Learn FreeCAD: #1 Introduction - Tutorial

[@Rhannock]

Well, I just made my first cube model in CAD, exported it in STL, sliced it in CURA and 3d printed it............IT WORKED.....the power.......I can feel it!

[@mihailazar2487]

I'd actually recommend Blender for 3D printing proper CAD is more adecvate for CNCs, turntables, etc 3D printers have a macro accuracy that's not high enough to justify the accuracy of NURBS

[@agnichatian]

yeeeessssss.....

[@IamNeighborlee]

@@mihailazar2487 Actually no, while blender is amazing in may ways, its 3d printing can't compare to MeshMixer, by AutoDesk and its also FREE.

[@DJPhilTBCollins]

Phenomenal Cosmic Power! (itty bitty printing space) - Aladdin's Genie (paraphrased)

[@kdvprasad1939]

which version u r using

[@dawsonrichards6363]

I was almost scared away by the mic quality, but I'm really glad I stayed! This tutorial has been extremely helpful, as I've had to make the switch from Fusion 360 because of all their free plan jank going on.

[@RobertShaverOfAustin]

Same here. Thought it was recorded by a fast flowing stream in the country or near a water fall. But the white noise is better than some tutorials with annoying music playing all the way though the video. I give all videos a *LIKE* just because they made it and posted it.

[@LarsMakesStuff]

Same reason for watching the tutorials here. How do I pay to edit more than 5 files in FreeCAD? :D

[@sleepyjoe911]

the best tutorials have the worst sound/accent

[@TheRaven078]

Thanks for these Tutorials. I am an old school 2d CAD guy for 20+ years. Trying to bite the bullet and learn 3d parametric CAD. I appreciate you.

[@originalhotrodder4337]

I started with Onshape then moved to Fusion 360 when Onshape changed their business model. I enjoy using Fusion 360 to model the 3D objects I print but I would really like to have the freedom of not being tied to the web. Your introduction for FreeCAD is excellent. Covering the navigation steps it takes to start a drawing saves anyone first using the program immense amounts of time. I'm looking forward to going through all your tutorials on FreeCAD. Thank you.

[@brandontolley8242]

I am trying to learn free cad because I want to design my own rc aircraft.It might be a stiff learning curve,but I am here to stay.Ty for your free instruction!

[@RexR256]

Thank you Chris. I just bought a 3D printer and I'm excited about making my own parts but didn't know where to start. I sourced the Program out "FreeCAD" now I need to do is learn how to use it. With your Tutorials I believe I can accomplish this. I wanted to take the time to tell you how much I appreciate the time and effort it took to make such videos to help people like me wanting to learn. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@inventboxtutorials1898]

I'm so glad that these are helpful to you! I do have a little experience with 3D printing, so I might be able to answer any questions you may have while getting set up.

[@kevinj9059]

I was using Fusion 360 until the recent NERF. So I'll finally be switching over to FreeCAD. I'll hit up all your FreeCAD videos for the algorithm.

[@AdnanRobyn]

This series is possibly the very best FreeCad Tutorial in the Internet.

[@pinklady7184]

I take your word for it. I am just starting to learn FreeCAD. I have been using Blender for a long time, but now I would like to know FreeCAD.

[@burnte]

I tried three or four different "beginner" 3D modeling apps tonight, I want to create a simple case for an electronics component, a hollow box. I wasted two hours on those apps just trying to find out how to draw a damn box. I downloaded FreeCAD, and in 6 minutes I already have a solid body I can start boolean operations on. THANK YOU.

[@victorwestmann]

I have downloaded FreeCAD many times but never used it. I decided to change this this week and I am now actually learning it! Thank you for your introductory video. Quite helpful.

[@zacrosamond3128]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, it's a massive help. I'm pretty competent with Solidworks but my student licence has just run out and I needed this so much! I can say there are many similarities but from my first impressions FreeCAD has a few more complexities to it, to achieve the same things Solidworks does. Please keep making more of these videos!

[@onaolapoolufowokan]

Thanks

[@fitzg9470]

Christopher I have used Solidworks in 2012 with work in the past but since then have not been involved in design. I decided to download Freecad to make parts on my CNC micro milling machine at home and didn't know where to start. Your videos are well made and I'm now hooked ! I'll definitely bookmark your site... thank you !!!

[@JasonRobards2]

Excellent and efficient first tutorial. Takes into account first usage of the CAD program, but doesn't waste time too much time on it.

[@avoidtheherd7066]

"Create a body." Dr. Frankenstein would have loved FreeCad! Thanks for starting with the basics, the best place to start. Easy to comprehend. I appreciate it.

