r/FreeCAD

I have a model, and I changed some early sketch dimensions and due to toponaming issues, a later sketch lost its subshape binder. Because that sketch has no attachment, I can't get the model to recompute at all. Set tip does nothing, suppressing features does nothing, and I can't set a new temporary attachment for the sketch because the model disappears in the attachment editor blanks out the model because it's an old cache.

In any other program I could just roll back the timeline and fix the issue. In FreeCAD I can delete everything from the bottom up until I get to the problem sketch and fix it, but then I lose a lot of work.

How can I get the model to recompute up to the error so I can fix this extremely minor loss of reference geometry?

I started using FreeCAD for a few personal projects and got the hang of it. But then I stopped CADing for a while and lost my skills a little bit. I just finished a mechatronics course where I did a lot of CADing, but it was on OnShape. Now I am doing personal projects again but I am using OnShape since I have more experience with it. I find OnShape really easy to use and similar to FreeCAD, but in a lot of ways easier. OnShape seems to just do what I want it to where FreeCAD needs some fiddling. Alas I do want to switch back to FreeCAD because of the TOS of OnShape taking my ownership of my models away, but I need some convincing or just a little push.

I modelled a part in FreeCAD 1.1.1 and assigned a material but I don't see how to check the mass. I've gotten at least six different answers from AI / search results / videos and none of them work.

When I first started using FreeCAD (just over a year ago), I found it frustrating. Part of that was my workflow, having come from Solidworks, but part was the software as well.

I've recently started some more work after quite a few months of being idle, and I get the impression things are easier. I'm not getting as many crashes, I'm not having to change my workflow to get around issues as much, it seems like there's been quite a bit of improvement from a layperson's standpoint.

It doesn't really matter, I don't really have any other choice, but I thought I'd come and say thanks to the developers, your hard work is noticed and appreciated.

I was wondering if anybody have a full proper interperter for FreeCAD files and assemblies or working on one?

I'm running FreeCAD on Ubuntu. Was on 1.1 then I guess it updated itself to the latest 1.1.1 and I also updated all the updates for Ubuntu that I've been ignoring for a while.

So FreeCAD won't launch. Try a bunch of stuff, nothing works. Uninstall and reinstall and uninstall, try 26.3 still doesn't work. Try going back to 1.1 still doesn't work. Download the AppImage for 1.1.1 and that does work.

I would rather be using the snap version so I try again. Somehow got 26.3.0dev working. But Im starting from scratch. So all my UI preferences are gone and my addons are gone. Annoying, but ok whatever, I'll just start fresh. There is no Addon manager. I look everywhere and think Im going blind or crazy that I can't find it.

Open the AppImage version and there's the Addon manager right where I expected it.

So the question is: how do I get the Addon manager back?

If I can't, is there a way to download addons in the AppImage version and move them over to the snap version?

Anyone else have issues like this?

BTW I avoid updates on everything because it seems like they always break something. Why do updated suck so much? Ubuntu is extremely bad for this. I could never go back to Windows. I hate Apple more than I can describe. Linux kind of sucks but it's the best I can get. To be fair, I suck at Linux. Can barely use the terminal at a kindergarten level. But with enough error and trial I can eventually figure it out. I had Mint on a laptop a few years ago and it seemed ok. Been using Ubuntu for the last 4 or so years but it continually frustrates me. What's a good version of Linux that just works? Or is that asking too much?

Just stumbled into an old note of mine back when I decided to (re)start my modelling journey and it was exactlly 5 years ago !

The note from 03.07.2021 says:

>Tried again Freecad today. It dont manage to make a cube without seeing 3 crash and reading a tutorial…

and I picked another solution.

Today.. I can say I passed the milestone of making a cube without crashes and without the need to read a tutorial.

https://preview.redd.it/3koy066aa8bh1.png?width=1662&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b0032c51d50f5c9388a709290a5b755f0d48b8e

The model is WIP, no need to mention the issues :)

*Update* Wanted to first say thank you to everyone who offered advice. Genuinely the most helpful sub I’ve come across. I managed to use the slicer from Bambu Studio to cut my project. It’s not exactly where I wanted it, but it’s definitely going to work. I’m looking forward to finishing my first project and I hope I can pass along knowledge here in the future as I learn. Thank you!

So I finally got my first CAD design to a place where I'm happy but it's too big for my printers capabilities. Is it possible to cut it at a place of my choosing (need to avoid screw holes so not a straight line) and add some interlocking dovetails? I've been researching and watching vids for the past two hours and I'm not figuring it out. Using 1.1.1 version if that matters. Thanks!

Hey there,

I saw recently question but cannot find it now , so sharing here anyway, maybe it will help someone.
If you created an object in PartDesign WB, and you need it to cut it in two pieces for printing, one way to go is "do the cutting part in your slicer" ( BambuLab studio, or whatever), just before 3D printing. But if you later change your thing in FreeCAD, you have to repeat all the slicing in slicer again. I order to avoid repeating this manual process, I have done this slicing in FreeCAD, in the following way.

So, lets call "OriginalBody" the PartDesign body we need to print.
I want to have 2 parts at the end, e.g. "upper" and "lower" part, that together form "OriginalBody"
First, I create 2 clones (2 new bodies, based on original body - lets call them Part1 and Part2).
Next, I create a new PD Body "Slicer" - it usually consist of one big "Box" object. This Box will be used for boolean operations. Transform this body, positioning it in such a way that it cuts our original body - one body we will get based on intersection between Slicer and Original, and another as cutting off the part of Original that is inside our Slicer.

Next step , lets create two clones of Slicer, getting "Slicer1" and "Slicer2" bodies.

Now, activate Part1 body, do "Boolean" operation, add "Slicer1" body, and chose "common" - you got first body for printing!
Last step, activate Part2 body, to the "Boolean" operation, add "Slicer2" body, and chose "cut" operation - you got printing part 2.

Both together (part1 and part2) should form OriginalBody.

And the beauty of this approach is that if you change OriginalBody (so, you can keep working on it), Part1 and Part2 are parametric - so all the changes will be applied there also !

Hope this will help somebody!

Freecad is crashing multiple times per day (every 5 to 30 minutes usually) for me so the recovery mechanism is important. Since the last weekly build, I have not gotten one single recovery. Did they change it? Now I have to manually save the file before every step to ensure I do not lose my progress. The usability has been downgraded significantly. Is there some setting I should tweak to get previous behaviour back?

Hi all,

I'm very new to freecad and I am finding it very easy to use. However, when drawing a new sketch my toolbar will seem to just empty itself... I can add the tools back by going to view > toolbars > geometry (etc). But when I start another sketch it refreshes back to nothing...

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? Or give advice on how you guys get by this?

Hi,

i have this in a macro

tmp = sel[0].getParentGeoFeatureGroup()

now tmp is the internal name of the body which is the parent of selected feature. I lokked everywhere but cannot find a way to obtain the Label of that body ( which differes from its intranla name ofter renaming )

Any one who knows how ?