Back to Mejdi_FabAcademy_FollowUp
Week3: Computer aided design
Assignment: Model (raster, vector, 2D, 3D, render, animate, simulate, ...) a possible final project, and post it on your class page.
Softwares
Solidworks
I learnt Solidworks in High-School (Solidworks 95!!!) and kept using it during my engineer work. Here under is a screenshot of the Mechanical part of the Gamma project, that I'm working on using SolidWorks 2016.
SolidWorks is a closed, paying software. It can export in few "stadard" format like STL or STEP.
FreeCad
Thanks to the Fabacademy I am already learning HTML through Atom and GIT through GitBash. Both being open standards and open source.
For parametric CAD, is there an open source software I could learn to use?..
I'll go for freeCAD . Though it is still under development (the v1 is YET to come), it is similar to solidworks; and should allow me to export designs in a script language. This script can then be modified and rendered with "OpenScad", directly in a browser.
Sketching with FreeCAD
It watched online tutorials in
French!.
Going from Solidworks 2016 to FreeCAD v0.16 felt like a set back. I needed more time to adapt.
In May/June I tried the
new freeCAD v0.17 (released in April 2018) in order to generate the CAD files for my
final project.
I really wanted to use FreeCAD. There was a lot of good in the v0.17 release, compared to the v0.16:
- A real construction tree of each part!
- In a sketch, it is now possible to import lines from an other sketch.
- Stand-alone "linear repetition tool"
But FreeCAD is still very limited. What I didn't like:
- The mouse navigation rules are a pain. It takes right-click + middle click to rotate! Zooming/Dezooming is not centered on the cursor of the mousse. Solidworks/Fusion navigations rules are not proposed :/
- I could do a linear pattern repetion, but it works only with extrusion or cuts. Not fillets. Also when adding fillet you need to click 'add reference', on the extreme left of the screen each time you want to add one. You can not just click the line to fillet in a row.
- Frequent shutdown when re-arrenging the construction tree (windows OS)
-
Building an assembly requires installing a mod: assembly2: No rotation of object via mouse. No instant solving. Huge bugs when working with a step file in the assembly.
It is frustrating to model pieces but not be able to assemble them... The assembly3 is still unstable and under test. I am eager to test the 1st stable version, when it will be released.
In the meantime: back to Solidworks!
NB: Going through *.STEP I could: 1/ work in FreeCAD with the fan I modeled in Solidworks. 2/Work in Solidworks with the plate I modeled in FreeCAD.
Source files
The freeCAD source files can be found in
this folder on gitlab
folder, along with the solidworks parts and assembly of my final-project.
The essential fabrication file is the wood plane, that you can directly download in:
Back to Mejdi_FabAcademy_FollowUp