[@rainsburysb]

Thanks Chris, that was the simplest intro to a CAD system I have ever seen :-)

[@michaelrust1159]

I want to thank Chriss for making these videos they are help full , informative and well appreaciated, you cant make every body happy

[@predragsupurovic2148]

This is great tutorial serial. I just got into the world of CAD and did not know where to start. This helped me a lot to understand how it is done.

[@Donzi23]

Your FreeCad turtorial is the best i founded on internet.I really enjoy watching your videos about FreeCad.Your other videos are really inpresive too but for me the best videos are about FreeCad

[@fungibulscooter]

Big thanks! This video is exactly what I needed to get started. Nothing was over explained. It's just the simple tools and where to find them.

[@titorj4498]

I’ve use skethup and it was easy to use, now I want to learn freecad I found this video easy to follow, please keep them coming

[@Dani-xe3rz]

Thank you for this. I'm learning FreeCAD to try and build an architectural portfolio for university. I'm not techy by nature but you've made this really simple to follow along.

[@travismadison2469]

Great job, very informative. I've never used any type of CAD before and Im thrown into this for my work so these tutorials are very helpful. Thanks!

[@nikokauppi4581]

Coming in from Blender... Gotta say it's completely different so I appreciate the well made tutorials. I need a proper cad program for CNC milling, otherwise Blender would be a lot faster to model in but exact measurements are not the primary focus on Blender.

[@accountid9681]

Great tutorial, coming from autodesk inventor, and I was lost until I found this guide

[@doc-holiday]

Great video, as a beginner in freeCAD i didnt have not one issue. I understood everything. Thank you.

[@samuelsanchez2311]

Thank you for taking the time to put this tutorial together

[@christopherstephenson2119]

Thank you for this tutorial series. It is great. I've used SolidWorks but am now retired and was looking for something to use for hobbies. This is perfect for me and I am excited to get proficient with FreeCAD especially with the help of your tutorials. Just finished the first lesson and it is very helpful.

[@doug3458]

Thanks Chris, that the clearest introduction to FreeCAD for a newbie like me that I have found. It would find it helpful if you could tell us what you are going to do with the mouse, it is sometimes hard to follow the pointer; find myself rewinding to see what you have done. Looking forward to trying this out and to your future tutorials.

[@adamwhite1920]

Thanks for a good start to FreeCAD. This is my first CAD software, so I'm kind of depending on your tutorials to help me get started. Cheers.

[@mrmoxley]

Good video. Explained it nice and simple. Straight to the point.

[@marklowe7431]

Nothing but gratitude for your help. Nice one.

[@marksholcomb]

First of all , thanks for doing this! This is maybe my 10th or 12th software package, CAD, CAM or whatever. I find that the biggest stumbling block is there is no lesson 0. How to you maneuver in the environment. The cntrl key is very critical to this package. Without lesson 0 most people will move on .. It took me a while to discover the secret control key ;)

[@Braindazzled]

Thanks for this! So far, this is the best tutorial I've found for this program. I'm familiar with a lot of other graphics programs and with traditional drafting and design, but FreeCAD has been frustrating and none of the other tutorials are logical or consistent.

[@chrischris6399]

It's perfect time to learn to use freeCAD ! Thanks!

[@arielkalon]

Great place to start ... clear instructions ... very informative ... Thanks!

[@draginikolic3996]

thanks for the introduction to freecad. will watch more of your tutorials.

[@TomLeg]

Delighted to discover when it asks for a measurement, you can put in a calculation. So if I'm in metric but have to make something a quarter-inch thick, I can say it is "25.4/4", and it converts it to "6.35mm"

[@tonyhabib7203]

great 1st introduction to freeCAD!!!

[@Stefan_Boerjesson]

The "Start" select option is not present here. However I managed to select a work place, work space, and got its tools displayed. A great progress in this darkness.

[@nothing_is_real_0000]

Very good tutorials. Thank you!

[@peterbonnell4775]

Great tutorial, I need a free alternative to Autodesk Inventor. Most of my stuff is pretty basic and this seems like it will be an easy transition. Very much appreciate your taking the time to do this.

[@brucewilliams6292]

Thank you for the lesson! Great introduction!

[@piotrgaecki551]

Great tutorial, slow-paced to give the viewer a chance to follow along. I'll be following this crash course, let's see what the end result will be :]

[@disposablebasterd]

Liked and subscribed, thank your the Tutorial! I really appreciate it

[@AntalvanHassel]

First time user here... using version 0.18... I see some differences, but nontheless very informative, Thanks for the Tutorial!!

