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Old 04-20-2016, 10:24 AM
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Gil Gil is offline
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FreeCAD Release 0.16

For those wanting to dip their toes into the world of mechanical CAD, FreeCAD is a great tool and it is Free! Even has a raytracing renderer!

Here's the 0.16 Release page: Release notes 0.16 - FreeCAD Documentation

And yes, it does unrolling of a ruled surface. Not quite Rhino but did I mention that it's free?...,

Happy Drawing,

-Gil
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Old 04-20-2016, 11:23 AM
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whulsey whulsey is offline
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Thanks Gil, guess I'll take a look at this the old dinosaur says tentatively.
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Old 04-20-2016, 07:11 PM
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Yeah......... maybe this old dog can learn a new trick.

Thanks Gil!
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Old 04-22-2016, 06:53 AM
RyanShort1 RyanShort1 is offline
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Nice find. Now to find some time to learn the ropes to use it.
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Old 04-22-2016, 03:06 PM
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Ron Caudillo Ron Caudillo is offline
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I've downloaded it and just started poking around. I have lots of AutoCAD 2D experience, but 3D modelling is an entirely new animal.

I'm going to get a 3D printer so this will really come in handy when i want to design and print stuff of my own.

Thanks for bring this to the forum's attention!

Best Regards,
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Old 03-01-2017, 06:29 AM
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Anybody using it for design work?

Well, we're quickly approaching the 1 year anniversary of the latest release of FreeCad. Anybody using it for designing paper models?

I've been tinkering with it in regards to importing a mesh and then trying to unroll it, but there are definite shortcomings when using it 'straight out of the box.' That is especially true in regards to working with imported meshes and then converting to objects. Some of the documentation leaves something to be desired, too. Nevertheless, I think there's potential.

On the positive side, FreeCad has been very stable on my system, and appears to be quite flexible with its Python scripting abilities.

Any insights?

Thanks,

--jeff
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Old 03-02-2017, 03:22 AM
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I am interrested too with the unfolding method with Freecad... Anyone used it ?
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Old 03-02-2017, 04:07 AM
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N96HBK N96HBK is offline
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Looks like a great and easy software!!!! I might be able to use this to learn the basics.
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Old 03-02-2017, 12:06 PM
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Had this downloaded, but soon after had a hard drive crash and lost it. Maybe I should download it and give it a look again. Of course I've been saying that about Inkscape for 5 years now.
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  #10  
Old 03-05-2017, 10:23 AM
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Kugelfang Kugelfang is offline
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After spending a couple of days researching FreeCAD, I don't think that it can currently serve as a powerful paper modeling tool. Currently. That's important.

I experimented with a couple macros/plugins for sheet metal work and box unfolding. They are fairly limited and useful for simple shapes but a complex model quickly defeats them. They maybe more capable for unfolding models designed entirely in FreeCAD but that comes with something of a learning curve. One that may be worth tackling, though.

Nevertheless, there is real potential here. FreeCAD comes, out of the box, with a simple and robust scripting language--Python. Creating extensions is not difficult and Python is not a difficult language--a language not dissimilar to computer languages I've work in before. Additionally, FreeCAD gives access to everything needed to create a good unfolding extension.

As my frustration with my Wings3d unfolding work grows, FreeCAD has really piqued my interest as a possible replacement. I'll probably spend some time in the next couple of weeks experimenting some more.

--jeff
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