I haven't done this in a while, so why not: a Saturday night call for funding support for #OpenSource. I work on infrastructure, dependencies, and distribution for the #FreeCAD project, as well as the #Debian Science Team. I want everyone to have access to high-quality software for science and engineering.
If you'd like to support this effort, you can help by donating via the link below, by boosting this message, or even just providing feedback for growth. Thank you!
Hey, if you're wondering how I use FreeCAD to design parts like this miniature computer case then click into this thread where I'll show the step-by-step.
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(The rest of the thread will be marked unlisted so that I don't blow out everyone's feed.) #CAD#FreeCAD#miniatures
Morgen Abend (23.02.) gibt es bei uns einen #FreeCad Workshop.
Wir werden einen Spulenhalter für kleine Kabelspulen zeichnen. Vorkenntnisse sind nicht notwendig. Zum mitmachen benötigst Du lediglich ein Notebook mit installiertem FreeCad. Melde Dich gerne bei Interesse.
For everyone that complains about #freecad, I’ve literally had SolidWorks randomly crash twice today while trying to add a new drawing sheet. This isn’t some edge case task. Just because we pay thousand of dollars a year for this software doesn’t automatically mean it’s so much better.
A few years ago, I built a #3DPrinting dry box for dispensing filament from a locking sealed plastic container with dessicant. I did two things wrong.
In a container with room for three spools, I hung them all on a common axle, instead of putting rollers in the bottom, which meant disassembling the whole thing any time I wanted to make any change.
I ran the filament out through holes in the lid instead of the side, which made it hard to change even a single roll.
I want to fix both problems, starting with using rollers. I found a design for a spool roller that looked nice in some ways, but uses a fairly restrictive license and doesn't include CAD files for modifying it, and which (for my use with 625 bearings that I have a bunch of) requires M2 countersunk screws whereas I have more M3 available.
So last night I designed a similar set from scratch in #FreeCAD designed for faster printing. Instead of posting a bunch of STLs, I'm going to make the design parametric so that you can adjust it for your own needs and printer and bearing characteristics. For example, the original allows you to select flanged or plain bearings, which means less bearing surface if you are using plain bearings. So I'll let you select the bearing type as well as the size.
I'll release the whole set with a more liberal license when it's tested, along with instructions for modification.
I just designed a set of blocks for #3DPrinting "Skyscrapers" / "Towers" puzzles. (Thanks @simontatham for the online version!) They are a little bit like sudoku, wth a tangible third dimension to the reasoning.
Models are available for download with printing instructions at Cults3D, Printables, and GitLab.
I have provided the parametric #FreeCAD model that lets you modify the blocks. Want to make a small set with magnets in the bottom for travel? Want to make a giant set to use at the front of a classroom? Want to make a giant set with huge magnets to use on a magnetic white board at the front of a classroom? Change the parameters, maybe edit the shape of the BottomBody part to accommodate holding a magnet, and you are set! Need help? Ask in the comments.
Big #FreeCAD news! Feature freeze for FreeCAD 1.0 is now on. If you have held back from trying development builds, please consider running weekly development builds starting this week and filing clear bug reports. The may give you ideas what to expect and look for, but also lots of testing has been focused on explicitly new behavior, so just using the new version for general use (of course saving early and often!) is likely to uncover a few stray problems here and there that would be great to fix before the big 1.0. 😁
I'm not one of the FreeCAD developers (my sole code contribution so far has been fixing a tooltip typo, and I've contributed to a couple Workbench extensions), but if you, like me, were previously scared off by the "no bug reports not first discussed in the forum" rule, that rule is gone. FreeCAD now take normal GitHub bug reports and even have someone dedicated to triage. Bug reporting for FreeCAD is now a good experience!
Ok, here's where my head is on the topic of an open vlogger's camera. I've designed a shell that will fit a variety of SBCs, sensor & lens combos, custom input systems, power sources, and rear display panels. The FreeCAD source file is to a large extent parametrically driven so that the shell can be rearranged for different dimensions without too much fuss. The idea is to take care of the fiddly camera bits and make it easily hackable for personal preferences. #mdc#openHardware#FreeCAD
I'm interested in running both the current #FreeCAD development versions and the stable version. I am thinking about the flatpak for development builds. That defaults to different paths than the native or appimage versions I've run to date.