[@gzcwnk]

I cant even see how to start with this and 0.18 :(

[@JosephMassimino]

Trying to do something simple, make a box with an open bottom, and front, plus a cut out on the back for a cable to pass. I'm not getting there fast, but I have the shape, and measurements correct.

[@jefftyrrell9085]

Very good tutorial, i have used Solidworks very good and very expensive. I also use PDMS but that is not real solid / parametric modelling, more like sketchup. I intend to persevere and learn it after all why not it's free.

[@L3dprinting]

@inventboxtutorials can you do a tutorial video on tinkercad?

[@theglitcher8553]

You can also rotate by doing middle click and left click

[@bucktaylor9178]

good video i'm new to this so it was a big help

[@Rubafix989]

Hey, thanks for the tutorial, but it was hard to follow because of the background noise. Maybe you improved since then. Regardless you can use the free tool Audacity to filter out noise in your audio recording. It's fast and easy. Leave some blank in your recording to get noise only sample. With this sample audacity will be able to remove it from the entire recording. It's pretty fast too.

[@AMTheTinkerer]

Thanks for making such excellent tutorials! I come from another 3D Modeling software who recently decided to kibosh the Maker movement by imposing limitations. An alternative option for a parametric design software was needed. I agree that FreeCAD looks more like a Java program than a polished modeling software, but besides that I think a little bit of elbow grease is required to get started and getting used to. I'm new to FC, and please ignore my comment as it stems out of pure ignorance, but I wish there was an easier way to make the Origin point, and the points on the ends of the lines more prominent. Most times I start off my designs by snapping the first corner to the Origin and today I realized after going through your tutorial that the corner of my box unsnapped from the origin as soon as I imposed dimensions on the sketch. I'm still struggling to snap the next line to the end point of the previous line.

[@rinumariya6404]

how do we do the rotating if we are doing it in a laptop since we don't have a mouse ? I meant the part where you used the middle button of the mouse to do it. It would be nice if you cleared that part for me. the tutorial is actually helping me. Thanks a lot.

[@tomspotterychannel]

are you making your tutorial outsite in the rain and wind

[@davidbase1824]

Hi I’m just starting off with FreeCAD 0.18 but cannot find how to set up Preferences as it does not appear in the Edit function - can you please point me in the right direction - thank you. By the way looking forward to the rest of your tutorials.

[@cptray-steam]

If you need a good mic I can highly recommend the Neewer NW-8000-USB mic.

[@steveu235]

why do you jump into the extruding before we learn sketching? Isn't everything dependent on a good sketch?

[@kvnptl4400]

Thanks for this useful video tutorial.

[@hifly1929]

Thanks for the upload man!

[@lincolnreidmusic3222]

Good job !!

[@jaysand363]

how do I manually enter object coordinates or value. example a rectangle x0,y0 - x10,y12? instead clicking mouse on grid.

[@Omlet221]

Can you tell us what you did for preferences? My 3d looks weird and also i want the tools to stack not be an endless bar.

[@robertwegrzyn9179]

Thank you so much for this :)

[@LJHuang-jn8bj]

When we are familiar with Python scripts, FreeCAD would show its advantages over Sketch with Ruby. Even the start up might be not so easy as SketchUp.

[@MostlyInteresting]

You do need to always tag your vids with which version you are on as they change. And you might have to a differences video now and then so your videos don't go obsolete. And at least filer and level your audio in your video edit package.

[@now-you-know-it]

Now in 2020 08 Great. Lots of Views and Thumbs Up niece. How about a new series with 0.18 OR 0.19. Only a very tiny point. Us with poor eye sight would like a more visible pointer. Thanks

[@Stefan_Boerjesson]

Being a complete newbie I'm lost somewhere in Freecad and have a completely differet screen from somewhere.. How to come back to the start page You show in the video?

[@8yerbrain]

Helpful. Thank you for sharing!

[@timcollins1131]

Just a tip - remember your audience may not speak English as their first language so its a good idea to place an exaggerated gap between words and longer gap between major mouse selections

[@0623kaboom]

or eat the mic while speaking ... rather listen to a cow chew its cud it has less smacking of lips ... headset mics are NOT good for video recordings like this ... the mic is always in your mouth .. get a proper directional mic that stands in front of you and away from your face so you speak in the direction of it ... not swallow it

[@teddypreston5525]

The first creation of a [ Create a body ] Body doesn't really create a solid body per se. This seems to be just a place holder in which the "Sketch" will build with "Pad" (function) a solid body. Correct?

[@Nightowl_IT]

Get a webcam as a microphone. The C270 from Logitech works flawless for that.

