Builder Crash Course - December 2025

Event

https://www.opensourceecology.org/builder_crash_course_2025-2/

Email - Prep Sessions

Hello Friends,

Welcome to the Future Builders Crash Course for December 1-14, 2025. Here are some prep notes.

 

We have massive turnout for the Future Builders Crash Course due to the video that went viral. We currently have about 40 people registered for the course. This means that we will have more fun - as the entire swarm build will be easier and faster. This will perhaps be the most exciting build since 2016, when we built the first Seed Eco-Home with 48 people.

 

To get the most out of it - here are prep steps:

 

1. Join preparatory video calls 

2. Download and study the master CAD file

 

We will hold the first one tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 6 - 7 PM CST USA time.

 

If you are a direct or remote participant - join us and learn about the house, the CAD file, the FreeCAD, the subsystems. It's all optional. You'll get more out of the build if you join. We will record and publish each session if you cannot make it. Same link as above for all meetings. Meetings will run 45 minutes, with 15 minutes for discussion and Q&A. You can ask various questions outside of the actual build procedures.

 

Rough schedule for the video calls is:

 

1. Thursday, November 6, 7 PM CST USA time (same link for all meetings). Downloading FreeCAD, CAD file, and viewing the file. Generating build instructions in Google Slides.

2. Friday, November 7, 7 PM CST USA time. Build Breakdown: 3 main house sections, how to organize the swarm build process.

3. Thursday, November 13, 7 PM CST USA time. Materials used. Going through the CAD file to extract materials information. Overview of tools and techniques. The philosophy of how to build: measure, mark, cut. 

4. Friday, November 14, 7 PM CST USA time. Wall modules, roof, and exterior finish procedures..

5. Thursday, November 20, 7 PM CST USA time. Build order. Upgrading and manipulating the CAD file for extraction of build procedures. Team formation for swarm build: modular build teams.

6. Friday, November 21, 7 PM CST USA time. Plumbing and electrical build.

7. Wednesday, November 26, 7 PM CST USA time. Heat pump, water heaters, induction cooktop, vents and penetrations. 

8. Friday, November 28 (Thurday the 27th is Thanksgiving), 7 PM CST USA time. Subsystems: PV, electrical, biodigester, thermal battery.

 

The above are for all registrants where we get into the nitty-gritty of viewing the master CAD file. We will teach you how to view and analyze the design fully. All the details are in the CAD. During the workshop, we plan on setting up 6 computer terminals with the file - for the different teams to view. In conjunction with other documentation - you can see all the build details transparently. It's all in the CAD file. This requires a basic level of computer literacy, and can be learned in a few hours.

To get inolved in this part - do steps 1-3 below if you want to review the whole design in CAD. Do 4-7 if you would like to contribute to documentation. Documentation is never done. We work on it constantly to make the build easier.

1. Download FreeCAD. FreeCAD 1 is the version you want.
2. Download the master file for the home - SEH6 - Assembly.fcstd is the file you want from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZVXjMMDMpyf0OuwnUzpeGdPN9QGeJ0AV
3. Practice Hiding and Unhiding Parts in FreeCAD.
4. Practice generating Technical Drawings from FreeCAD - if you dare! We will cover this in the prep session.
5. Get familiar with Google Slides - such as writing and formatting text, inserting pictures, using various drawing tools within Google Slides, adding hyperlinks, embedding YouTube videos, etc.
6. Start a Work Log if you would like to contribute to upgradeable documentation, so that you can share your work with others. Embed a Time Log if you would like to count in the overall development of open source civilization. We will produce screenshots from FreeCAD for build instructions. The entire build process can be extracted from the master file!
7. Learn to upload files to the OSE wiki. See Wiki Instructions.

 

If you do one thing to prepare - download FreeCAD for your computer, and study it. It is the full house. We plan to build EVERYTHING that you see in that file. So the more you know about the design, the more you will get out of the workshop. I suggest you open the file, click view/hide for each part in the part tree - and you can examine every single detail at the module level. The file has about 400 parts. These are in about 50 sub-folders. These are in 8 folders. Start by hiding and un-hiding the 8 main folders. Then hide all the folders, and view one at a time. Such as Kitchen. Unfold that folder - and go through the same exercise hiding and unhiding all of its subfolders.

You can do this ad infinitum. We suggest you spend hours doing this. At the workshop, we will ask you first - how many hours did you spend on this exercise? This is actually data for us. Do people care? Do people review the materials beforehand? If not, what are the blocks?

On logistics -  

1. Please confirm with me how many people are in your group if more than one so I can verify my count. 

2. And summarize which specific parts of the build are most interesting to you. If you have build experience - let us know what your experience is and let us know what you are proficient at - and what you would like to learn more about. We are planning the event to allocate build roles as effectively as possible, so that we get the most out of the workshop and guarantee the highest level of completion possible.

3. If a person who should be receiving this email did not receive it - send me their email so I can add them.

Thanks, and see you tomorrow,

Marcin