We have just published our own build of FreeCAD with built-in Ondsel Solver and the new integrated assembly workbench. Now everyone can take an early look at the assembly workflow coming in FreeCAD v1.0.
9 posts tagged with "assembly"
View All TagsOndsel added integrated assembly to the FreeCAD core finally solving the largest missing feature
The basics of an integrated assembly workbench in FreeCAD are now functional and will be ready for wider testing once another pull request is merged. This means you can play with it now in the development version of FreeCAD and when version 1.0 is out, you will be able to create or link parts, create joints between them, and solve the assembly — in just a few clicks, out of the box, without installing any add-ons.
Assembly Workbench: What We Learned and What's Coming Next
We started this series with the assumption that there is a strong community demand for a default assembly workbench in FreeCAD. The community discussion that followed that article confirmed our belief. We then researched existing options — Assembly 2, A2plus, Assembly 3, and Assembly 4 — and even quickly studied related workbenches and macros.
Our research had a number of limitations though. We avoided exploring the earliest solutions such as the original workbench by Jürgen Riegel and FreeGCS because they were incomplete. We also decided against studying both Exploded Assembly and Animation workbenches because this type of feature deserves dedicated attention.
Exploring BodyBuilder, Manipulator, and Part-o-magic
In the previous posts in this series we’ve already discussed reasons to create a default assembly workbench and then explored existing options: Assembly 2, A2plus, Assembly 3, and Assembly 4.
There are several more tools that provide a subset of their features, and these tools regularly come up in discussions on creating assemblies: the BodyBuilder macro, the Manipulator workbench, and the Part-o-magic workbench. Since none of them can realistically serve as a foundation for a potential default assembly workbench, in this review, we’ll focus on their interaction models to see what we can learn from them.
Exploring the Assembly 4 workbench
In the previous posts in this series, we talked about the need for a default assembly workbench in FreeCAD and reviewed Assembly 2, A2plus, and Assembly 3. Let’s talk about Assembly 4.
Exploring the Assembly 3 workbench
This is the fourth part in the series where we explore the possibility of creating a default assembly workbench for FreeCAD. We started out with a conversation about why we need a default assembly workbench in the program, then reviewed Assembly 2 and A2plus. Now let’s talk about the Assembly 3 workbench.
Exploring the A2plus workbench
We’ve already talked about the need for a default assembly workbench in FreeCAD and reviewed Assembly 2. Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the A2plus workbench.
Exploring the Assembly 2 workbench
This is part two of our series on the need for an integrated default assembly workbench for FreeCAD. Part One gives and introduction and explains our methods. In this part, we take a closer look at Assembly 2, one of the early approaches to adding this feature set to FreeCAD.
FreeCAD needs a default assembly workbench - Introduction
This is the first post in the series where we discuss the need for an integrated assembly workbench, review existing 3rd-party options, and discuss takeaways from our research.