FreeCAD Programming

Overview

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Notes from G

• Keeping 3D programming in mind - understanding what you are working with in 3D space
• Label code and functions according to orientation
• Adding toolbars is easy
• To start a FreeCAD workbench...

Starting a Bench

• Start by knowing what you need to do.
• Understand a Command concept in FreeCAD
• Understand geometry
• Command is a thing that gets executed withing FreeCAD
• Hard part was figuring out how to program the geometry
• The more details in geometry
• User selects an objects. Ex. .length.object gets you length
• Navigating the code base - going through many files.
• Using Docker to run unit tests. Docker creates an application environment, without installing FreeCAD or python modules
• One Docker instance does the test runs. How long did it take to set up Docker.
• But for a novice, it's easy enough to install the app and work from there.
• Access Docker documentation from G's documentation.
• Docker runs on laptop - https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
• Workflow - branch on laptop, push it, do tests, on a server environment without GUI.
• FreeCAD - has app - command line, and there is the GUI part
• You can test for - ex. select a face of a frame, you can find out the xyz parameters, etc. If need transformation
• G used Visual Studio Code. There is an OSalt.
• Unit tests - arrange, act, assert.
• FreeCAD Workbench Python Programming
• REPL - read-evaluate-print loop