HS FreeCAD Bookazine

FreeCAD
FOR MAKERS
Create 3D prints, laser cuts, folded sheets,
and more with free design software
By Jo Hinchliffe
Foreword by
Yorik van Havre
FROM THE MAKERS OF MAGAZINE

WELCOME EDITORIAL
Editor
Andrew Gregory
FreeCAD For Makers

andrew.gregory@raspberrypi.com
Contributing Editor
Ben Everard
ben.everard@raspberrypi.com
Welcome to the HackSpace magazine guide to 3D design
– which is really a guide to FreeCAD, the number one 3D Sub-Editors
David Higgs, Nicola King
modelling and design software. We could have chosen from
a few pieces of software to base this guide on, but we picked DESIGN
FreeCAD for three good reasons. Critical Media
It’s not a clone. FreeCAD is designed from the ground up to criticalmedia.co.uk
meet the needs of users. Unlike some other free software Head of Design
Lee Allen
applications, FreeCAD isn’t playing catch-up with some paid-for
Designers
application: it’s its own thing.
Sam Ribbits, Olivia Mitchell,
It’s free software. Time spent learning FreeCAD will never be Ty Logan
wasted because no company can come along at a later date and
Cover Design
change the licence Sam Alder
Unlike some other free software applications, agreement or start

PUBLISHING
charging you to use it.
FreeCAD isn’t playing catch-up with some Publishing Director
It’s flexible. Because Russell Barnes
paid-for application: it’s its own thing FreeCAD is free russell@raspberrypi.com
software, its users can Advertising

add to it, writing extensions to the software to suit their needs. Charlie Milligan
charlotte.milligan@raspberrypi.com
These add-ons, known as workbenches, cover a range of uses,
including PCB design, pipes, timber-framing, architectural SUBSCRIPTIONS
design, and loads more. So, whatever you’re interested in Unit 6, The Enterprise Centre,
building, you’ll find a FreeCAD workbench for it. Kelvin Lane, Manor Royal,
Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9PE
All the tutorials in this guide were first published in
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Got a comment, HackSpace magazine, the magazine for the modern maker.
question, or thought 01293 312189
about HackSpace We regularly feature 3D printing, home electronics builds,
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woodworking, and other projects, alongside a load of
Subscription queries
get in touch at technologies far too esoteric to list here. Download a copy of the hackspace@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk
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magazine for free from hsmag.cc and see for yourself. If you
GET IN TOUCH
like it, subscribe.
hackspace@
Finally, a word on the author: Jo Hinchliffe is a prolific HackSpace magazine is published
by Raspberry Pi Ltd, Maurice Wilkes
raspberrypi.com maker and tinkerer and full-time tool enthusiast. He’s given Building, St. John’s Innovation
Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge,
hackspacemag
talks at the European Space Agency (ESA), helped encourage CB4 0DS The publisher, editor, and
contributors accept no responsibility
hackspacemag in respect of any omissions or
and promote all kinds of creative communities, designed and errors relating to goods, products or
services referred to or advertised.
ONLINE produced open-source rockets – and particularly relevant for Except where otherwise noted,
content in this magazine is licensed
hsmag.cc our purposes, he’s extremely good at using simple words to under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-
describe complicated things. SA 3.0). ISSN: 2515-5148.
ANDREW GREGORY
Editor andrew.gregory@raspberrypi.com
3
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Yorik van Havre
FOREWORD
Foreword
F
reeCAD has come a long way
in 20 years. It was relatively
unknown during its first
decade, developing slowly
and steadily, then it got
embraced by the 3D-printing
community around 2010 and is now
putting its feet firmly in the professional
world. I am very fond of this grey area
that exists in and around FreeCAD, where
all kinds of users, professional and
Yorik van Havre hobbyist alike, meet and share tools and
knowledge. It is a tool made by hackers
FreeCAD developer
for hackers. Like what happens in
hackerspaces, the distinction between
what is professional
and what is non-
professional ceases to
be meaningful. Jo Hinchliffe’s tutorials
Jo Hinchliffe’s are just like that,
tutorials are just like
that, professional yet
professional yet not
not particularly aimed particularly aimed at a
at a specific category of
specific category of users
users. They will take
you everywhere
through FreeCAD and
further. Even if you’re here just to
3D-print a new handle for your favourite
coffee jar, there is no reason for not doing
it the same way as if you were launching
your own coffee jar production line.
That’s what FreeCAD is designed for, and
that’s what we all hope you will like and,
possibly, get hooked and be part of this
big ecosystem where what we produce
helps others.
5
Contents
08 The Part workbench
Designing your first 3D object: a set of wheels
14 The Sketcher workbench

A more advanced build: a bird feeder
30
20 Parametric parts
Thickness and geometry
26 Curves
Add bendy transitions
30 Technical drawings
Create usable documentation
36 Interlocking parts
Fit things together
42 Assemblies
Multi-element components
48

Making multiples
Design, copy, repeat 48 08
54 Surfaces and projection
Turn lines into solid objects
60 Subtract negative space

Make a wearable spanner
68 Design with circuits

Open-source electromechanical design
74 Create STL files

Prepare your designs for CNC, 3D printing, and more
80 More advanced sketching

Computerise objects from the real world
86 Sheet metal
Accurately bend, fold, cut, and drill
92 Frames and pipes

Designing for tubular structures
60 98

Next steps
Animations, scripting, architecture, and more
6
CONTENTS
14
92
54
42 20
80 74
7
FreeCAD For beginners
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD for beginners

Get started with FreeCAD, using some of the tools to design
a set of small wheels ready to be 3D-printed
F
irst, go to freecadweb.org and FIRST DESIGN
download a copy of FreeCAD for your To begin, click ‘create new’ and the document
operating system. When you open viewer window will create an empty project in a
FreeCAD, it defaults to a ‘start’ new tab. Next, we are going to switch from the
workbench which has limited tools but ‘start’ workbench to the ‘part’ workbench using the
shows recent files and example files in workbench drop-down menu. The part workbench
the viewer window on the right-hand side (Figure 1). is a good place to start to get oriented and to
FreeCAD uses ‘workbenches’ which you can switch explore one of the simplest ways to make parts.
between. If you click the drop-down menu where it Before we go too far, though, let’s explore how
says ‘start’, you will see all the installed workbenches we navigate, zooming and moving objects, in the
(Figure 2). The idea of workbenches is simple: preview window.
imagine a large workshop with multiple benches, and You should be able to see a collection of tool icons
each bench has a different collection of tools focused that contain yellow shapes of a cube, cylinder,
around a theme. FreeCAD has workbenches with sphere etc. Left-click on the cylinder icon and you
tools to make parts, create architecture, assemble should see a cylinder appear in the viewer window.
collections of parts into assemblies, create toolpaths It probably will have defaulted to a top view of the
for CNC, create technical drawings, and much more. cylinder, so you may only see a circle as you are
The beauty of these workbenches is that FreeCAD looking straight down from above. There are
automatically carries all your work between them numerous ways to switch the viewpoint in FreeCAD.
when you switch benches. As you progress in First, you can use the cube in the upper right-hand
FreeCAD, you will use more workbenches, and you side of the preview window to move to view
might even install extra workbenches you discover in different faces. You can also use the blue ‘view’
the FreeCAD community. icons that appear as a cube with a single face
marked as solid in the toolbars. If you hover over the
view icons, you get a description of the view type
they relate to and also a number. This indicates that
you can also swap views by just using the number
buttons 1, 2, 3, and 4 on your keyboard.
NAVIGATION
However, a common way to navigate and select
items and parts in FreeCAD is in the viewer window
itself, and there are numerous different navigational
Figure 1 styles available for you to choose from. If you hover
FreeCAD is an over the viewer window and right-click, you can
excellent open-source
CAD environment scroll to ‘navigational styles’ and a drop-down list
developed by a appears (Figure 3). Some of the navigational styles
dedicated group of
motivated volunteers are based on other CAD environments, so if you are
8
Figure 2
The workbench
selection drop-down
– each workbench has
a collated set of tools
for specific types
of work
Figure 3
Spend some time
trying different
navigation styles
to find one that
suits you
used to using, for example, Blender, then you might

prefer that style. We use the ‘gesture’ style option
that gives left-click for rotation in the document
window, right-click for moving, and the centre
button/wheel is for zooming. Of course, you need an
object like the cylinder we created to allow you to
judge which navigational style suits you best.
SET UP YOUR WORKBENCH

The part workbench is used largely to create parts by
combining solid primitive objects like the cylinder we
” You need an object like the

cylinder we created to allow
you to judge which navigational
heading ‘unnamed project’, we can now see that QUICK TIP
”
‘cylinder’ is listed, (Figure 4, overleaf). We can Hover your mouse
style suits you best single-left-click on this cylinder label in the file view over any tool icon
to select the object, or we can click on the various in FreeCAD for a
faces and edges of the cylinder in the document couple of seconds
created. It’s definitely a good place to start, but you window to select them. Clicking on the label in the to get a text
description of what
may find as you learn more/other ways to create drop-down menu, you should see that underneath
the tool does.
parts on different workbenches, you use this this a new dialog box appears with details about the
workbench less. Returning to the cylinder we dimensions and position of the cylinder. Initially, the
created, we can see that on the left-hand side of the first things you can change here are the radius and
screen there is a file-tree-type view, and under the the height of the cylinder. Let’s imagine we are
making a simple wheel for a toy car, and make the
wheel radius 12 mm. Next, let’s set the height of the
FREECAD VERSION cylinder to 15 mm.
For this series, we use FreeCAD version 0.19, but the
same processes should work on a newer version, WHOLE HOLES
though as time passes, it's possible that some things Click the cylinder tool once again and you’ll see
will change. another cylinder appear in the file tree view. You may
We are using the app image version on Ubuntu
not see the cylinder appear in the document viewer
20.04; however, this should be the same for the 0.19
version on other operating systems such as other Linux window, however, as it’s smaller than our other
distributions, Windows or Mac. cylinder and is currently positioned inside it. If we
left-click the new cylinder in the file tree view, it
9
TUTORIAL
should appear highlighted in the document viewer 1.5 mm radius cylinder we just made out of our
window. Change the radius of the new cylinder to larger one. Select the larger cylinder first in the file
1.5 mm and adjust the height to match our first tree and then hold either the SHIFT or the CTRL key
cylinder, which was 15 mm. If we click anywhere off down whilst you select the smaller cylinder. Once
the image of the cylinders in the viewer window, we they are both selected, click the ‘make a cut of two
should now be able to see the ends of the cylinder shapes’ tool icon and a hole should appear through
we created in the top and bottom of the original your first cylinder. If for any reason both cylinders
cylinder (Figure 5). disappear, it probably means you have selected them
Figure 4
The combo view in the wrong order and have cut the larger cylinder
panel on the left-hand SLICING AND DICING out of the smaller one, which leaves no object
side includes a file
tree window for Similar to most drawing and CAD packages, we can behind! Press CTRL and Z to undo and try again. The
selecting objects combine objects in multiple ways to create new shortcuts may be different on your OS. You can see,
and parts. When an
object is highlighted, objects. You should be able to see a selection of tool and change them in the Tools > Customize menu.
its dialog box
appears below
You should now see that in the file tree your cut
”
object has been renamed to ‘cut’. If you click the
Figure 5
small arrow to the left of ‘cut’, you should see a
It can be hard to see
objects when one Similar to most drawing drop-down which contains both your original
is positioned inside
another. Hovering and CAD packages, we can cylinders but greyed out. These objects, despite
over object names being components of a completed cut, can still be
in the file tree will combine objects in multiple
”
make them appear altered. For example, if we wanted to change the
highlighted in the
viewer window
ways to create new objects radius of our hole to 2 mm from its current 1.5 mm,
we can do this without redoing the cut operation.
Figure 6
When moving Select the file tree name for the smaller cylinder,
objects, or rotating icons, some of which feature blue circles overlapping then press the SPACE bar. This should make the
them, we can set the
increments to allow in different ways. Hovering over these icons, you cylinder that made our hole visible in the viewer
us to quickly should find one described ‘make a cut of two window. We can then use the dialog box to change
position objects
accurately shapes’. We are going to use this tool to cut the the radius of the cylinder and then press the SPACE
bar again to turn off the visibility of the object. This
should reperform our cut with the new-sized
cylinder. We can also change the position of the hole
if needed by moving the object.

