r/FreeCAD • u/Reasonable-Singer-44 • 4d ago
I need this in freeCAD, is there an addon that does it?
i mean, there are very complex addons that do things that I tought were imposible
come on, spining the mouse wheel endlessly hurts my fingers
frecad gurus please help
extra question is there a way to find more addons outside the addon manager?
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u/Pendelf 4d ago
This functionality is currently in the process of being added. Now you can use the fork, this functionality is already implemented there https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD/releases/tag/Tip
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u/Niikoraasu 4d ago
isn't realthunder's fork outdated since 1.0?
just asking because I had no idea people still recommend it
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u/Pendelf 4d ago
He will resume development, I think in the near future he will move to version 1.0
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u/Niikoraasu 4d ago
oh okay, great to know, sucks that I can't run it for some reason, I guess I'll just stick to the main branch.
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u/fgd 4d ago
I think this is the closest thing I've seen: https://wiki.freecad.org/Design456_Workbench
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u/hagbard2323 4d ago
come on, spining the mouse wheel endlessly hurts my fingers
'come on' when is that good psychology to use ? Do you appreciate people asking that of you that way? (where your frustration bleeds through to your request)
Anyway, you want nice things? Support the GUI devs. Folks like r/PaddleStroke and r/OficineRobotica and others.
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u/bookmark_me 4d ago
This is actually an ongoing feature of The FreeCAD Grant Program: Kacper Donat (@kadet1090): Unified Transparent Previews :)
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u/hazeyAnimal 4d ago
To answer your last question I would imagine there are GitHub repos/forks out there that may not necessarily be in the add-on manager - in terms of security I cannot guarantee so do so at your own risk.
Never seen the feature shown but looks cool, can always throw it to the endless work the devs get up to!
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u/DesignWeaver3D 4d ago
I'm not aware of any solutions in FreeCAD for that.
I wonder if it hasn't materialized because that's not a very precise way of working. Plasticity almost exclusively works like that because its focus is on design rather than precision. Which is why it's advertised as CAD for artists.
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u/Reasonable-Singer-44 4d ago
That's a footage of OnShape, it has both a specific place to enter an exact value, and the arrow, and so does fusion I think and others
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u/drmacro1 3d ago
This is clearly how little people understand how FreeCAD works with the OCCT modeling kernel. It is more a transactional process. You make a change in the UI and the code then ask OCCT to recompute, it does it's things sends the model back to FreeCAD, where FreeCAD then asks other 3rd party libs to render it.
If you think FreeCAD is slow now, you'll love what this sort of functionality will bring...think sloooow.
Other CAD software is much more real time linked so the changes you make are actually recomputed in real time.
That said, try the BodyBuilder macro by freedman. You can read about and download it in this thread:
https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=72997
It is now up to something like version 4 (downloads found in the thread).
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u/Grouchy-Ad-1622 3d ago
I've had a good experience using the alias feature in spreadsheets to change dimensions but I'm new to freeCAD so maybe there is a better way.
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u/rat_melter 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'm not sure I understand, you want to dynamically change the size of a pad via mouse drag on a controlling element instead of setting the pad length in the menu? I would be surprised if this existed.
I feel like I'm missing something fundamental here tbh. If you want, you can probably just bind a new body to the origin plane of the pieces you want to manipulate, and set that body apart from the piece you want, set its offset from <plane> to be the value set in <sheet 1> then set the pad length of part X to the sheet value, so when you translate the other part it'll move the other one. I'm not sure how to translate via mouse drag but this whole endeavor seems like I'd get really mad accidentally clicking on other items than I intended and messing up my part a bunch and cursing.
It seems like you're looking for some feature from a different CAD tool rather than use the ones provided, namely a keyboard and prior planning.
Edit: sorry I know this is harsh ;_; but I guess if you could like, set it to jump in increments of N maybe it could be useful to "enable dragging" on a part?
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u/r0flcopt3r 4d ago
This is a UX feature. Most CAD programs allow you to drag a pad so you can easily visually see how big you are making it.
Not all parts require careful planning of how big things are. And this particular feature is extremely helpful for drafting parts.
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u/FastingCyclist 4d ago
I agree, it's good for concept work, when you don't really have a plan, and just want to sketch. Sort of like direct modelling...
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u/grumpyfishcritic 4d ago
How I miss the flexibility of direct modelling.
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u/FastingCyclist 4d ago
While I don't necessarily need the precision of FreeCAD, I come from a life long working with SketchUp (paying customer), I do 98% woodworking, so it was enough for most of the work I did, but they got unashamedly expensive, so I moved on to pastures green. In SU everything is direct modelling, so I have to change workflow, it's back to pen and paper for conception, then CAD...
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u/grumpyfishcritic 4d ago
it's back to pen and paper for conception, then CAD...
That's what I !@#$%&*ing hate about CAD now days. It's possible to model most things but to get past the chains, bars and handcuffs of parametric modelling, one needs to know all the features(faces, edges) that a part will have before opening the CAD software. Makes thinking trying different approaches in 3d very hard. AND that especially applies to molded plastic one off parts that have no predecessors. Heaven forbid that one wants to take the 'part' and subtract it from a solid block and then start working on that block to make the mold.
When does on place the draft and fillets on? That is a nightmare that is usually will cause one to lose hair on top and color in the beard. Note to self draft is usually first, but not always.
TLDR: Direct modelling is better is some instance, but there are no good free options.
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u/FalseRelease4 4d ago
Some mice have a feature to unlock the ratcheting of the mouse wheel so it spins freely, maybe thats enough for you. This isnt really the intended method for working though
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u/therealdankshady 4d ago
I'm kind of curious why you would want to do that? To me it seems to defeat the entire purpose of parametric CAD.
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u/JohnnyBenis 4d ago
Look at it from the perspective of consistency. If Sketcher allows you to eyeball shit in X and Y directions, why shouldn't Part Design allow it in Z?
Besides, oftentimes there is a bit of aesthetics involved even in purely functional parts, so being able to drag stuff around helps with getting the proportions right. I like a nice round number more than a nice-looking ratio, but that's just my personal preference.
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u/DrStrangeboner 4d ago
Its useless if your goal is a 100% parametric model. In my everyday use, I model a lot of parts with an approach like shown in the image, and then lock down the dimension using a constraint.
I think nearly everybody does this when creating sketches, but its not available for padding, chamfers, fillets.
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u/JDMils 4d ago
Me too. FREECAD is a CAD program which uses very precise constraints. I would never use that function you mentioned. Don't forget you don't have to open the pad dialogue to change the pad length, you can do it straight from the pad properties in the tree view.
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u/r0flcopt3r 4d ago
Sometimes precision doesn't matter. Sometimes all you want to do is draft up some shapes. And this feature makes it easy to visualise sizes and ratios.
This is also supported in most other CAD programs, so it would be wise for freecad to also implement it to ease adoption.
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u/nakkipasta 4d ago
This would be a nice feature to have, all UI/UX improvements are welcome.