I can of course copy some paths from one config to the other, but are there some things that I should keep separate in order to safely run both?
Not too bad! The thumbstick is on a little breakout PCB that luckily had a mounting hole in the right place to try this out.
I may need to rethink the PCB mounting a bit. With the PCB sandwiched between the top and bottom standoffs, there is the risk of either a small gap or the PCB "floating" a bit.
Using #FreeCAD and my #3DPrinter to make an extremely specific clamp for a laporoscopic repair on a broken plywood #mandolin. This one will go through the f-hole to clamp a loose brace to the top. The holes accommodate an M6 bolt and cross dowel.
I hope this works, otherwise I'll have to take the back off, which is way more hassle!
I'm currently deciding whether to do a design in #OpenSCAD or #FreeCAD or maybe some of both?
I may convert an old 12-chord autoharp from my wife's family into a 21-chord unit by making narrow chord bars. If I do that, I'd like to try #3DPrinting the chord bars with integral TPU dampers, programmatically generated.
Button rank: Which of three rows should the button go on?
Notes: Which notes are in the chord?
Strings: Note names of every string, along with their relative station.
Name: Chord name printed into the bar.
Then I could remove from the model sections of the TPU damper part of the bar for every string corresponding with a note named in the list of notes for a particular damper, so that it doesn't damp the notes in that cord.
This feels programmatic, and OpenSCAD would be a rational choice. I know that one can program macros for FreeCAD, but it's harder to make FreeCAD macros part of a project instead of part of an installation as far as I know. On the other hand, I'd love to generate STEP files that express more semantics, rather than STL files, which argues again for FreeCAD. Maybe I could find a way to drive this from a spreadsheet in FreeCAD instead of with code. 🤔
Or maybe we should stick to the 12-chord version for now until we decide this is too limiting. 😀
If 10 more people sign up for a recurring donation at Gumroad I'll make a new zine this year. I was thinking about making it available for free at the Brazilian PyCon, Python Brasil, but I'm afraid it is too late now.
Se mais 10 pessoas assinarem a contribuição recorrente no Gumroad eu vou fazer mais um número este ano Queria fazer um número para ser distribuído gratuitamente na Python Brasil 2023, mas acho que não vai dar tempo.
Bon, je me suis remis à FreeCad.
Pour un tout petit projet de rien du tout mais il fait trop chaud pour bricoler alors ça permet de rester au frais :)
C'est vraiment barjo la puissance de ce logiciel.
Faudra que je teste le plugin qui génère apparemment les listes de débits, ça serait vraiment top. https://github.com/dprojects/Woodworking
The main phases of the #FreeCAD Topological Naming Problem Mitigation Project are now complete: the PR activating the code was just merged and will appear in the latest Weekly Developer builds. https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=87791
I've finally built #FreeCAD for myself, with the TNP mitigation enabled. Now every time I see something cool in the @FreeCAD WIP Wednesday posts I can play with it without waiting for a new weekly build. ☺
The renaming and the conversion table system offer new possibilities: It's now possible to not only use default names like Edge4 or Face6, but also custom names like TopFace. Although this is not yet used by FreeCAD tools, it offers very interesting possibilities, where subcomponents could be referenced not by their order in a list, but by more meaningful characteristics. This might lead to very interesting developments in the future.
Right now, as far as I know, semantic toplogical naming has been the province of CadQuery, which, though very interesting, is explicitly code-based. Bringing semantic topological naming to #FreeCAD would be awesome!
A dubious idea I have about cutting curved dovetails so a box would look like an impossible dovetail box, but would in fact have the top open on an arc rather than a diagonal slide like most impossible dovetails.
The axis of rotation is the left corner, where there's a green line.
@fosdem#FOSDEM hack. We couldn't refill the hand towel dispensers in the toilets. So the #FreeCAD people designed a key for us, #Prusa people @3dprinting#3dprinting it for us, and the cleaning staff could refill everyone's hand towels.