WHEELY GOOD
Our wheel design looks a little unrefined, so let’s add
some features to make it look a little cooler. Let’s
create another cylinder and change the radius of this
cylinder to 10 mm, and set its height to 3 mm. We
are going to perform another cut with this object, but
we want to move it to the top of the wheel design.
To do this, right-click on the cylinder object in the file
10
Figure 7
Our wheel design with
all the cut operations
performed on it and
transparency set
to 30 percent to
allow us to see the
internal geometry
tree and then select 'transform' from the drop-down

menu. You should now see a dialog box called
‘increments’, and in the viewer window, the cylinder
will be highlighted with some red, green, and blue
arrows attached. These arrows correspond to the x,
y, and z axes, and left-clicking and dragging on either
the red, green, or blue arrow points will move the
item in that direction. It will move the object in
multiples of the amount set in the ‘translational
increment’ box, (Figure 6). This usually defaults to
one millimetre, but we can set it to any step size we
prefer. For example, in our case, if we set the
translational increment to 12 mm, we can then drag
the blue arrow by one step, bringing our 3 mm-high
cylinder flush with the top of our design. Whilst we either fillets or chamfers to edges of objects. They
don’t need it for our wheel, it’s worth having a play appear as two tool icons: the fillet tool as a curved
with clicking and dragging the red, green, and blue area between two flat surfaces, and the chamfer Figure 8
Adding chamfers and
spheres on the arced lines with the translation tool as an angled flat surface. In the viewer window, fillets to internal and
arrows. Clicking and dragging these rotates the left-click to select the outside edge of the top of our external edges of
parts is made simple
object around the axis the colour represents. Again, wheel, and then click the fillet tool. In the dialog box, in FreeCAD
you can set the rotational increment dialog to we can see a list of edges, including our selected
Figure 9
whatever number of degrees you like. edge. This is useful if you want to apply multiple Using the drop-down
Next, perform a cut to remove the new cylinder fillets to multiple edges in one operation. You can ‘part’ menu to create
simple copies of
from the design. We then continued to make our also adjust the radius of the fillet in the dialog. our wheel
wheel look a little fancier by creating four more
cylinders. We moved the four cylinders equally
outwards by 5 mm from the centre of our wheel
using the moving techniques we learnt earlier. You
should end up with a simple wheel that looks
like Figure 7.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Our wheel is looking wheel-like, but the part
workbench has some simple tools we can use to
embellish it a little. You may have noticed in the
viewer window that you can highlight/select either
the faces or the edges of objects. Often you can also
select corner points of objects, but as everything is
circular in our wheel design, that doesn’t apply here.
The part workbench has two nice tools for adding
11
TUTORIAL
First, to help keep things orderly, let’s right-click

on ‘fillet’, select ‘rename’, and call it ‘wheel’.
Renaming this doesn’t change the fact that if we
double-click it, it won’t open up the fillet dialog, but
will help us track when we make multiple items.
CREATE COPIES
To create our copies, single-left-click ‘wheel’ in the
file tree view to select our wheel and then go to the
‘part’ drop-down menu; select ‘create a copy’, then
‘create a simple copy’ (Figure 9, overleaf). Clicking
this option will create a new ‘wheel001’. If we
double-click on wheel001, we can see that it can
now be moved as a separate item. As we made a
‘simple copy’, our new wheel doesn’t contain the
We’ll leave ours at 1 mm and click OK to apply the hierarchy of operations and objects our original has
fillet. Both the fillet and the chamfer tools can be and also is not dynamically linked to the original
used on either external or internal edges. As an object. This means that if we make further changes
example, let’s select the edge inside at the bottom to our original ‘wheel’, these aren’t pushed through
of the large cut-out at the top of our wheel. Click the to the simple copies. However, of course, you can
chamfer tool this time, and set the chamfer length delete the copies, make a change to the design, and
to 0.5 mm and OK it (Figure 8, overleaf). You should recopy if needed.
see that a nice internal chamfer has been created.
Finally, we added a matching fillet to the bottom THE NEXT STEP
Figure 10 outside edge of our wheel. Let’s make copies and lay them out as a set of four
Our finished set of
wheels, ready (Figure 10). We’re going to 3D-print these wheels,
for export RENAME and we could just export one instance of the wheel
Figure 11 Now we have our basic wheel design (it's called and then duplicate it in our slicer software – but,
Our wheel design,
exported and
‘fillet’ in the file hierarchy). Let's create some simple again, it’s just as easy to do this in FreeCAD. Having
3D-printed copies of our wheel to make a set of four. made our four copies of the wheel, let’s save our
work and then, click ‘file – export’. We can export
a mesh file of the wheels ready for slicing for 3D
printing. If we don’t specify the type of mesh file
by adding a file suffix, it will default to an STL file.
Having exported our STL file, we could open it in
our favoured slicer and 3D-print them (Figure 11).
However, FreeCAD isn’t only for 3D printing, and in
in the rest of this guide, we’ll look more widely at
what FreeCAD can do.
TRANSPARENCY
Selecting items in the file tree makes them become
highlighted in the document viewer window and,
whilst this is useful sometimes, it’s easier to set some
component items to be different colours and adjust
their transparency. This can help us see the internal
geometry of parts, and can allow us to check internal
positions. To do this, highlight a part in the file tree view
and right-click. Scroll to ‘appearance’. In the menu
that appears, you will see that you can set the material
type and also the shape and line colour, and also set
the transparency.
12
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FreeCAD, Using the Part Design Workbench
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD: using the

part design workbench
Our next project: we're going to design a small bird feeder
using the 'part design' and 'sketcher' workbenches
I
n part 1, we began to look at FreeCAD and click OK. At this point, FreeCAD should
using the 'part' workbench to design a automatically switch to the sketcher workbench.
small wheel. We used simple primitive Next, select the 'create a polyline' tool icon which
shapes, cubes, and cylinders, and we is 7th from the left on the top row in Figure 1. We are
added, subtracted, and joined them together going to draw three connected lines in a U-shape
to create our design. In this project we are roughly laid out, as shown in Figure 2. Starting at the
going to make a small bird feeder, but will use top left-hand side of the U, click on the vertical
different methods where we will create a 'body' using zero-line on the Y-axis at any height and then drag the
the 'part design' and 'sketcher' workbenches. The line down to the origin point of the XY plane.
techniques are a little more complex, but give us Conveniently, when we hover over either zero-line or
much more control over our designs. any point they will turn yellow; clicking when yellow
will place the drawn object on the highlighted point or
PICK YOUR WORKBENCH line. Next, pull the line out horizontally and left-click
Opening FreeCAD, start a new document and then before pulling it up vertically; right-click to end our
select the part design workbench from the drop-down three lines.
menu. You should see in the combo view, on the If you have done this correctly, the horizontal line
left-hand side, a single option which is 'create body' and vertical line will be white, but will have a small
– click this. You should then see 'create sketch'; click red horizontal or respectively vertical line. In the
on this, and you'll then be presented with a choice of combo view panel, you should see a 'solver
which plane to base our sketch in: XY, XZ, or YZ. messages' tab with a message about numerous
Above An easy way to visualise the XY plane is by imagining 'degrees of freedom'. The aim is to reduce these
The completed bird
feeder 3D-printed a 3D printer and looking down on it from above onto degrees of freedom to zero by constraining all the
and attached to a the bed. If we sketched onto the printer bed, we are items within a sketch. Constraining a sketch is the
window with small
suction cups then working on the XY plane. Select the XY plane process of adding constraints that complete all the
14
Figure 1
The icons on the top
line are mainly the
tools for drawing
lines, circles,
rectangles, and more.
The icons on the
bottom line are the
tools to add different
types of constraints
Figure 2
Our first three lines
drawn roughly and
unconstrained
Figure 3
Our first three lines
constrained
information about a sketch item's positions and

dimensions. This is an incredibly useful approach,
meaning we can return to sketches at any point in our
design and make changes that will be automatically
recalculated into the whole model.
The sketcher solver automatically adds some
constraints when it guesses, for example, you want a
line to be vertical or horizontal, as we have just done.
Starting on a datum line and including the origin point
on the XY plane also means that we don’t need to
constrain these lines' positional co-ordinates, but we
do need to constrain the lengths of the line. Later we
will constrain items that aren’t on these lines, so
you’ll see how to set positions of items relative to
other parts of the design.
CONSTRAINING CHOICES
WHAT IS A BODY? As you get used to applying constraints, you will realise
A body is best described as a component part that that there are lots of different ways to achieve the
is one continuous solid object. To visualise this, an same results. To constrain our lines, we are going to
example could be a nut and a bolt. If we wanted to select the two vertical lines. To do this, right-click to
model a nut and bolt, they would both be separate deactivate the line drawing tool and then left-click on
bodies that could then be fastened together as an both the vertical lines in turn. Next, press the 'create an
assembly. The 3D form of a nut and a bolt can be
equality constraint' tool (8th from left, top row, in
modelled as a continuous single piece, and so each
can be considered a body. Figure 1). The two lines should now appear as an
In this project, we are using sketches and equal but undefined length. If you left-click on the red
performing operations on the sketches such as point at the top of either line and drag it, you should
'padding' where we extrude a sketch, and 'pocketing' now find that both lines extend together as they are
where we cut the shape of a sketch into an existing constrained as equal. This ability to extend the line is a
object. However, you can also add primitive objects
degree of freedom, and sometimes, clicking and
on the part design workbench similar to the use of the
part workbench in part 1. dragging items in the sketch can help identify what you
need to constrain. Left-click to select one of the
15
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP vertical lines, and then click the 'fix the vertical
distance' tool icon (13th from left, top row, in Figure 1).
You can use the
constraint tools in In the dialogue box that appears, type '20 mm', and
different ways – then click OK. You should now see a red constraint
you can select the label with '20 mm' in the viewer window – both vertical A BIT SKETCHY
sketch item and then lines are now set to 20 mm. If you ever want to change We are going to add more to the sketch, though. Let’s
click the constraint this value, double-click on the constraint in the viewer click the 'create an arc' tool icon, but click its
tool, or you can
window and the dialog box will reopen. You can click drop-down menu and scroll to the 'end points and rim
select the tool first
and then click the and drag the constraint around in the viewer window, point' option (Figure 4). Hover over the uppermost
item or items. and as you add more detail and constraints, you might point of the left-hand vertical line until the point
do this to keep things clear. becomes yellow, single left-click, and then move
across to the top point of the right-hand vertical line
”
and left-click again – this creates the end points of the
arc. Next, move up and towards the centre of the two
The first job is
vertical lines to finish the arc roughly in the correct
Figure 4 to make a pocket for place. To constrain the arc – as the end points are
Some drawing tools already constrained – we just need to set the radius
our bird feed to be
”
have drop-down
menus and options for of the arc. Highlight the arc line and then click the
their use, such as the contained in 'constrain an arc or a circle' tool icon (15th from left,
'create' and 'arc' tools
bottom row, in Figure 2), and in the dialog box, set
Figure 5
The part design the radius to 40 mm. We should now have a fully
workbench task Next, select the horizontal line and click the 'fix a constrained sketch, with all lines turned green.
menu tab
horizontal distance' tool (12th from left, bottom row, This sketch is the main outline of our bird feeder,
Figure 6 in Figure 2) – set this length to 80 mm. You should so click 'close' on the sketch solver panel in the
Selecting a face and
clicking the 'create now see that the sketch as it stands is fully combo view window, and we will return to the part
sketch' tool to launch
a sketch attached to
constrained, the solver says there are no degrees of design workbench. Make sure that the sketch you
that face freedom, and that all lines are green (Figure 3). drew is highlighted in the file tree, then click the
'tasks' tab just above the file tree view. Click 'pad',
and then type '15 mm' in the dialog box to set the
thickness of the pad/extrusion (Figure 5).
For the rest of this project, we are going to create
more sketches, but these sketches are going to be
drawn onto faces of the pad object we have just
made. The first job is to make a pocket for our bird
feed to be contained in. So, left-click in the viewer to
select the upper face of our object (Figure 6). Then
click the 'create sketch' tool icon which should now
bring you back into the sketcher workbench with the
face of the pad we selected in view. Click the 'create
a circle' tool icon (4th from left, top row, in Figure 2).
Left-click and drag and left-click again to draw a circle
16
Figure 7
Setting parameters to create
a pocket from a sketch
Figure 8
Laying out sketches for
further pockets in our bird
feeder is made easier by
importing geometry from pre-
existing parts of the design
of any size anywhere in the sketcher viewer. Use

