FreeCAD

Hi All.

I spotted FreeCAD on Make today:
[blog.makezine.com]

It seems to be a CAD-style alternative, open source, and ticks all the boxes.

I loaded it up and created a cube, exported as STL, and loaded into the host software in 3 mins.

It has boolean operations (union/intersect/diff) - seem to work OK.

It also seems to have several tools for analyzing and repairing meshes - might be useful for those 'problem' meshes.

I'll try it out for a bit - anyone tried this yet?

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Reprapping blog and other rants: [renoirsrants.blogspot.com]
My Reprap: [sites.google.com]

Hi Dave,

i tested FreeCAD some time ago and found it usefull, but like many other i'm working mostly with other CAD/CAMs (some proprietary, some free too) suited for my CNC-mill and methodics ...

Viktor

Judging from your screenshot you are planing to work only with meshes.

I think working with parts (sphere, cylinder, box, cone, etc) is much more accurate modelling.

However Im a real noob. I cant figure out the basics. So I think we should model some basic mendel parts, to get started with this wonderful program. So if somebody manage to do some basic stuffs, please share!

I looks really good, but I had a got and I couldn't seem to get it to do much. I could draw lines and create primitive shapes, but I couldn't either move objects or set parameters between them. The website documentation is not very complete yet.

greenarrow: The 2D part seems very usable (2d Drafting), make sure the drafting module is installed (the ubuntu .deb does not contain it, I needed to add it myself).

In 3D, I could not do much either...

ok thanks, I will give that a go

Looks very intersting. They're using Open CASCADE for their geometry engine,
[www.opencascade.org]
which is a very good sign, as it's a mature program that has been used sucessfully in industry:
[www.opencascade.com]
This is opposed to the dusty projects on sourceforge that never made it off the ground.

I think Open CASCADE is LGPL-like:
[www.opencascade.org]
it works for SALOME, anyway.
[www.salome-platform.org]

I'll take a look at it.

'freeCAD' is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. It is suitable for anyone interested in learning 3D CAD and Motion Simulation for free before using more sophisticated packages. Educators, students and new engineers will find it ideal for the teaching and learning of geometry, kinematics, dynamics, vibrations, mechanisms, linkages, cams, machine design and physics.

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mark09
banner design

freeCAD with motion simulation isn't the same as FreeCAD from sourceforge. I've had a look at the sourceforge one, and found that it's more difficult to model in than others I've tried (commercial), because it doesn't have very direct mechanisms to translate and transform. There's no spin/lathe/revolve that I can see, or undo either. It's got parametric primitives; block, sphere, ellipsoid, cone, torus and plane, and it's done the booleans between them that I've asked of it pretty well, apart from occasionally losing faces in the product. It sets filleting and extrusion apart as actions, but I haven't discovered how to place and select a 2D sketch or drawing to extrude. Filleting works well (mostly - also losing faces on occasion) for constant and variable radius but has only one default junction shape and doesn't offer chamfering. However, FreeCAD imports and exports widespread commercially used neutral formats IGES, STEP and BREP, converting them amongst themselves, and also to obj. and .stl mesh formats with variables like facet normals and triangle size. It also analyses, slices and repairs .stls in a clear and informative way, better than most commercial consumer CAD programs and comparable to quite-expensive commercial ones like MagicsRP.
There's lots of promise and some useful abilities already.

Murray

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2009 11:45PM by murrayd.

FreeCAD is very useful & almost like a necessary thing.
But it is really great t have something like FreeCAD for free.
Must check it out.