Microfactory Boot Camp - FreeCAD Workflow

A lecture on the basic workflow in FreeCAD that allows you to produce any 3D design - while using a restricted set of functions so that the functionality is easy to learn - by avoiding many other functions possible in FreeCAD. The goal of such an approach is to involve a large number of people in basic design - under the assumption that large-scale collaborative design works better when many people are coordinated to perform simple tasks - as opposed to a small number of expert users doing more advanced tasks as a smaller group. The workflow involves the Sketcher, followed by extrusions and pockets - followed by more sketches on faces for creating complex geometries. Presented at the 2018 Boot Camp.

Along with FreeCAD, we recommend BlocksCAD as a graphical interface on top of OpenSCAD - where OpenSCAD is more for power users. Also shown is the concept of importing real CAD from manufacturer websites as a way to create accurate CAD models and as a way to generate part libraries that can be reused in different machines of the OSE product ecologies.