the 'constrain an arc or circle' tool we used earlier
to set the diameter to 20 mm. Next, click to select
the centre point of your circle, and then click the
zero point of the axis at the bottom of the left-hand
vertical line. To position our 20 mm circle, click the
'horizontal distance constraint' tool we used earlier
and set the distance to the midpoint of our feeder,
which is 40 mm. Next, set the vertical height of the
centre point of the circle relative to the zero point at
30 mm. This should place it nicely centralised in the
feeder design and should be fully constrained. Close
the sketch, and with this new sketch highlighted in
the file tree, click 'pocket' from the list on the 'tasks'
tab. You should now see that it’s cutting our circle as
a pocket into our bird feeder design. We set the depth
of our pocket to 8 mm (Figure 7).
A STICKING POINT
To attach our bird feeder, we are going to create a
pocket and a slot which we used to fit some rubber
window suckers that we found in our parts drawer.
The arrangement of the slotted pocket could allow
the bird feeder to slot onto a couple of small screws.
In the part design viewer, we rotated our bird feeder
and selected the bottom of the design opposite to the
pocket we had just created. As before with this
selected, we clicked the 'create a sketch' tool. Next,
select the 'create a rectangle' tool icon (8th from left,
top row, in Figure 2). Draw two rectangles of any size
anywhere in the sketcher window. Conveniently the
rectangle drawing tool constrains the vertical and
horizontal lines, so all we have to add is the line
lengths and the positions. We made our rectangles
10 mm by 6 mm. Then we used the zero axis point to object which aren’t in this sketch. We hovered over
locate the closest rectangle to it, 10 mm across and the 20 mm vertical line at the far edge of our bird
4 mm down from the straight edges of the design feeder and selected it, once highlighted. This now
(using the horizontal and vertical distance constraint creates an edge and points at either end to which we
tools and a corner point of the rectangle, as we have can attach objects or constraints. This means that
done with other items). However, to position the instead of calculating the position of our other
other rectangle, we used a clever little function. By rectangle from the XY zero origin point, we can now
Figure 9
clicking the 'create an edge linked to an external constrain this by saying it is 10 mm and 4 mm from Selecting the back
geometry' tool (14th from left, top row, of Figure 2), the opposite corner of the object; you can see where face of the bird feeder
to draw the slots for
we can select and import lines from the underlying we connected that rectangle tool in Figure 8. the suction cups
17
TUTORIAL
Figure 10
Fully constrained slot
sketch ready to be cut
as a pocket
Figure 11
Selecting the entire
upper face and adding
a 2 mm fillet is easier
than selecting the
individual edges
”
Having constrained our rectangles sketch, we closed
the sketch and performed another pocket operation to
a depth of 10 mm. Next, we need to cut slots that go
We closed the sketch
into these pockets, so we selected the face of the and performed another
back of the bird feeder object that we need to sketch
pocket operation to a
”
on and created a new sketch (Figure 9 overleaf).
depth of 10 mm
FINISHING OFF
In this sketch we again imported and created an edge
for the far side of the object and then used the 'create need to constrain the arc, and so we only needed to
QUICK TIP a slot in the sketch' tool (10th from left, top line, in position the slot sketches in the correct places to
In this tutorial, Figure 2). This tool works similarly to the rectangle coincide with our rectangular pocket. We used the
we have mainly tool but creates a pill-shaped slot item. Similarly again, point at the centre of the top end of each slot (the
created sketches some of the edges and arcs are partially constrained. centre point of the radial arcs) to position the slots to
on our object and You can constrain these in multiple ways, but we coincide with the rectangle pockets – you can see
pocketed them, but,
opted to select two opposite points on either side of these values in Figure 10. We closed the sketch and
of course, you can
create sketches and
the slot and constrain the horizontal distance between again performed a pocket, setting the depth to 5 mm,
extrude them just them to 4 mm. We then constrained just one of the to cut into our rectangular pocket, but not deeper into
as easily using the vertical lines to 10 mm as both sides are considered the object.
'pad' tool. an equality. With a fixed width and height, there is no Finally, we added a fillet to the edge of the top of
the feeder and the feeder bowl by selecting the top
face of the feeder and clicking the 'fillet tool' icon
and setting the fillet radius to 2 mm (Figure 11). We
covered usage of the fillet and chamfer tools last
month in the part workbench, but they work similarly
on the part design workbench.
Hopefully, you now have a feel for how sketching
and constraints work – the great advantage being
that, if you want to change a dimension or position at
a later date, you can click through to find the
underlying sketch constraint, edit it, and the whole
design relating to that change will be updated. It’s a
powerful and useful way to work.
18
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FreeCAD, parametric parts, and other approaches
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD, parametric parts,

and other approaches
Design a variety of objects using numerous different tools and approaches
I
n this tutorial, we’re going to add to our Close the sketch and then pad the sketch using
skills by exploring a small range of tools the pad dialogue found on the tasks tab in the combo
and approaches and making a variety of view window or by clicking the 'pad a selected
small project items. We’ll start by exploring sketch' tool icon.
the ‘Add a Thickness’ tool, look at using We are going to now use the thickness tool to
the Spreadsheet workbench, and working hollow out our hexagonal extrusion. Select the upper
parametrically, we’ll bring these skills altogether to face of the hexagonal extrusion and then click the
make an automatic box with lid generator. ‘Make A Thick Solid’ tool. You should see instantly
For a quick example of using the ‘Make a Thick that the part now appears as a hollowed version
Solid’ tool, begin in the part design workbench and of itself. In the thickness tool dialog, you can see
create a new body. Create a new sketch in the body the selected face and change various parameters
on the XY plane, then select the polygon tool to draw (Figure 3). You can, of course, increase and decrease
a hexagon. Start your hexagon on the 0,0 point of the the thickness that is created. By default, the
axis so that it is positionally constrained. You should thickness dialog adds the thickness to the outside of
have a hexagon with two degrees of freedom. A the underlying geometry, so if you set the hexagon
simple way to constrain a hexagon is to make the vertical constraint to 30 mm you now will have an
Figure 1
Using a parametric uppermost line of the hexagon horizontal by selecting object that is 30 mm plus the thicknesses. If you
approach means the line and clicking the ‘create a horizontal constraint’ want to create an object that matches the external
that we can create
collections of similar tool. Next, you can select two nodes vertically dimensions of the underlying geometry, click the
parts with differing above each other, and set a vertical distance to fully ‘make thickness inwards’ tick-box. You can also swap
dimensions from one
base model constrain the sketch Figure 2. between Arc and Intersection, which essentially
20
toggles between creating filleted edges or sharp One way we could make this easier is to draw an
edges on the thickness. aluminium extrusion profile sketch, and then pad or Figure 2
Constraining a
Finally, if you want to apply a thickness but create extrude it multiple times to multiple lengths. As a hexagon centred on
the 0,0 co-ordinates
an object which is more of a pipe than a bowl, you workflow, we might choose to use the part design only needs two other
can click the ‘Add Face’ button. In the preview workbench to create a body for our original extrusion constraints to fully
constrain it
window, the original selected face reappears and then create multiple simple copies on the
highlighted and you can select the opposite face. part workbench. Figure 3
Using the 'Make a
You should now have a hexagonal object with a wall This is a very simple example that introduces the Thick Solid' tool
thickness with both ends open. idea of working parametrically. Parametric work in to make our
padded hexagon
CAD is where we can change the model geometry by object hollow
LET’S GET PARAMETRIC! adjusting parameters such as dimensions. Whilst only
We looked at making multiple ’simple copies’ of being one parameter, we can use this mini project
parts using the ‘part’ menu on the part workbench to learn about using a spreadsheet to store and alter
in previous parts of the series. You can also use parameters for objects and sketches.
that approach to create simple copies of bodies that We downloaded an image with the dimensions of
you have designed in part design. Sometimes we the 2020 extrusion and created a new project. On
might want to make multiple similar parts, but with the part design workbench we selected to create a
one or more dimensions changed – for example, if new body and then to create a sketch in the XY plane.
”
we were drawing a model of a 3D printer that used
the common 2020 aluminium extrusion (Figure 1).
Parametric work in CAD
OTHER OPTIONS is where we can change
The thickness tool is an excellent way to quickly create the model geometry by
”
hollow geometries, but it does have some limitations.
It can fail to work with more complex shapes; things adjusting parameters
like curvy cones can be its nemesis. In the next part,
we’ll begin to look at ‘Lofting’ tools, which enable us to
create hollow parts with curved walls and more. We crudely drew a shape of the profile using the
polyline tool and then worked through to constrain the
sketch (Figure 4).
Having constrained the sketch, we checked how
it looked by performing a ‘pad’ from the tasks menu, QUICK TIP
and we then added the external corner radius fillet Often in this article,
and the chamfers at the edges of the extrusion slots. we have described
We could now, of course, just set a pad length of tools using the
extrusion and then create a simple copy on the part text that appears
workbench to create different length parts, but we when you hover
the mouse over the
want to learn how to use the spreadsheet function to
tool icon. This is a
further explore parametric work. great way to find the
Let's move to the spreadsheet workbench using tools or explore a
the workbench drop-down menu, and click the new workbench.
21
TUTORIAL
values, so we don’t need to define our input units in

the spreadsheet.
Set cell B1 to 100 and click back onto the preview
tab with the model in it. Reopen the pad by double-
clicking on the pad in the file tree. In the input box for
‘create a new spreadsheet’ icon. You should now ‘length’ you should see the current pad length value,
see a spreadsheet open in the preview window but you should also see a blue circle icon on the right-
Figure 4 in a separate tab (Figure 5). This is very handy, hand side of the box . Click this to open the formula
A basic sketch of
the 2020 profile. We
as it allows quick switching between the model editor (Figure 6). In this input box, now start to type
added chamfers and and the spreadsheet. If you close the spreadsheet ‘Spreadsheet’. You should find that it automatically
fillets once the sketch
was padded tab, the spreadsheet is still an item in the file tree suggests the word spreadsheet as you start typing.
view and you can double-click to open it. The Click the suggested ‘Spreadsheet’ from the drop-
Figure 5
The spreadsheet spreadsheet functions are very capable, and similar down and it should insert the word spreadsheet
workbench, with our to standard spreadsheets you may have used in followed by a full stop. After the full stop, we need
spreadsheet opened
in its own tab in the office software. For this simple task, we are going to input the cell location of the cell from which we
preview window
to write the label ‘Length’ in cell A1, and then in want it to take its value. If you type ‘B’, it again
”
Figure 6 cell B1 we can type a length we want our extrusion
Clicking the circular
blue box in the corner to be. When we type a dimension into a constraint
of any input box takes in the sketcher, it interprets that number as the This autosuggestion is useful
you to the formula
units you use throughout FreeCAD, which can be
editor, where you can
link the value to a
when we come to projects with
set in the preferences menu. In our case, this is
numerous cells of data
spreadsheet, amongst
”
other functions millimetres and will be the case for our spreadsheet
in a spreadsheet
should automatically suggest ‘B1’ as a value. This

