fasznyak]

great stuff, man. I'm just starting out with FreeCAD to create sprockets for my treadmill to fix its design flaw. this video helped me greatly.

[@MarthamEngineering]

Thank you for taking the time to let me know these videos help! It means a lot to me.

[@paulocaires2187]

Best tutorial so far... Thanks a lot.

[@now-you-know-it]

Very good video One problem Some of us have poor eye sight, We find it very hard to follow the VERY small and fast moving pointer. Is it possible to make the pointer bigger. This will help from the pointer disappearing. Thank You

[@D3rron08]

good day sir, awesome tutorial , I would love to see a tutorial on how to change the theme (styles of freeCAD GUI).

[@4funrc11]

Great video. 👍 Thank you. I installed (v.0.19) yesterday on my Windows laptop. Whew, I've much to learn. 😃

[@MarthamEngineering]

Be patient with yourself, FreeCAD is hugely powerful but there is a learning curve.

[@4funrc11]

@@MarthamEngineering That I can do. I forgot to write this in my initial Comment (sorry for that)... I'd like to see in-depth settings and configurations videos.

[@p4z9m]

I liked your tutorial really good and it was easy to understand. Keep up the good work.

[@MarthamEngineering]

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It means a lot that you found the tutorial easy to follow. I'm really keen to get more people enjoying FreeCAD.

[@p4z9m]

@@MarthamEngineering FreeCAD is steadily improving and is really at a good point since a while now for hobbyist like myself. By the way, regarding your question what to do next. I was able to follow and recreate 100%, of course I had to use the pause button a few times. When clicking a button it would be nice to zoom in, I believe some capture programs have that ability. I believe FreeCAD has enough material for a few more tutorials like this one before venturing out to more complex topics.

[@Kntryhart]

Excellent video! In a complicated drawing, how do you keep track of all the sketches and how they relate to various elements? Thanks!

[@springy1502]

As a noob to 3D printing and CAD soft ware this is very informative just with you had taken it a little slower as i was stop starting a lot with the video but. bar that i smashed that like button and Subscribe as i'm going to use all these videos to self teach with you assistants that is

[@TheMostTruth]

That little white "inspector" type of thing you bring up in the top left corner to adjust sizes etc, what is it called and what keybinding is it? Thank you!

[@chriswesley594]

Great video - thanks. The only puzzle for me was how you made the pairs of circles concentric. No mater how far I zoomed in the second circle was offset. I fixed it OK with a coincident constraint but you didn't do that. Did you hold down some key or something like that ot make it snap?

[@MarthamEngineering]

You can use auto-constrain and it should work.

[@chriswesley594]

@@MarthamEngineering Thank you.

[@lockhak33]

@@MarthamEngineering Do you have a video where you use auto-constrain? I can't find that tool.

[@unaviajeraatea8407]

Excellent video. I was looking around your videos for further learning, but it seems to me the rest of the videos are kinda more complicated. I would like, if possible, a tutorial into simple parts and how are they stored and copy and repeated within one project and for different projects. Would you be so kind? I mean specifically for instance if I need this piece and other block pieces of different lenght and the put them together into different puzzles. Or, for instance a lumber piece (6x2x8 ft) to be used repeatedly for a building frame and then in a different project for another building. Can you create such a thing or tell me where to find it? (for beginners) Thanks

[@markwhitehead4386]

Great tutorial. The only part I couldn't follow was when you created a circle on the bottom face sketch and centred it with a constraint. I added the radius constraint but the centre is still not constrained. Did you hold some keys to cause it to snap and constrain to the origin?

[@MarthamEngineering]

I have auto constrain turned on. You should be able to find it in the panels on the left. You can add a coincident constraint manually too if required.

[@markwhitehead4386]

@@MarthamEngineering I also have auto constrain on, but I don't get the centre constraint added automatically. Even tried with snap to grid. I had figured out that a coincident constraint could be manually added and that's what I had to do. Maybe this is a version 0.19 feature?

[@MarthamEngineering]

That's strange. Is it the Auto Constrain option in the 'Edit Controls' panel when in a sketch? With that on the snap icon on the mouse cursor should change to a dot when you move over a suitable point, the point should also change colour.

[@markwhitehead4386]

@@MarthamEngineering Yes the Auto Constraints option in the Edit Controls panel is ticked. When I hover over the centre dot where the axes cross it changes from red to yellow but the cross on the circle icon doesn't change to a dot. If I left click when on the (0,0) point I can draw the circle but I don't get the constraint and the sketch is still under constrained with 3 degrees of freedom. I've tried this with grid snap on and off.

[@lancephelps4871]

Thank you for doing this in 2020. I know that programs change over time. I have had my 3-d printer ender 3 pro since the end of 2019. I have grown tired of downloading others hard work and wanted to try on my own. I know nothing about CAD. I have used Tinker CAD with blocks and did great, however I also downloaded Design Spark Mechanical and had a very hard time making blocks LOL. I would like to know is Free CAD just like Design Spark? Thanks for your time today.

[@ShaunakDe]

In my limited opinion, I think FreeCAD is one of the most powerful tools out there. But it definately has teething issues. If you are okay with a freemium tool, look at Fusion 360. It's free for home use.

