FreeCAD Scripts

Intro

CAD STRATEGY. Sketcher. Part Assembly. Dimension Drawings. Reverse Engineering of parts. CNC Torch CAM.. Export and Import for Interoperability. Accessing Part Libraries. Exploded part diagrams. Assembly animations. Search internet for people who have done these, refactor, and provide them a 2 minute script to video over, using FreeCAD assets.

These are proposed summary video scripts of 2 minute Extreme Learning FreeCAD instructionals. The specific script needs to be developed. You can parse accepted Video Tutorials to refactor them into Best Tutorials - [1]. This is not a complete list, so more searching is useful.

Sketcher

Use [2] and refactor [3] along with [4] into a 2 minute video. There is more here - [5]

Draw constrained geometry: length, parallel, perpendicular, angle, round corner, offset, line offset. Up to extruding a part.

Assembly

Boolean operations. Draw an assembly of items. Snap to edge, point, line. Align. With any number of parts.

Drawing Dimensioning

Draw pointers to circle radius, lengths offset correctly.

FEA

Do basic stress analysis on single parts. Analizing a bolted frame assembly.

Exploded Part Animations

Exploded part diagrams and animations example.

CAM

Generate a toolpath from a 3D model. See reference - [6] and [7]. From [8].

Reverse Engineering

How best to reverse engineer anything. Start from STL or STEP, and replace with parametric part definitions. Or take mechanical drawings, and use them to generate parts by reading off dimensions and constraiing sapes.

Use [9]

FreeCAD Interoperability Ninjahood Training

The goal here is to define clearly which file formats work well for OSE purposes. The goal is to create a part library for all OSE designs. We would like to use all available sources of files - from full STEP files from manufacturers, to many other repositories such as Google Warehouse, GrabCAD, Blender, etc.

Importing, exporting, converting in order to use any file from anywhere.

Sketchup Warehouse to FreeCAD

Collada (DAE) files can be taken from the Google Warehouse - which has many different models. Here is an example of a 1-7/8" bearing - [10] to FreeCAD 0.16.

FreeCAD Development

Kernel. Program. Builds. Repos. Workbenches. Libraries. Wrappers. Running scripts. Python. Macros. Command Line programming of FreeCAD.

Libraries and Part Generators

How to not have to draw anything. Screws. Parts. Repositories such as McMaster Carr, Misumi. Maufacturer's CAD. New part generators from OpenSCAD and elsewhere that produce a formal readable by FreeCAD.

Tractor Design Workbench

The Modular Tractor Design Workbench provides a design platform based on parts that have already been developed for the open source ecology tractor. Accepted parts are Power Cubes, frames, modular wheel units, wheels, tracks, shafts, plates, pivots, and hydraulics modules, among others. The part set is sufficient to build a tractor with loader, backhoe, bulldozer, a tracked machine, a wheeled machine, base mobility platform tractor that have already been developed for the Tractor and related infrastructures,By drag and dropping modules from the workbench, we can arrange them in any configuration, and build just about any heavy machine. To get specialized functionality, such as a baler, we combine a hay pickup, compressor, and knotter. To build a backhoe, we combine a wheel base, articulated arms, bucket, hydraulics, and pivot. And so on. As such we can use FreeCAD as a Tractor Construction Set. The only difference between this and Legos is that we are designing real functional machines that will be built and will weigh many tons.

See Tractor Construction Set Modules.

Links

• FreeCAD