autosuggestion is useful when we come to projects
with numerous cells of data in a spreadsheet, as it
will only suggest cells that have data in them. Click
the ‘B1’ so that the value in the formula editor reads
‘Spreadsheet.B1’, as in Figure 6.
Returning to the preview tab with the model in, you
should see that the extrusion body is now padded
or extruded to the 100 mm length. You can now
create multiple simple copies from the body using
the ‘create a simple copy’ tool in the ‘part’ drop-down
on the Part Workbench, changing the length of the
original body copy in the spreadsheet, as in Figure 1.
Having explored using both spreadsheets and the
thickness tool, let’s combine our new skills and create
an automatic parametric box generator. This simple
22
Figure 7
The spreadsheet set up
for our box generator
Figure 8
Using the spreadsheet
and the thickness tool,
we have a parametric
hollow box ready to
make a lid for
project makes it easy to create a box and lid of any

size that we could 3D-print or CNC-machine.
Let’s begin by creating a new project. In the new
project, go to the spreadsheet workbench and create
a new spreadsheet. For the main body of our box, we
are going to need four parameters: the box length,
width, height, and the wall thickness. Create labels for
these parameters in cells, and in adjacent cells input
some initial values (Figure 7).
Next, jump to the part design workbench and create
a body and a sketch in the XY plane. We are going to
draw a rectangle around the zero point and then, at first,
constrain it to always be centred around the origin point
of the sketch. Draw the rectangle and then click the
‘create a symmetry’ constraint tool. Use the symmetry
constraint tool to select the upper right-hand node, the
upper left-hand node, and the vertical Y axis line. Repeat
this for the upper right and lower right nodes, and the X
axis line. Now the rectangle should always be centred
around the 0,0 co-ordinates, regardless of its size.
Next, let’s add a constraint for the box length
by selecting the top line and clicking the ‘Fix the
horizontal distance’ tool. In the input box, click
the blue circle formula editor button and insert
‘Spreadsheet’, followed by the cell location for the
box length, which in our case was B2. Repeat this for
the vertical line to set the box width, and the sketch
should now appear fully constrained.
Close the sketch and perform a ‘pad’ task to
extrude the box; set the pad dimension to receive
the input from the box height cell in the spreadsheet.
Next, we will click the upper surface of our box and created. On the part design workbench, click to create
use the thickness tool we explored earlier to hollow a new sketch on the XY plane. We don’t need to
out our box. To set the thickness, we are going to link import any geometry from our first sketch, but let’s
the thickness value in our spreadsheet. All being well, draw another rectangle and place it along the x axis
you should now have a hollow box in the preview so it isn’t on top of our box base. To positionally
window (Figure 8). constrain this lid rectangle, select the upper left
To make a lid, we are going to do the same process corner node and the sketch origin point at 0,0 and set Figure 9
Laying out the sketch
as we did to make the box section, but we are going a horizontal distance constraint. For the value of this for the box lid, making
to use some simple formulae so that the lid is constraint, we have linked the spreadsheet cell that sure it will always be
positioned away from
generated to fit whatever dimensions are of the box holds the box_length value. This means that the lid our box
23
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP
You don’t have
to draw the 2020
extrusion to learn
this technique
– you can just
draw a simple
square instead!
an input value for the lid height. We constrained

Figure 11 the length and width of the lid sketch by adding
The box now
complete with a constraints linked to our calculated dimensions in the
fitting lid laid out
on the XY plane
spreadsheet. We then performed a pad using the
lid_depth value and, in turn, applied a thickness to
Figure 10
Adding a small the lid using the thickness value in the spreadsheet.
formula to a cell You now have an automatic box generator at your
to automatically
generate the disposal! Simply change the parameters in the
dimension needed spreadsheet and it will automatically generate your
for the lid length
box with a fitting lid (Figure 11).
will always be away from the box with a gap in
between them (Figure 9).
Next, select the upper right and lower right nodes
LINING UP
and the x axis line, and create a symmetry constraint. Once you have your box generator set up, you can
To create the length and width of the lid, we are generate boxes of any dimensions easily. The layout
on the XY plane means that the box and lid will
going to create two new labels in the spreadsheet
be easy to export and 3D-print, as both parts are
and create two new cells to hold this value. However, modelled in a way that emulates them sitting on the
we are going to insert a small formula in the cells to print bed. If you wanted to look at your box with the lid
generate these values. The value for the length of in position, again you could create a simple copy on
the lid will be equal to the box length value plus twice the part workbench and move and rotate those parts
the value of the wall thickness. It will also need a into the correct position.
clearance to make the lid fit over the box. We have
QUICK TIP created a label and a cell called ‘clearance’, and put
When working on in a value of half a millimetre which we will add to
a sketch like the each side of the lid. So, to create the value of the
2020 extrusion, lid_length in that cell, we input the formula to multiply
using the ‘create an the thickness and the clearance by two and add them
equality’ constraint to the box length. To add this formula, highlight the
tool is helpful
target cell and type it into the formula bar (Figure 10).
on lines that are
relatively the same To finish the lid, we added the formula for the box
in each quadrant of width, using the same formula for length, except
the sketch. using the box width dimension. We also created
24
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FreeCAD: let’s get curvy!
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
let’s get curvy!
Add bendy transitions to your parts for a more elegant look
Figure 1 Figure 2
Two sketches in the XY plane Using the lofting tool
with one sketch raised above can create pleasing
F
the other on the Z-axis curved results
irst up is the Additive Loft function, Again, we don’t need to constrain the hexagon, so
which is a method that creates straight close the sketch. The next step is to move the hexagon
or curved transitions between sketches sketch away from the rectangle sketch in the Z-axis.
– it’s a great way of creating complex As both of the sketches are part of the same body, we
flowing shapes. To start with, we will can’t move the basic position of the hexagon sketch,
make a nonsense object just to see how but we can move the relative attachment point of
it works, and then we will create a small ornamental the sketch. With the sketch containing the hexagon
bowl that can be 3D-printed. selected, you should see the dialogue box for the
On the part design workbench, create a new body sketch in the combo view panel. In this dialogue box,
and then create a new sketch on the XY plane – this there are three sections of values separated under
should move you onto the sketcher workbench. Select the headings 'Attachment', 'Base', and 'Sketch'.
the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle in this sketch. Making sure you are in the Attachment section, click
As this is a test, we don’t need to add constraints, so the Attachment menu, and then click to expand the
close this sketch now. In the part design workbench Position menu. In this drop-down menu, adjust the
again, within the same body, create a second sketch. Z-axis to raise the hexagon sketch over the rectangle –
Click the 'New sketch' button, and select the XY plane this can be any amount, but we went for 20 mm. If you
for our second sketch. are in an isometric view in the part design workbench,
In this second sketch, use the regular polygon tool to you should see the hexagon sketch rise above the
draw a hexagon that is smaller than the rectangle you rectangle sketch (Figure 1).
drew – draw it inside the rectangle, and don’t worry if it Next, select the original rectangle sketch in the file
overlaps a little. tree view, and then click the yellow and red 'loft a
26
selected profile through other profile sections' tool. In
Figure 3
the combo view panel, you should now see a window Our completed
– click the 'Add section' button. Having clicked that, loft experiment
select the hexagon sketch in the preview window. As Figure 4

In this approach, the
you do this, you should see a preview of the lofted part two circles in each
connected between the rectangle and the hexagon. sketch represent the
wall thickness of our
There are a couple of checkboxes you can click: one is bowl design
called 'closed' which will close the ends of the lofted
Figure 5
object, and the other is 'ruled surface'. Clicking 'ruled The three sketches
surface' toggles the lofted object between having either for our lofted bowl
laid positioned on
straight line/plane geometries or curved. It is not that the Z-axis
obvious a difference with our simple example, but we Figure 6
will use this in our next lofting project. The first sketch which
forms the profile
To finish, click the 'closed' checkbox and then OK for our curvy
to perform the loft. In the preview window, you will extrusion using the
sweep function
now see the resulting object. Lofted objects are like
any other in that you can use other tools on the objects
created with them, such as selecting edges for fillets.
However, when the surfaces generated become
complex and curved, you might find that some tools
don't work and we need a different approach.
One thing people often try with the lofting tool is
to apply a thickness to the resulting object to hollow
it out. Sadly the thickness tools only work on simple
geometries, so it’s not possible to work this way. earlier with our hexagon. Move it up by 25 mm. Next,
However, let’s make a more interesting lofted object – do the same with the third sketch, moving it up the
the bowl pictured in Figure 2 – and show how we can Z-axis 60 mm (Figure 5). Create the loft in a similar way
create curved objects with defined thickness walls. to the earlier example, starting by selecting the first
In a new project, create a body and create a sketch sketch and then adding the second sketch and the third
in the XY plane. Draw two circles constrained around sketch in that order. If you uncheck the ruled option and
the origin point and make one slightly smaller than the closed option, you should end up with a nice curvy
the other; the distance between them will create the shape, as shown in Figure 2.
wall thickness of our object. We made our sketch with Adding one final sketch of a circle matching the outer
the outer circle having a diameter of 25 mm and the diameter of the lowest sketch in our bowl means that we
inner circle having a diameter of 22 mm, to give a wall can pad/extrude to add a base to our ornamental bowl.
thickness of 1.5 mm (Figure 4). Sweeping along a path is a similar idea to revolving
Close the sketch and then create another sketch in a sketch and also shares some attributes of lofting.
the XY plane. Create a larger pair of circles, but with the However, sweeping uses a user-drawn path or
same wall thickness – we went for 45 mm and 42 mm. geometry that the extrusion is swept along, rather than
Close this sketch and then create a third sketch with a an automatically generated one. There are a couple of
pair of circles constrained to match the first set we drew. approaches to sweeping in FreeCAD: one using the part
With the second sketch highlighted, move these workbench, the other using the part design workbench.
circles up the Z-axis using the same method we used Let's look at both to have both methods in our skill set.
27
FreeCAD: let’s get curvy!
TUTORIAL
Starting on the part design workbench, create a Close the sketch, and in the preview window, you
new project, create a body, and create a sketch in the can rotate your view a little and see that the curved
XY plane. In the blank sketch, make a small closed edge we created starts at the origin point, which is in
shape around the origin point. We drew a square and the middle of our profile sketch (Figure 8). To sweep
then added some fillets in the corners by clicking the the profile along the curved path, highlight the first
'create a fillet between two lines or at a coincident sketch we made and then click the yellow and red
point' tool. With the fillet tool selected, click on some 'sweep a selected sketch along a path' tool. You should
corners of the square to add some fillets, and resize see a dialogue box appear in the combo view panel. In
them to make an interesting shape. This shape will the dialogue box, we need to select the path or object
be the profile of our item we extrude by sweeping it along which to sweep. We can do this in a couple of
along a path (Figure 6 overleaf). Again, constraining ways. We can either click the 'Object' button under the
the sketch is unimportant for a simple exploration of 'path to sweep along', or we can click the 'Add Edges'
the tool. button. Having clicked either of these buttons, we can
Close the sketch and then create a new empty then select the curved path in the preview window. You
sketch in the body. Create this new sketch in the XZ should now see a brown preview of the profile swept
plane. In this sketch, we are going to create the path along our path. Click 'OK' to finish the sweep. You
along which our first sketch profile will be swept. Let's should now have a nice swept object in the preview
use 'create a B-spline in the sketch' tool. This tool window (Figure 9).
allows us to create a combination of curves in a single There are many other options in the sweep utility in
line. With the B-spline tool selected, left-click over the the part design workbench that can change the way
origin point in the sketch and pull a line up and to the that corners are handled in a swept object, and also
Figure 7
A sketch in the right or left of vertical, then left-click again and continue how it handles transforming from one profile to another
XZ plane using
the 'create a B-
with the next line upwards and back towards the centre profile over the course of a sweep, which we will
spline' tool line. Left-click again and move back out to the right and
Figure 8 upwards to create a skewed kind of Z-shape. Left-click
The profile sketch, to set the next point, and then right-click to finish the MAKING PIPES
and the path to sweep
the profile along B-spline. The two lines you drew should now become The part design workbench sweep tool creates single
curved, and you should see some blue circles. Simply, solid body objects, but we can apply some techniques
Figure 9
The completed object for now, moving the circles allows you to adjust the we learnt in the last chapter, where we used the
with the profile sketch
curve of the lines. Make a nice swooping curve, such as 'Create a thickness tool'. As a quick recap, select
swept along the
target path sketch the one we created (Figure 7). the face of one end of our swept solid object and
click the thickness tool. In the dialogue box, you can
set the thickness of the wall structure, and to make
it a pipe object open at both ends, click 'Add face'
and then additionally select the opposite end of the
swept object.
28
Figure 10
Three sketches ready
for sweeping on the
part workbench
Figure 11
Adding the profile
sketches in the
sweep utility
Figure 12
Adding the path
that the sweep
utility will follow
explore on the part workbench shortly. The other thing

