ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Tuesday 22 May 2018

FREECAD CONTINUED.

I have had a frustrating couple of days with FreeCAD. 
One starts with a 2D sketch like this.
When it turns green it is fully constrained and one can rotate or extrude into a 3D object. The last one or two constraints are best found by using special words and pulling ones hair out. As is always the case the more I get into the software the more I want it to do. I got a little side tracked and started investigating converting the 3D objects to 2D drawings.
You do this in the Drawing workbench and it works fine once one has fused all the bits of a component together. Dimensions are in an Add-On and I get totally discombobulated loading Add-Ons. This is the white background. It's easier to see stuff against it, why the default is a blue fade out I don't know. The FEM workbench highlighted stands for Finite Element Method and can calculate all sorts of wonderful things like mechanical and thermal stress..........Bloody frightening it is. For CNC manufacture and G-Code generation the Path Workbench purportedly does the trick though I've yet to give it a whirl.
This one is for Trevor as it is all bevelled and chamfered. If you look at the tree on the left the last operation says Fusion. You have to use another Boolean operation to stick all the bevels together along with the component and then the computer knows what it's doing. I'm glad it knows because I'm finding it very hard to remember what I'm doing.
This video has sound so is self explanetary. I tried using the computer microphone but it all goes belly up when the processor fan kicks in. It also sounds as if I'm narrating from the depths of an oil drum so I did the talking separately using a Zoom Handy Recorder. 
I think that's about it for today. I'll get back to creating more stuff and see you soon.

4 comments:

  1. Now it's looking really clever, Adrian!

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    1. Richard, I'm going to try and get something resembling a bike to show something positive for my struggles.

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  2. Looking good Adrian...and you can't beat a well finished edge!
    You're cracking on with the project now..you'll be out for a test run soon...[;o)

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    1. Trevor, I'm cracking up with it. The more I get to know the less I seem to know.

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