[@salimsaddaquzzaman6794]

Thank you. please do more videos related freecad.

[@otooleger]

Than ks , another great tutorial. I am a little confused about the pockets in the four small cylinders and the underneath cylinder. When the second inner circle is drawn a pocket is created automatically without having to select the pocket tool. Why is this? Does this mean it is not possible to use this inner circle to create a pad, i.e. one small cylinder standing on top of another cylinder? Really learning a lot from your tutorials - thank you.

[@MarthamEngineering]

The pad will only work on a single boundary. If there is a second boundary contained within the first it will be excluded from the pad.

[@MarthamEngineering]

It's something that you learn through practice and not so easy to explain!

[@0LoneTech]

The sketch describes one shape, so the inner circles created a hole in that shape. Thus the holes aren't pockets but just the original surface that wasn't padded. Sketches follow the even/odd rule; you start outside the sketch, and for each construction line you cross, you reach inside, then outside, etc. That's why it gets confused if you ever have an odd number of lines meeting. The boundary has to be continuous and unambiguous.

[@andybawn1]

One question how did you get v 0.19? copied from freeCAD web site. Current stable version The first 0.18 release of FreeCAD (16093) was published on 2019-03-12. The latest bug fix release 0.18.4 (16146) was published on 2019-10-26.

[@MarthamEngineering]

I build FreeCAD myself, you can test the development builds from here: github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases/tag/0.19_pre but bear in mind that they are development test builds and may not work as expected.

[@andybawn1]

@@MarthamEngineering Thanks a lot for the reply. Things never work as expected in my experience :)

[@jothain]

How have done the very ending? Rotating on black background? Nice tutorial anyway. Trying to get feel of FreeCAD as Fusion seems to be heading to that subscription model rapidly and not that keen on those.

[@MarthamEngineering]

The animation was done in FreeCAD using the turntable. I changed the background to black and used the full screen option on the turntable form.

[@jothain]

@@MarthamEngineering sorry to keep bothering you. Is this feature on default install or is it a plugin? I just haven't noticed anything relating to that. FreeCAD has quite clunky interface to figure out.

[@MarthamEngineering]

@@jothain Its under Tools -> view turntable..

[@jothain]

@@MarthamEngineering found it's. Thanks

[@bkcganeshblogs]

I am using 0.18.4 version in my settings there is no draft option.How can I change grid sizes

[@MarthamEngineering]

All these basic videos were made with version 0.19. it is recommend to use 0.19 as there are so many fixes and enhancements.

[@bkcganeshblogs]

@@MarthamEngineering Thank you very much.I can use this facility with mouse.Earlier I was not using this.I just wanted to kNow how can pad multiple solids.For example I had made a square with a circle on the top.got trimmed looking dome.but when I want to extrude it is showing broken lines.kindly help me.

[@MarthamEngineering]

Please can you post a copy of your file on the forum and ask the question there? It's difficult to visualise the question from words alone.

[@bkcganeshblogs]

@@MarthamEngineering just got the answer from another video.It is similar to first part of the sketch.Thank you very much.you are doing great job.Thank you.All the best.

[@bkcganeshblogs]

@@MarthamEngineering kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqi3nZRtpp6Ehc0

[@anuragsidh]

Nice tutorial, it helped. How do we Rotate the 3d object with Mouse?

[@MarthamEngineering]

The orbit command is different depending on your mouse setting. Right click in the 3D view and check the mouse is set to blender. Pressing the mouse wheel will then control the orbit command.

[@zeljkosh]

when i go to sketcher i miss that right toolbar , you used it to create constraints and lock them. i simple miss the entire toolbar , even though in context menu sketcher constraints are enabled.

[@MarthamEngineering]

It might be hidden at the top right. Try and drag the toolbars to see if they are hidden.

[@alankritsharma2764]

how do you make the outrow video? and you forget to make curve in bottom ring other than that was very good tutorial :)

[@icecreamtruckog3667]

Well done.

[@now-you-know-it]

Only one problem. People with not so good eye site the cursor disapear and is way to small. There is ways to make this better. Some sites you can downlpad it from. Thanks

[@MarthamEngineering]

Hi Pieter, thanks for the feedback. I will investigate using a cursor highlighter for future videos.

[@now-you-know-it]

Thanks for your effort. The quikest ever answer. Do you have videos for beginers. If so any links. Thanks a lot

[@schogaia]

I never create a body explicitly I just create a sketch which automatically creates the body for me. Is there a disadvantage in doing it that way? As always: great video thank you!

[@MarthamEngineering]

As long as you end up with the correct hierarchy then there is no problem at all!

[@schogaia]

@@MarthamEngineering thanks

[@StefanoVerugi]

very useful, thanks

[@GNU_Linux_for_good]

That was a *cool* video.

[@kimeldiin1930]

when I try to save I only get NO SUCH DIRECTORY.......

[@MarthamEngineering]

It would be best if you posted your issue and version info on the FreeCAD forum. It sounds like they're is an problem with your install.

[@MrCoffeypaul]

Thanks!