of note on the part design workbench is that there is
a blue and red icon that is the same as the sweep tool
we used, except that it's for subtractive sweeps. This
means you could draw a solid object and then cut out
and remove a swept path through it.
Finally, let’s look at the sweep utilities on the part
workbench, which are laid out a little differently. We will
also create two profiles and a path, and the profile will
be transformed from one shape to the other along the
path. Let's create a new project and go directly to the
Sketcher workbench. Create a new sketch in the XY
plane and then draw a circle anchored around the origin
point – it is up to you if you want to constrain it or not for
this example. Close that sketch and then create a second
sketch, again in the XY plane. In this sketch, let's draw a of sketches on the left-hand side. In turn, select the first
square – which should be a similar size to the circle we sketch containing the circle, and click the right-facing
drew in the first sketch – around the origin point. Close arrow that becomes highlighted to move the sketch
this sketch, but highlight it in the combo view panel into the 'selected profiles' column. Repeat this for the
so that the dialogue box options for the sketch appear second sketch – the sketch that contains the square
below it. We are going to move the position of the (Figure 11). Next, click the 'Sweep path' button, and
sketch so that it shifts vertically 70 mm up the Z-axis. In the dialogue box will become greyed out. Click the path
the sketch dialogue box under the 'Base' heading, open you want to sweep along in the preview window to
the drop-down menu labelled 'Placement' then, in turn, turn it green, and then click the curved path we created
open the drop-down menu labelled 'Position'. In this earlier (Figure 12). Next, click 'Done' and then click
menu, change the Z-axis value to 70 mm. the 'OK' button. You should now see the circle profile
You should be able to see in the preview window has been swept towards the square on our curved
QUICK TIP
that the square is now above the circle. Next, making path, and it has transformed throughout the curve to
When you are
sure nothing is selected in the file tree, add a third conform to the square profile. In the file tree, this is
drawing the
sketch with this sketch drawn on the XZ plane. Using now a 'sweep' object, and double-clicking the sweep
third sketch, the
the 'create an edge linked to an external geometry' object doesn’t allow you to edit the sweep, but rather, circles will appear
tool, click the horizontal line that is on the upper square opens the dialogue box to move and rotate the part. If exactly on top of
sketch. Next, use the B-spline tool to create a nice you want to change any sweep parameters, you must the first sketch.
curved line which starts at the origin point and curves select the sweep object and delete it, which will return To make it easier,
up to reach the centre of the upper square sketch. Then you to just having the three separate sketches, and make the original
sketch invisible by
close the sketch, and you should have three sketches then repeat the sweep utility process. In the dialogue
highlighting it in the
roughly similar to Figure 10. box for the sweep utility, you can select to make the file tree, toggling
Moving to the part workbench, click the 'utility to object a solid; then, you could create a simple copy and visibility by pressing
sweep' tool. In the dialogue box, you should see the list then use the thickness and other tools and utilities. the SPACE bar.
29
FreeCAD: technical drawings
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
technical drawings
Explore the TechDraw workbench and create technical drawings of our FreeCAD projects
M
any users will be using FreeCAD the first parts of this guide, using the Part Design
to model in 3D to produce files workbench.
that can be sliced and printed Create a new project and, on the Part Design
on a 3D printer. Other users, workbench, create a body and then a sketch in the
however, will be perhaps designing XY plane. Using the ‘Create Polyline’ tool, create a
parts that they want to create using shape similar to Figure 2. We don’t necessarily need
subtractive methods, like lathes or milling machines. to constrain the entire model or sketch to use the
Some will be using bench-fitting techniques to cut, TechDraw tools, but it’s useful in this case to have
drill, and file to hew parts from materials. To share all the dimensions constrained so we can compare
the information needed to manufacture a part, the dimensions on the drawing (more on why that’s
the standard practice is to use technical drawings. important later).
Drafting a technical drawing using pencil and paper Having drawn the outline, add a circle in the
and a drawing board is a fantastic skill to have, but object, and then close the sketch and perform a pad
it can be difficult to master. FreeCAD (Figure 1) operation on the sketch to create our part. Finally,
simplifies the creation of technical drawings from before we jump into the TechDraw workbench,
3D models by having a dedicated technical drawing add a fillet to an external edge with a 7 mm radius.
workbench called ‘TechDraw’. Having an internal hole and an external radius and
To work through an example of creating a technical an angled edge gives us enough details to do a
drawing, we need a 3D model to use. Let’s quickly good demonstration of the TechDraw workbench
draw an item using simple techniques we learnt in tools – see Figure 3.
To begin playing with TechDraw, select the
TechDraw workbench from the drop-down menu.
Click the ‘Insert Default Page’ tool icon and you should
have a new tab in the preview window with an empty
technical drawing page in it – Figure 4, overleaf.
You can see that the new ‘page’ is listed as
an object in the file tree. Switch back to the tab
that contains the 3D model and you’ll notice that,
despite switching tabs, you are still in the TechDraw
workbench. As an experiment, move the model so
that it is at an angle rather than in one of the ‘front,
top, back’ type views. Next, ensuring the body is
highlighted in the file tree, click the ‘Insert View’ tool
icon. If you switch to the ‘page’ tab, you should see
the 3D object has been added to the drawing in its
exact view, at the angle it
appears on the live preview.
Figure 1
FreeCAD allows It’s important you know that
the easy creation of
technical drawings of
it does this, because if your
our 3D parts object is slightly at an angle,
30
Figure 2
The basic sketch of
our test object to
explore the
TechDraw workbench
Figure 3
Our object, now
padded and with
a 7 mm radius
fillet added
you might not notice, but it can affect dimensions

in technical drawings added later. On the ‘page’ tab,
you should have a dashed line around the ‘view’ –
these are referred to as the ‘View Frames’. Clicking
the frame and dragging allows you to move the view
around the technical drawing page. Highlighting
the frame and clicking delete allows you to remove
it. Click and delete this angled view and let’s have
another go. Return to the preview window and,
using either the view icons, or the rotation block,
select the ‘top’ view. Repeat the process of clicking
GETTING SET UP
the ‘Insert View’ tool to add the view to the page,
Before we add any views to our new page, we need to
”
make an important change in some preferences so that
the centres of circles and arcs are marked when they
Our simple test piece design are drawn in TechDraw views. Making sure you are on
doesn’t need masses of views the TechDraw workbench, go to Edit > Preferences and
then scroll down the left-hand side to the TechDraw
to be able to show all of its icon. On the TechDraw preferences window, click
”
the ‘Annotation’ tab and make sure the ‘Show centre
attributes and dimensions marks’ and ‘Print centre marks’ boxes are checked.
Click Apply, and then OK to close Preferences.
(Figure 5, overleaf). You’ll notice that all the lines in

the drawing have the vertices marked as dots (similar
to the Sketcher layout). The vertices help us to add
dimensions and other tasks, but they are part of the
view frame. You can toggle the view frames on and
off by clicking the ‘Turn View Frames On/Off’ icon, or
by right-clicking and selecting ‘Toggle Frames’.
Our simple test piece design doesn’t need masses
of views to be able to show all of its attributes and
dimensions, but we would definitely need another
view adding to show the thickness of the part. Later,
we will look at automatically generating multiple
views of a part which adhere to technical drawing
31
TUTORIAL
Figure 4
Starting a first
technical drawing
by inserting a
blank page
conventions, but for now, let’s just add another view.

ANNOTATIONS Do this manually as we did with our top view. Return
to the 3D model preview, and move the model so we
Most technical drawings will have some details added
are in a left- or right-hand view, then click the ‘Insert
as text; in our default template, we have some text
boxes set up in the lower right-hand corner. These View’ button.
include common details you might wish to add to a Next, let’s add some dimensions to parts of
technical drawing, including the title, designer name, the views so that someone could make this part
date, scale of the drawing, and more. With the view accurately. It’s similar in feel to adding constraints in
frames turned on, you should notice that each text the Sketcher workbench. First, let’s select the long
area has a small green block. Clicking on the green
line/edge at the base of our object in the front view
block allows you to edit and insert the text that you
want to add. You’ll also notice that there are some on the technical drawing page. Then click the yellow
blank boxes with no text inserted. You can add text
”
anywhere on the document by using the ‘Insert
Annotation’ tool. Clicking the tool, you should see a
view frame appear labelled ‘annotation’ with ‘default You can click and drag this
text’ written in it. To edit the annotation, select the
dimension to different
view frame either by clicking it in the preview, or
selecting it in the file tree view. In the combo view, areas to organise where
”
you should now see the editable parameters of
the annotation, which include common text editing the labels are
options like font and size. At the top of the annotation
parameters, you should see ‘Text’ and the ‘Default
Text’ that is stored within it; click the ellipsis icon (the
‘Insert Horizontal Dimension’ tool icon. You should
three dots to the right) and in the pop-up window you
now see a dimension appear in the drawing. Similar
can input text. Note that it doesn’t use text wrapping,
and you need to click the RETURN key to create a new to the Sketcher workbench, you can click and drag
line of text. In the image above, we have filled in the this dimension to different areas to organise where
default drawing details with the editable text boxes, the labels are. Adding the height of the 3D object is a
QUICK TIP but also added the lines about the part tolerance and similar task, except we don’t have a single complete
If a linked dimension surface finish by adding an annotation box. Notice line from the bottom to the top of the object, so we
doesn’t update we also added some text in an annotation box outside
straight away, clicking will use vertices instead. Similar to the vertical and
the default drawing text boxes, as you can add an
and moving the annotation frame anywhere in the drawing. horizontal constraints in the Sketcher workbench,
dimension slightly TechDraw can create a vertical dimension between
often refreshes it. two points, even if they don’t sit on the same edge.
32
Slightly differently than the Sketcher workbench,
when you want to select multiple vertices, you need Figure 8
Linking a drawing
to hold the CTRL key down. Select the right-hand dimension back to
the model is
vertex on the bottom edge of our object and the useful in angled
highest vertex on the right of the small bit that sticks isometric views
up at the top of the design. Click the ‘Insert Vertical Figure 5
Dimension’ tool to add the dimension and note Our first view of our
object inserted into
that it correctly adds the vertical distance between the new drawing
the points – not the distance along a straight line
Figure 6
between the points. Our view of our
object with most
Holes in designs in technical drawings are dimensions added
commonly annotated with the diameter rather than
Figure 7
the radius, often as the maker will be wanting to Adding a line length
know what size drill or reamer to use. Adding a to an isometric
view can create an
dimension for the diameter of our hole is similar to incorrect dimension,
adding a radius constraint when we drew the circle as seen here
in Sketcher. We simply select the circle and then

click the yellow ‘Insert Diameter Dimension’ and
the diameter of our hole is displayed. To indicate
the co-ordinate position of the hole centre, we can
select the centre mark and apply horizontal and
vertical dimensions relative to another vertex. We
have selected the lower left-hand corner of the
object to act as this datum point and, of course, you
could repeat this for the centre marks of the arc
of the fillet. Most technical drawings would have a
radius of the arc marked, rather than a diameter, and
this would apply to our fillet arc. To add this, simply
click the arc line and then click the ‘Insert Radius
Dimension’ tool – Figure 6.
33
TUTORIAL
To add a dimension showing the angle of the

