G Roques Log

FreeCAD Learning Resources

• Learn FreeCAD Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2935W76vRNFvUGefQr3q9P9eezJZyj-u
• Intro to FreeCAD for 3D Printing - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSLeSKyjWpVYxz7kpTmPfxMAzE6SxIIfV

OSE Developer Test Thoughts

OSE Linux Thoughts

• Creating the Live USB from ISO is easy and straight forward
  • Had a unused 8 GB USB laying around
  • Used Startup Disk Creator on Ubuntu 18.04
  • Had some difficulty finding the correct download link for the latest version of ISO
• Had difficulties booting from USB even after changing boot order
  • Maybe related to dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu
  • Found help on Ask Ubuntu: Is there a way to boot from usb through grub menu?
    • Solution was to manually enter a series of commands in GRUB menu
    • This made using OSE Linux painful as every time I boot I have to enter in a series of manual commands
• No pre-installed Chrome extensions makes a lot tasks difficult
  • No password manager makes logging into various critical websites difficult:
    • YouTube to listen to music while I work
    • The Open Source Ecology Wiki
      • To jot down notes or save files
    • GitHub
      • To save work
      • To contribute to or debug open source projects like FreeCAD workbenches
• No SSH key created so I can't easily authenticate and work out of GitHub
• No code editor setup how I like
  • Visual Studio Code
    • Various extensions like Python support
    • Preferred theme and font
• Severely out of date software
  • FreeCAD 16 (released April 2016 - 3 and a half years ago at the time of writing)
    • Out of date workbenches
    • No AddOn Manager
    • Assembly 2 workbench is no longer maintained since 2016 and may have issues with FreeCAD 0.17 and above
      • Why spend time to learn something that won't be around in the future?
• Installed necessary software for OSE Developer Test manually on Ubuntu 18.04
  • Mostly straight-forward
  • Had difficulties installing FreeCAD
  • Some issue with installing FreeCAD from Software Center in Ubuntu 18.04
    • No module named WebGui startup error
  • Installing FreeCAD from PPA didn't work either
    • See here for person with similar issue. Error message is along the lines of "The following packages have unmet dependencies: "x" : Depends: "y" but it is not going to be installed ... Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages."
  • Uninstalling and re-installing FreeCAD in Software Center fixed "No module named WebGui" error

FreeCAD Thoughts

• Initially very difficult even for the most basic tasks like moving and rotating objects
• Frustration led to searching for OSE Developer Test solutions on YouTube
  • Found one solution where the person pastes commands into the Python Interpreter to arrange the cube
  • This seemed a lot easier than messing with the GUI and appealed to my background as a developer
  • Decided to create a FreeCAD macro for the OSE Developer Test
    • Wanted access to GitHub and preferred code editor setup how I like
    • Frustrations with using older FreeCAD 16 when help online referenced latest FreeCAD 18 features
• Spent a lot of time trying to get auto-completion for FreeCAD API in Visual Studio Code
  • Found walkthrough article with accompanying video on YouTube, but still didn't work
  • Linux command to find FreeCAD.so file - locate FreeCAD.so
• Had difficulty attaching bolt to hole programmatically in Python using the Fasteners workbench
  • Created issue on GitHub repository
  • Spent some time debugging Fasteners workbench
• Discovered FreeCAD 19 will come out sometime this year (2020) and I'm very excited:
  • GUI looks a lot prettier and there's a dark theme
  • Migrating from Python 2.x to Python 3.x
• After spending some time completing the OSE Developer Test I feel a lot more comfortable in FreeCAD and see the power in it

Skills

• Aligned with vision of ending artificial scarcity; civilization construction from scratch
• Design - web, logo, graphic.
• Speaking, Dancing Rabbit, NVC
• Programming