Can't even take a short break from 3D designing stuff. Glad I'm switching over to FreeCAD. All I wanted was to grab some dimensions from an old model.
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FreeCAD is definitely getting there. Not 100% ready for prime time, but definitely getting there.
any advice on getting constraints to actually behave? I can't seem to get it to actually create geometries more complex than a box. (and forget master-sketches. that irritates me.)
Here is a tip: constraints don't need to behave. You can leave parts unconstrained and it will still work.
You can just eyeball the placement, and make sure the constraints that matter are constrained. The rest you can leave floating freely.
Doesn’t thaT really scare things up later if (when) you need to make adjustments?
I’ve almost never left something unconstrained that I haven’t regretted later.
FreeCAD is already wonky if you try to adjust things later, whether they are constrained or not.
It actually makes it easier to adjust, because when it is loose you can move things around without it affecting the rest of your work.
Some things need constraints of course, but a lot of it can do without.
Doesn’t that create wonky geometry if you try and alter the parameters?
On the contrary, because they are not connected they don't affect other parts. So you can just freely move things around.
And if things move, you can always just eyeball it again.
For many parts of a drawing, exact measurements aren't important.
Which workbench do you mean? Are you okay with basic sketch/extrude, part design works well enough, but as you say constraints can be a pain. Tbh just assume you're working with the points for the most part - polylines work fine for slightly more complicated shapes.
My "formal" CAD training was Dassault Systeme's CATIA V5 training manual, so I tend to default back to that. For basic geometries, use basic polygon shapes/combinations of those, for anything more complex I tend to use a polyline and sketch out a rough shape, then fully constrain to the dimension I need. If the geometry goes all to hell then stop and just use the mouse to grab a point and pull it back to where it should be before you go any further and then constrain it. (My sketches tend to be noisy with constraints just FYI).
Mangojelly's guides on YouTube will get you pretty far (though he doesn't constrain as much as I personally would, I suspect this is just because he's demoing techniques rather than giving best practice at all times. he knows the software/techniques super well and is great at explaining it).
Based on Mango's recent video there are a ton of enhancements for sketcher constraints on the latest dev branch, so hopefully they'll be on main soon too.
If it's assembly constraints, the only assembly workbench I've used is assembly3 - it works kind of how you'd expect an assembly workbench to work, but you do need to hold its hand a bit. I've gotten into the habit of, import as step, rename part, add to list of parts, use linear translation with the mouse to get the part roughly where it needs to be and then start applying constraints to put it where I want it.
I'm mostly talking about part design.
I've discovered freecad is great for FEM, though. (well, the best option that doesn't cost oodles.) Mostly I design...elsewhere and import the meshes for that. I'll give Mango's videos a look.