WHICH ANGLE?
Figure 9 left-hand side line, relative to the base of the object,
Selecting views to
insert multiple views select both these lines and click the yellow ‘Insert Technical drawing in itself is a massive field to
in one pass Angle Dimension’ tool icon. Whilst it’s not often learn about, and there are numerous standards and
necessary, sometimes we might want to add systems in place governing technical drawings.
the actual length of a line rather than a vertical or One set of standards relate to the projection
horizontal and, to do this, let’s select the angled line angles which affect where views are positioned in
a technical drawing. These two projection views
and click the yellow ‘Insert Length Dimension’ tool.
families, ‘First Angle’ and ‘Third Angle’, are both used
This is a very useful function at times, but also it but create a technical drawing laid out differently.
hints at the way TechDraw handles line/edge length First angle drawings are more common outside of
North America, whereas in North America third
”
angle is more common. It’s important that you
This is a very useful function at indicate that you are using a first or third angle
projection on a technical drawing and that you only
times, but also it hints at the use that type of view and don’t mix them. Commonly
on technical drawings, you indicate whether a
way TechDraw handles
”
drawing is first or third angle by adding the correct
icon, as seen in the image below.
line/edge length It’s quite complex to explain the difference,
and there are numerous different approaches to
explaining first and third angle.
and a possible problem. If we return to our 3D object
A good place to start is this Wikipedia page:
in the live preview, click the ‘Set to Isometric View’
hsmag.cc/Angle.
icon from the collection of blue view icon tools.
With the object now at an angled isometric view,
let’s add a new view to our TechDraw page. Move
to the technical drawing page and move the new
view so that it’s clear of other views. Select one of
the long lines that is the base of our object and click
the ‘Insert Length Dimension’ tool. If you compare
the dimension you have just added to the very first
horizontal dimension we added on our first view of
the object, you’ll notice that they are different. This is
because the TechDraw dimensions default to being
34
Drawable Objects’ tool icon, which should be next to
the template folder icon. If you now click to the ‘page’ Left
Figure 10. Adding text
tab, we can see any changes we make in the dialog can help your viewers
box live on the template. understand what’s
going on
In the dialog box, the first thing you will see is a
projection menu. Let’s use first angle, as our template
indicates the drawing will be in first angle projection.
For this example, we don’t need to scale the
drawings as it’s quite a small object. However, you
can play with selecting a custom scale and changing
based off the view drawing rather than the actual 3D the values, which is useful if you want to scale down
object, so the actual length of the angled line in the a large object on the plans. Further down you will see
isometric view drawing is shorter (Figure 7, overleaf). an arrangement of checkboxes that correspond with
If you wanted to add an isometric view with some the multiple views that will be added to our drawing.
dimensions added, you can overcome this problem Select the pattern we have selected in Figure 9
by linking a dimension to the 3D object. First, and click OK. On the technical drawing, you should
highlight the incorrect dimension we just added to now have the corresponding views automatically
the isometric view, and look in the file tree view to inserted. To move linked views is slightly different
identify the name of this dimension. In our example, as it always aligns the projection of the main views
this was ‘Dimension012’. Having noted that, click to the centre view. To move all the views as a group,
over to the 3D object tab and highlight the same move the centre view; to move the upper, lower, and QUICK TIP
edge on the 3D object. Next, click the yellow ‘Link side views, you can push and pull them relative to To export and print
Dimension to 3D Geometry’ tool. In the combo view, the centre view. The exception is our isometric view, your technical
drawing at any
you will see a window with a list of dimensions in a which we can move anywhere in the page.
time, simply right-
left-hand column. Select the dimension name that As ever with FreeCAD, there’s heaps more we
click anywhere
we noted earlier and then click the right-facing arrow could look at on this workbench alone, but hopefully in the drawing
to bring that dimension name over to the right-hand you are well on the path to creating beautiful and to get a range of
column – Figure 8, overleaf. Click OK at the top of the useful technical drawings for all your project needs. output option.
menu and return to the technical drawing page tab.
You should now see that the dimension has updated
to the correct length of the 3D object.
GETTING CENTRED
Having played with the TechDraw tools a little, let’s Technical drawings often use centre lines and hatching and other effects to make them
delete our practice drawing and start again, looking more readable. Adding a patterned centre line is possible, and you can use a face, two
at a couple of things that might make the process vertices, or two lines as a reference. As a quick example, click the face of our object in
quicker now we know how some of the tools work. the front view to select it and then click the ‘Insert Centre Line’ tool icon. In the dialog
box you can adjust the position and appearance, but for now just click OK and a dashed
Select the page we were working on in the file tree
line should appear vertically through our object. A centre line is classed as a ‘cosmetic
and delete it. To create a new page for our technical object’ and as such doesn’t appear in the file tree. To remove the centre line we just
drawing, let’s click a different icon: the ‘Insert Page created, you need to select the centre line and then click the ‘Remove Cosmetic Object’
Using Template’ icon that looks like an orange folder. icon, which looks like an eraser. To add hatching to a face, select the face and then click
This opens a folder containing different templates for the ‘Apply Geometric Hatch To Face’. In the dialog you can change various settings such
technical drawings. There are some things that will as the pattern, line weight, and colour.
appear obvious to you, like there are different page
sizes: A4, A3, A1, etc. There are also some templates
that adhere to particular technical standards, such
as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
and the International Organisation for Standardisation
(ISO), which may be of use if you want to make
standard-compliant drawings. Let’s use a page called
‘A3_LandscapeTD.svg’.
Make sure that the 3D object is in the top view
in the preview and highlight the body in the file
tree. This time, instead of clicking to insert a single
view, let’s use the ‘Insert Multiple Linked Views Of
35
FreeCAD: add-on workbenches and interlocking parts
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
add-on workbenches
and interlocking parts
Use add-on workbenches to make interlocking parts
A
fter looking at how we install subjects and interests. From aeroplane design
additional workbenches, we tools to computational fluid dynamics to 3D print
will focus on using an excellent slicing engines – there’s a lot to explore. Installing a
workbench called ’Laser Cut workbench is as simple as selecting it in the list and
Interlocking’ or ’LCInterlocking’, then clicking Install. Behind the scenes, FreeCAD
which offers some useful tools connects to the workbench code repository online
for those working on designs destined for a laser and downloads and installs the latest version. It’s
cutter or CNC router. then simple to update a workbench when new
To explore the amazing array of add-on features are released. It’s just a case of clicking
workbenches, you’ll need to be connected to ’Install/update selected’ on the relevant workbench
the internet. You can view the available add-on in the Addon Manager.
workbenches from any workbench in FreeCAD by The workbench we are going to look at is called
simply clicking Tools > Addon Manager. The Addon ’LCInterlocking’ – it’s described as the ’FreeCAD
Manager will then check all the available add-on Laser Cut Interlocking Module’. Go ahead and click
workbenches – it may take a few seconds for the install. Once installed, the Addon Manager will
list to appear as it checks it’s up to date. You should prompt you to close and restart FreeCAD to finish
end up with a list that looks like Figure 2. the installation. Once FreeCAD has restarted, let’s
Before we install the workbench we’ll be using create a small project to explore the tools on this
in this article, scroll around the list. If you highlight new workbench.
a workbench on the list, information about it will The LCInterlocking workbench has tools that
appear on the right-hand side of the window. It’s allow a collection of parts in FreeCAD to be pulled
incredible what workbenches there are! Like all apart and laid out flat. It then has tools that enable
of FreeCAD, the add-on workbenches listed in us to create a two-dimensional projection of the part
the Addon Manager represent many thousands shapes that we can export in various file formats
of hours of voluntary contributions by FreeCAD (DXF, SVG, etc.). While it’s predominantly, as the
community developers, covering a vast array of name suggests, aimed at laser cutting, it also can
36
Figure 1
Our box, complete
with automatically
generated
interlocking tabs, and
ready to be flattened
and exported from
the LCInterlocking
workbench
Figure 2
The Addon Manager
has an astonishing
list of amazing
workbenches with
toolsets for all
kinds of projects
in FreeCAD
be useful for other processes, such as make a cube by clicking the ’Create a cube solid’
preparing files and objects to set up toolpaths tool. Double-click the object in the Combo View file
for CNC routing. The ’interlocking’ part of the tree and then change its dimensional parameters.
LCInterlocking name hints at another handy Let’s make the length 100 mm, height 97 mm, and
feature: the workbench has tools that can width 3 mm. Next, let’s right-click this cube in the
automatically create tabbed joints in objects file tree and then select Transform – use the arrows
where one part has tabs and the other part has in the preview window to bring the side up on the
receiving slots. Z-axis by 3 mm so that it sits exactly on top of the
To explore these tools, let’s create a collection base we made earlier (Figure 3, overleaf).
of parts that form the base and sides of a simple Make the opposite side of your box by either
box. In the Sketcher workbench, draw a sketch in repeating the process and moving it to the opposite
the XY plane of a square that is 100 mm on each side, or simply copy and paste and move a duplicate
side, and let’s constrain it with the lower-left corner of the first side. Next, repeat the process to make
onto the 0,0 point of the axis. the final two sides of the simple box, making the
” From aeroplane design

tools to computational
fluid dynamics to 3D print
slicing engines – there’s
”
a lot to explore
Having drawn the box sketch, use the ’extrude/

