FreeCAD

arhi

@JohnOCFII most cad tools expect you to do the same, dunno why... the f360 ability to use single sketch for multiple extrusions, cuts, lofts... was pretty cool

arhi

another thing that gets on my nerve, you can't select "merge" or "new object" when extruding ... and if you try to extrude from edge of an object something that would create a new object freecad will not allow you to do it ... you have to manually create new object every time, can't do it from extrude function

zapta

@arhi said in FreeCAD:

@JohnOCFII most cad tools expect you to do the same, dunno why... the f360 ability to use single sketch for multiple extrusions, cuts, lofts... was pretty cool

It come at the cost of less structure history that the tree format of FreeCad where the sketch is the child of the Pad operation. I find the tree structure more intuitive and clean.

BTW, one cute feature of FreeCad is the stereo mode which works pretty well. I don't think I will use it all day but it's adds a dimension.

arhi

@zapta said in FreeCAD:

stereo mode

niiiice, does it work with VR headset too ?

zapta

It has several stereo modes. I used tree red and cyan one which works with simple glasses. Iirc, it's under the view menu.

zapta

A question about the tree 'timeline' in FreeCad. Fusion provides clear control to move forward/backward in the timeline (e.g. to see the order of the operators or to insert an operation at a specific location). What are the equivalent in FreeCad to move forward/backward in time?

(I found workaround , by pointing the item in the tree and hitting the space bar a few times, but it's so crude that I am sure/hope there is a better way).

matt3o

@arhi do you have any idea how to increase the resolution of STL/OBJ of exported meshes from "File>export". Or do you have to go through the Mesh design > create mesh from shape every time? Thanks!

arhi

@matt3o not as many options as other apps have but enough for me

now you just file/export save as stl and that's it

if you want more options, then click on the object, mesh-designer workbench, meshes/create mesh from shape and there you have many options (I assume those you already found)

there are also other workbenches, I noticed there is a "3d printing" one ... but I never tried it.. maybe there's more stuff there... there are also some that interface to slicers..

TOOLS / ADDON MANAGER
you might find something more useful there if you have time to test

zapta

@JohnOCFII said in FreeCAD:

I ran into this yesterday. Turns out that the "FreeCAD Way" is to use multiple sketches, and pad (extrude) each to the desired height..

I saw a nice workaround in one of the videos on youtube. Here created a sketch with all the features as you would do with fusion, renamed it to 'master', and didn't extrude it. Then imported selected lines into other sketches and extruded them. He also used the master sketch to define the extrusion lengths. It's a neat idea for having the main parameters in one place.

I think it was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w466yb255A

matt3o

@arhi thanks, yeah apparently the only way is through mesh conversion, at least I have more options from there. The process becomes just a little cumbersome when you have dozen of objects.

arhi

@matt3o dunno, the mesh deviation from settings works auto on all the exported parts I never needed those extra options, this was always enough

JohnOCFII

@zapta I'll check it out. Thanks.

matt3o

@arhi

exported (increasing resolution from the preferences)

converted (same resolution as above, but with lowered angle deviation that you can't modify for the export feature):

arhi

@matt3o yes, that's expected, but do you see difference in printing first and second? if you just want to export nice stl cool, but I make stl only to print it and the single parameter is enough to allow me to export part that's higher res than what my printer can do... but yes, weird that the other export params are not available in prefs

matt3o

@arhi said in FreeCAD:

do you see difference in printing first and second?

sometimes I need to print on MSLA (especially small pieces), in which case I need the highest resolution. But anyway converting instead of exporting is totally viable, just one more step. Thanks again for the continued support!

arhi

I just found this

thermal analysis:
https://youtu.be/hUS7T9hrn4k

mesh regions for analysis
https://youtu.be/X5RVe2SDPvw

crazy, had no idea freecad can do this

arhi

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