[@RoyceMunday56]

Thanks. Really useful for me as a bw=eginner

[@dannytarquinio7812]

Thank you for doing this! I keep receiving the error when trying to pad my rectangle, "Input Error - Linked shape object is empty" I have no idea what I'm doing wrong

[@rlsimpso]

This was helpful. Thanks.

[@jessegravende8980]

can you get a pop-fiter?

[@Stefan_Boerjesson]

Okey. You use version 0.17. I've got version 0.19.... Will the continuation of the video be useful? I'll try.

[@curtokay8046]

do other people have access to what you designs?

[@Pghpete5]

This is a great tutorial thank you! I am trying to adapt this to woodworking as I'd like to start using this instead of Sketchup. It is more involved yes, but will also allow me more control. I am wondering if you know of any good tutorials showing the assembly of multiple parts? The shapes I will use are going to be primitive/simple considering my stock material is all dimensioned rectangles.

[@henryfitzthum7563]

Hi Chris are you going to do a tutorial on path?

[@richardhathaway2901]

Fell asleep after the first 30 seconds!

[@RVProject]

I downloaded FreeCAD. It is Ver 0.18. It seems to be a good program, but it is buggier than a Florida Swamp in June. I am sure you put a lot of time in your tutorials. But your tutorials work sometimes, and sometimes they don't. Not sure if it is because I am using Windows 10 (I can try it on a Mac though). At this point, it is too frustrating to work with.

[@RVProject]

@Julian Dario Tovar Roa Lots of bugs really. I have not cataloged them. I am beginning to figure it out though. For example, multiple operations; fillet, boolean, and others seem to have to be done in order or they won't work. In boolean, if you make a mistake - say you to a union rather than a cut, and if this is the third or fourth boolean operation you make, you have to delete two or three previous successful boolean operations to get it to work again. But it is free, so can't complain. However, I am thinking of making the switch to Fusion 360 as a hobbyist it is also free.

[@agnichatian]

@@RVProject I thought it was $495.00 per year ?

[@idea1407]

Thanks. This is my first parametric CAD program and it was hard to figure out. I was trained on 2D CAD back in the 1980s and have been using LibreCAD in recent years. I played around with Blender, but I really wanted to work with a real 3D CAD system.

[@pinklady7184]

I have just downloaded FreeCAD yesterday. I am starting to learn FreeCAD. I am familiar with Blender. Shift + right click to navigate round objects. Are the hotkeys similar to those in Blender?

[@bakemore32]

Does a "Create body" button exist in version 0.16?

[@marklowe7431]

Great video.

[@cwschoonbeek]

hi. that startpage i don't get. i hace Freecad 0.18 now. how do i get it?

[@seanlinzy2654]

can you export the files as fbx or obj?

[@ramtek2702]

Maybe you could provide a link to the Freecad download???

[@j.m5888]

Hi Christopher! Thanks for the helpful tutorial, though I hate to admit I got as far as I have on all my previous attempts at learning FreeCAD (basically nowhere!). I get as far as adding a new body, adding a new sketch and drawing a rectangle, then the tools all grey out and I can't get any of them to reopen! Haha, what on earth am I doing wrong? I tried another tutorial some months back and gave up, but now I'd really like to try and learn the program. I'm running 0.18.4 - could that be the problem? Thanks again!

[@redserpent]

thank you, well done.

[@zamphzibaha]

Thanks for the tutorial.

[@glitchysoup6322]

Thanks for using GNU/Linux

[@ENTERTAINMENT_ACCOUNT]

Good job .plz make full course toturial

[@feraudyh]

I lost what's on the left part of the screen: It looks like this Combo View Model | Tasks .... Anyone have any suggestions to bring it back into appearance?

[@CoopKeith1]

In the view tab there is an option to get it back.

[@Appregator]

View ---> Panels ----->Combo View

[@paslechta]

Please help. How do I move the object in sketcher? How do I select multiple points when I want to create constraint? No tutorial tells me that and I cannot find it. Thank you.

[@BigBurgerBoy557]

How did you get that window on the left?

[@Appregator]

View ---> Panels ----->Combo View

[@quarminahesse2066]

Excellent !

[@Academician_33527]

Sir, how to change font ? while i am doing dimensioning, say write 50 mm, the number displayed in other than normal font type. i am unable to change it.

[@furkanoturak]

if you can not sketch and it rotates change right bottom corner OpenInventor to cad

[@TheAndylaja]

Not able to draw in the sketch. Just keeps turning the plane when I left click and hold to another point to draw the square. If I just click in two separate corners for the square it does nothing.

[@rana-3d]

Can you make more tutorial for FreeCAD