pad’ tool on the Part workbench to extrude the
sketch to a thickness of 3 mm. Using 3 mm means
we can imagine we are going to laser-cut our tabbed
box out of 3 mm plastic or plywood. We could make
this base part in a much easier way – namely, we
could use the ’Create a cube solid’ tool. However, as
an example, we wanted one part to be made from
an extrusion as we need to treat extruded parts a
little differently when we get to the LCInterlocking
workbench. We can use the cube generator to
create the sides of our box, however. First, let’s
37
TUTORIAL
height 97 mm, width 94 mm, and length 3 mm. on the simple copy of the base and rename it to
Move these in a similar way using the ’Transform’ something recognisable, such as ’Base’ (Figure 4).
tool to move these sides into the correct positions Next, let’s move to the LCInterlocking workbench
lined up with the edges of (and sat on) the base, as by selecting it from the drop-down menu. The first
in Figure 4. task in the new workbench is to create some tabs
Before we move over to the LCInterlocking and slots to ensure strong joints in the box.
workbench, we need to convert the base into a To get started, highlight the five parts that form
simple part. LCInterlocking prefers to work with our open box in the file tree, and then click the
parts that are simple objects rather than parts that grey ’Interlocking’ tool icon. In the dialog box that
appear as a stack of operations in the file tree view.
”
We could just draw the base with a cube, but if
you’re working with more complex shapes, this
Figure 3 Dog bone holes are where
Adding sides to our
might help you remember to convert parts into
extruded base using simple copies before opening the LCInterlocking the machine is instructed to
the ‘Create a cube
workbench. So, before proceeding, highlight the
solid’ tool cut a little further into the
”
base part in the file tree, and click Part > Create a
Figure 4
Our simple box base Copy > Create a Simple Copy. Delete the original corners on both axes
and sides, created extrusion and sketch in the file tree to keep things
and aligned on the
Part workbench simple and clutter-free. It’s a good idea to right-click
appears, you will see a button that says ’Add parts’.
Click this button and you will see the five selected
parts appear in the window (Figure 5). This list of
parts in the dialog box is similar to the file tree in
the combo view in that you can highlight anything
in the list – you can press the SPACE bar to toggle
visibility. This is very handy for the next task. We
need to tell the ’Interlocking’ tool which faces of our
box are going to interlock. Let’s begin with the faces
that will form the tabs that extend into the base.
Select the ’Base’ part and then press the SPACE
bar to make it disappear – do this for three of the
sides. Next, select one of the thin faces on the
remaining side of the box, making sure it is the face
that is touching the base when the base is visible
(Figure 6, overleaf). With that face highlighted, click
the ’Add faces’ button in the dialog. You should see
38
ROCKET WORKBENCH
One add-on workbench we wanted to give a special
mention to was the Rocket workbench. The Rocket
workbench is in active development, and contains
tools that help you design rocket parts parametrically.
It has an exciting road map ahead that includes
features like importing files from other rocket design
environments such as OpenRocket, RockSim, and
RASAero. This will open up great possibilities for
rocket design, flight simulation, the realisation of parts
via 3D printing, CNC milling, and more. We featured
rocketry, including a tutorial on OpenRocket, back
in issue 12 if you’re interested in getting started with
model rockets and rocket design.
internal corner, you are left with the radius of the
tool in the corner of the cut. If you are cutting tabs
the added face highlighted in the list, filed under the into material in this way, then the tabs won’t fully
part that it is attached to. If you scroll down in the seat into the slots due to this excess material. Dog
dialog box, you will see a menu relating to that face. bone holes are where the machine is instructed to
In this, you can input the details of the tabs that you cut a little further into the corners on both axes;
wish to generate on this face. this slight overcut creates two small, round cuts in
Add the number of tabs – you can make your own a corner that look like a stereotypical dog’s bone,
choices, but we went with four. We set the ’width giving the process its unusual name.
of tabs’ to 10 mm, ’shift’ was left at 0.00, and the We deselected both of the checkboxes as we
’interval ratio’ was set to 1.00. You’ll see there’s don’t need them for this example.
a couple of checkbox items: ’Dog bone hole’ and Having input the tab parameters, scroll back up to
’Tab dog bone hole’ (Figure 7, overleaf). Dog bone the top of the interlocking dialog box and click the
holes are a method often used in parts that are ’Preview’ button. This will launch a new tab in the
CNC routed to get rid of a problem created by the preview window, and you should see that our box
fact that most router tools are round. If you send a appears (regardless of which parts are visible or
round end mill cutter along a path to cut a 90-degree invisible in our other tab). If we look at the joint
Figure 5
Adding the parts of
our box to create tabs
and slots using the
‘interlocking’ tool
39
TUTORIAL
between the base and our tabbed face, there are

Figure 6 now four tabs interlocking into the base (Figure 8,
We toggled the
visibility so that only overleaf). We can now repeat the above process of
one side was visible, selecting and adding faces to the interlocking Once again, FreeCAD will open a new preview
then selected the
face of that side that dialog and configuring tabs. Working our way window tab – this will contain all the parts of your
touches the base, and through the model, we added tabs to the other box separated and laid out on a single plane. You
then clicked the
‘Add faces’ button three faces that interlock with the base, and then will also see some new objects in the file tree if
Figure 7
added tabs to two of the side panels to create you rotate the plane in the preview, as we have in
Adding tabs to a tabbed joints on every interface of our box. Figure 10. These are the ’Shape2DView’ objects –
face is as simple
as inputting a few Once we are satisfied with our added tabs in line projections of the outline of your parts. While
options about the the preview, click the ’OK’ button to apply the this might initially seem confusing, having both
number and size
of the tabs interlocking tool to the parts. In the Combo View versions of the parts is incredibly useful, depending
under our main document, there is now an object on what you would like to do to create the parts.
Figure 8
Previewing the called ’MultiJoin’ (Figure 1). Within this file tree, If we wanted to cut the parts for our tabbed
added tabs in a
separate preview
there are now parts that are the tabbed version box on a CNC router, we could easily use the Path
window to check of our original parts, and there is also an invisible workbench to create toolpaths using the 3D objects
they are correct
folder that contains the original non-tabbed parts. that the LCInterlocking workbench export tool has
The preview tab also stays available – you can laid out. Using the Shape2DView parts, however,
save this as a separate project if you like; however, we can create 2D output files that are suitable to
we can close the preview tab without saving it for cut this design using a laser cutter. First, in the file
this example. tree, let’s toggle the visibility of the 3D parts so that
The next task is to apply the ’Export’ tool to we just have the Shape2DView objects visible in
the tabbed parts we have generated. Rather the preview. Next, highlight all the Shape2DView
than actually export a file, this tool explodes our parts in the file tree, and then click File > Export. In
box apart, lays the parts out as flat parts, and the export dialog, select a location to export to, and
automatically creates a drawn shape projection of then from the drop-down menu, select ’Flattened
the parts. In the file tree, select all the new tabbed SVG’ as the file type. Give your export a name
parts we created under the MultiJoin object, and followed by ’.svg’ and then click the Save button.
then click the ’Export’ tool icon (Figure 9). You should now have saved an SVG file containing
a vector line drawing of the parts we created. The
beauty of an SVG export is that we don’t lose any
dimensional accuracy, and we can open this file for
editing in many graphics packages. We are huge
fans of the free, open-source Inkscape package here
at HackSpace magazine, so let’s take a quick look at
our SVG using that.
Find your file and open it in Inkscape. Note
that you can select and move each of the parts
individually. This is excellent, as often we will
want to move parts around on an Inkscape canvas
to arrange our components so that we are as
economical as possible when cutting the parts on
our laser cutter. That might be the only edit you
40
Figure 9
Selecting the newly
interlocking tabbed
parts, and clicking
the ‘Export’ tool
need to make, but often you may need to customise

the SVG file to work with the settings of your laser
cutter. We can think of a couple of different laser
cutters that we have access to that have slightly
different requirements. One needs any line that the
laser is going to perform a cutting/vector action to
be a ’hairline’ thickness of 0.0254 mm or thinner;
another machine isn’t worried about the thickness
applied to a stroke on a path but wants all cut
lines to be red in colour. These changes are trivial
to make in Inkscape. Of course, as a fully-fledged
vector graphics package, Inkscape can also be
useful to embellish your parts with decorations that
COMMUNITY FORUM
Asking for help with FreeCAD is something everyone the laser cutter will engrave/raster; again, this is Figure 10
who uses FreeCAD does or has done, and a great place simple to realise in Inkscape, as we have done in Using the export
to request assistance is on the FreeCAD community tool in Laser Cut
Figure 11. Having made our changes in Inkscape, Interlocking creates
forum. The golden rule to remember is that everyone we can resave the file as an SVG or, of course, 3D and 2D flattened
working on FreeCAD is a volunteer, so we need to do versions of all your
Inkscape is capable of producing many other file interlocking parts
our best to make life easy, and be nice! Before you
post, do a search on the forum for the topic you want types that may be of use to you depending on your
Figure 11
to post about – the forum has been running for a long making process. Remember, sometimes simple is Editing our
time, and chances are someone else has raised a best – you could always print the box part design exported SVG of
the Shape2DView
similar discussion. We find that we barely need to out on paper as a template to cut out! objects in Inkscape
post on the forum when we search first. We have also
discovered all kinds of interesting approaches and
techniques. Secondly, it’s really important when asking
for some assistance that you describe which version of
FreeCAD you are using and on which operating system.
FreeCAD makes this really easy to do: just click Help >
About FreeCAD, and you will see all the details of your
installation listed. There’s a ’Copy to clipboard’ button;
if you click it, you can then paste those details into your
forum post before going on to ask your question. You
should also do this if you are answering another thread
or comment with additional information relevant to the
post. While you are on the forum, remember every now
and again to say thanks to the developers for voluntarily
creating such great tools for us to use.
41
FreeCAD: getting started with assemblies
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
get started
with assemblies
Make complex designs out of a collection of parts
W
've already seen how to use more. We are going to make and assemble an example
add-on workbenches; in this of a pulley wheel mounted in some brackets, sat on
chapter, we will use two other top of a base, and held together with M6 nuts and
add-on workbenches, which bolts. As we are focusing on the assembly, we aren’t
we'll need to install. Open going to step through how we made every separate
FreeCAD, go to Tools > Addon component, but we have posted the parts used in this
Manager, and click to install the A2plus workbench. project online, so you can just have a go at assembling
Once installed, follow the prompt to restart FreeCAD, the pulley block using those parts. This isn’t supposed
and then repeat the above task to install the to be a particularly well-designed pulley block; it would
Fasteners workbench. need some bushings and bearings in real life, as well
Creating an assembly in CAD is useful for many as a proper spindle, but as an example, it’s a good
reasons: it allows us to design more complex projects, project to play with.
to check that parts fit, and it allows us to use the same When using Part Design to create a body, that body
parts multiple times. It also can be used to check is a single continuous solid object. The classic example
clearances and movements of dynamic systems and is a nut and a bolt – which would require two bodies:
one for the nut and one for the bolt – because although
the items can be assembled, they are both single solid
items. You could make two separate bodies within a
Figure 1
We are aiming
”
to assemble this
example of a
pulley block made
up of 14 parts This isn’t supposed to be a
particularly well-designed
pulley block … but as an
example, it’s a good project
to play with
”
project and then painstakingly move them into position
relative to each other, but this is long-winded, and
also, if you make a change or move the bolt, suddenly
the nut is in the wrong place. Using A2plus, we will
make assemblies where components are constrained
to the specific parts of other components that they
are attached to. Beyond parts simply being lined up
42
Figure 2
Importing our first part of the pulley block
positionally, the assembly constraints describe the

relationship of one part to another. For example,
if something can turn around an axis, or if one
component is always parallel to another.
We began by making our components using Part
Design to create bodies for each part. We created a
base, two L-brackets, some nuts and bolts, a simple
V-pulley, and a longer nut and bolt to act as a shaft.
You’ll see that we are going to import these items into The L-brackets are again a simple part with holes
the A2plus workbench, and when we do, we could that match the hole coordinates on the base and a hole Figure 3
Importing the
import each body either from an individual project, on the upright to receive the spindle bolt. You can see L-bracket file twice,
a project with just that one body in it, or we can the complete assembly in Figure 1. we will position these
using the constraint
import multiple bodies from the same project. Most Download the files (from hsmag.cc/issue43) and tools to attach them
to the base
of our files are single items, but we created one file create a new project in FreeCAD. For ease, save the
containing two parts to allow us to explore how to new project in the same folder as all the component
import an individual part from a multipart project. This files. Move to the A2plus workbench and start
is useful for many reasons. We can imagine borrowing importing components. On the left-hand side of the
items from unrelated projects in our library. A2plus toolbar, you should see a yellow and green tool
We made a base which is a simple block and is the icon, which when you hover over reads ’Add a part
file ’base’. The base has holes to mount the L-brackets from an external file to the assembly’ (Figure 2). Click
using M6 nuts and bolts. The sketch for the base is this and navigate to select the ’base’ file in the folder.
drawn in the XY plane and is centred around the 0,0 Select the file and click Open. In the preview window,
point – the bolt-holes are constrained positionally you should now have a copy of the base object
relative to that origin point. This means that if we inserted (Figure 2). Let's repeat the task with the
change the size of the base, the bolt-holes will remain L-bracket file. The L-bracket will import overlapped with
in the correct position, which is important because the base – you might notice that until you left-click, you
they define the L-bracket position and the width of the can move it to any position in the preview area. If you
gap for the pulley wheel. need to move it again,
43
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP
We used the Part
Design workbench
and Sketcher
workbench tools to
create the different
parts for our
assembly.
double-click on the item in the file tree menu and you

can transform it incrementally using the dialog and the
KEEPING BACKUPS
axis arrows. Move it to a position free of the base to If you hang out in CAD circles for long enough,
make things easier to see. Repeat the process and regardless of what CAD environment you use, you may
import a second instance of the L-bracket file. The files come across a term for a problem. The ’topological
in the file tree will automatically be given a number naming problem’, or ’toponaming’ for short, is a
common issue we can easily demonstrate in our
suffix, so we have L_Bracket_001 and L_Bracket_002.
project. Objects and parts – for example, the base of
As an example of one way of working, simply rotate our pulley block – are all made out of edges and faces.
the second bracket so that it faces the correct way These edges and faces are automatically given an
relative to the base in terms of how it will sit when annotation. Sometimes you see these names when
assembled (Figure 3). you select things like ’edge 12’ or ’face 3’. When we
Let’s assemble the L-brackets to the base – to do apply constraints in the A2plus workbench, we are
Figure 4 essentially telling FreeCAD to ’attach face X to face
Setting some parts as this, select the bottom edge of one of the holes on
transparent enables Y’ or ’make edge 2 parallel to edge 5’, etc. When we
us to show which hole
the first L-bracket. This edge has a corresponding edited our base part to make the brackets fit, we only
circles we selected edge on the upper end of a hole in the base, and changed a dimension, and, as such, none of the names
to constrain the
L-bracket to the base when in position, these two edges would sit together of the features changed. As an experiment, edit the
(Figure 4). Move the model so that you can see that base and create a small rectangular pocket over one
Figure 5
When applying particular hole edge, and then using the CTRL key, of the holes – to any depth – and then save the file.
constraints, you As we did before, update the parts in the assembly;
click to select it. You should now have two hole edges
will see a dialog box when you do so, you’ll see that the model is now a
with options selected. When you select items in A2plus like this,
little broken, as in the image below. This is because
the names of the edges and faces have changed, but
the constraints don’t know this. It’s definitely worth
having a backup of a saved assembly before making
any major edits to parts within it. You might find
that sometimes these issues are easily resolved by
removing constraints and reapplying them.
44
Figure 6
We can see the base
doesn’t quite fit; the
A2plus workbench
makes it easy to edit
imported parts
Figure 7
Selecting a circle
edge on the bolt and
a circle edge on the
hole to align the bolt
and hole axis
any constraint types that could be applied to the items

automatically become available on the toolbar. You
should now be able to click the ’Add circular edge
constraint’ tool icon (Figure 4). You will see that the
L-bracket moves, hopefully into a correct position. You
will also see a dialog box with some options showing
the constraints you can adjust. We shouldn’t need
to adjust the constraint for this one, but it’s worth
noting the ’Flip’ button, which is commonly used if
the constrained items end up in an undesired position
– often clicking the Flip button repeatedly will toggle
through the optional placements until you find the one
you require. Click Accept to confirm the constraint
(Figure 5).
DOUBLE UP
Repeat the process for the second L-bracket to end up to the assembly’ tool icon (a yellow part icon with
with the two L-brackets facing each other with the gap two curved green arrows over it). Once clicked, you
in between for the pulley wheel. Noting the error on should see the base now fits, perfectly matching the
the size of the base, let’s use that to work through how L-bracket ends. A point to consider again is that the
to edit a part from the A2plus workbench. holes in the base file are constrained to the centre line
Highlight the base in the file tree and click the ’Edit of the base. This means as the base dimensions are
an imported part’ tool icon (Figure 6). Clicking this expanded, the holes stay the same distance apart. If
should open the base part in a separate project, and we had constrained the holes relative to the edges
the file tree of the part will appear. Even though you are of the base, then our update to the horizontal length
still on the A2plus workbench, you can click the drop- would have moved the holes, and the brackets would
down menu to select the primary rectangular sketch, still overhang. As you develop parts destined for
which is the root of the base object. Double-click this assemblies, these factors become more important QUICK TIP
to open the sketch in the Sketcher workbench, and to consider. At the risk of
then change the horizontal dimensional constraint to Using either the project with the M6 nuts and bolts sounding obvious,
101 mm. Close the sketch and then save the base you just made or, if you didn’t, the file we supplied you can use a
component part
part project by clicking the Save button. Now close in the download, let’s add the four nuts and bolts
numerous times in
that project tab. Notice that the base in our partly to connect the brackets to the base. Just as an an assembly, so don’t
assembled project hasn’t changed. To update the parts, experiment, try and import the nuts and bolts project model things more
click the ’Update parts, which have been imported using the same technique we did for the base and than you need to!
45
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP
Similar to Sketcher
and other parts of
FreeCAD, there
are numerous
ways to achieve
similar results using
different assembly
constraints.
Figure 8
Selecting the top
face of the bracket
and a lower face of the brackets. You’ll note that even though there are edges of one of the holes on the bracket. We want
the bolt-head to apply
a planeCoincident two objects, it will import, but the nut and the bolt these two circles to align on an axis, but we don’t want
constraint appear as a single item in the file tree and cannot be to constrain the edges together as the bolt end circle
Figure 10 moved independently. The correct way to do this is obviously needs to be out of the other end of the hole.
All the nuts and bolts
added to
to use the ’Add a single shape out of an external file’ Clicking the ’Add an axisCoincident constraint between
the assembly tool icon. Having deleted our incorrectly imported nut two parts’ achieves this – the bolt should now align to
and bolt, click this and then select the file again; this the hole (Figure 7, overleaf). To make the bolt-head sit
time, a dialog asks us to specify which part to import flush to the surface of the bracket and the bolt to sit all
from within the file. Select the nut or bolt and repeat the way through the hole, let’s add another constraint.
this for the other part. Once you have the first nut and
”
bolt in place, let’s constrain this one before tackling
the others.
Let’s constrain the bolt section first. Select one of
It’s a great workbench to
the circle edges at the opposite end of the bolt from play with and experiment
the head. Using the CTRL key, select one of the upper
with how the different
constraints work
”
This time, click to select the upper face of the bracket
and then select the lower face of the bolt-head. These
two faces can then be brought together by clicking
the ’Add a planeCoincident constraint between two
objects’ tool (Figure 8). Now the bolt should be
correctly in position. Click Accept in the dialog box to
finish the constraint. Moving to the nut, if we move the
nut closer to the bolt end under the base, we can then
select the edge at the base of the bolt before the slight
chamfer and the lower similar edge just inside the nut
(Figure 9). Again, apply a ’circularEdge’ constraint to fit
the nut to the bolt.
Figure 9 Now that our nut and bolt are constrained, we
Using the
circularEdge want to add the other nuts and bolts. Again, as an
constraint again example for learning, you might think – based on other
to affix the nut to
the bolt workbenches – that you can copy and paste the nut
and bolt in the file tree system. Of course you can,
46
Figure 11
Adding the pulley, and positioning it with an offset within the
constraint, to create the clearance gap with the L-brackets
but now that we have added constraints to our first

nut and bolt, if we copy and paste, that will copy all
the constraints applied to that part. Of course, we
could delete these constraints and reapply them in the
other positions, but it’s easier to either import multiple
copies or to copy and paste before adding constraints
to an object. However you choose, create three more
nuts and bolts and constrain them into position in the
assembly (Figure 10).
JOIN TOGETHER
PULLING TOGETHER We are going to make some nuts and bolts for our assembly. For this, we will use the
Let’s add the pulley wheel next. Import the pulley Fasteners workbench we installed. Create a new project and move to the Fasteners
wheel, but let’s use constraints to position it rather workbench. The Fasteners workbench makes it easy to model metric and imperial nuts
than double-clicking to use the transform tools. Select and bolts and screws – it even has some rarer fasteners like PEM insertion nuts, PCB
standoffs, and more. We are going to use four M6 nuts and bolts that are 25 mm long to
one of the edges of the hole through the pulley
attach the L-brackets to the baseplate; however, we only need to model one and then
and then click one of the holes on the inside of the import four copies to the A2plus assembly project. To create our bolt, first click the
L-brackets in the gap for the pulley wheel. Even if the yellow icon that looks like a hexagonal-headed bolt, which when you hover over it says
pulley wheel is at 90 degrees to the brackets, clicking ’ISO 4014 Hex Head Bolt’. M6 is the default diameter for this bolt type on the Fasteners
the ’Add a circularEdge constraint’ should bring it workbench – it should create a 30 mm M6 bolt model. You’ll notice that the model doesn’t
into the correct orientation. You may need to flip the have any thread modelled onto it. This is common across most CAD platforms when
modelling threaded fasteners because the thread is a complex geometry. If you have lots
direction in the constraint dialog to get the pulley
of fasteners, it can increase the project complexity and speed of loading or recomputing.
largely between the brackets. Before you close the Most of the time in CAD, we don’t need to model the thread; however, you can simply
constraint dialog, note that the pulley is 12 mm wide add the thread to this model by highlighting the item in the file tree and, in the dialog box,
and the gap between the brackets is 13 mm – this is setting the ’thread’ property to ’true’. Depending on your computer, this may take some
because one would probably want the pulley wheel time to generate the thread on the model. Turn the threads back to ’false’ and shorten
to have some clearance (Figure 11). Currently, the our bolt to 25 mm by selecting ’custom’ in the ’length’ property in the dialog box and
typing in 25 mm. Let’s create a nut for our bolt in the same project file. Depending on your
pulley is positioned touching the bracket of which we
screen, you might need to expand the toolbar to select the yellow icon that looks like a
selected the hole edge. Setting the ’offset’ to 0.5 mm
hexagonal nut labelled ’ISO 4032 Hexagon nuts, Style 1’. Again, the Fasteners workbench
in the constraint dialog moves the pulley 0.5 mm off will automatically create a nut, but it will be positioned on the origin point in the same
the bracket and positions it equally with clearance place as the bolt-head. To move this, double-click the nut in the file tree and then use the
between the two brackets. Finally, there is a ’Lock arrows in the preview window to move it down and away from the bolt. Making sure you
Rotation’ value in the constraint dialog. Setting this as have turned off the thread setting for each item, save this project ready for use in our
’false’ means that our pulley wheel part can be rotated assembly, or use the one we have provided.
around this circular constraint, emulating its real-world
movement. If you wanted to lock it at a certain point
in rotation, set the part in position and then toggle this
value to ’true’.
To finish our assembly, import the spindle bolt file
and constrain it through the centre of the brackets
and the pulley, then fit the nut to the other end. We
are sure by this point that you can work out how to
constrain this one into position without instruction. We
hope that you’ve found this introduction to assemblies
useful, and after you have put this together, it’s a great
workbench to play with and experiment with how the
different constraints work. The simple assembly we’ve
created is a good starting point and a foundation for
making assemblies that move and can be animated,
and much more.
47
FreeCAD: making multiples of things
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD: making
multiples of things
Save time with clones, arrays, and drafts
O
ften when we are designing positionally. It’s a fine approach, but it’s quicker to
something, we would like to use some of the cloning and array tools the Sketcher
make multiples of some aspect Workbench offers. In Sketcher these tools can
of the design and we want to do create matching objects and carry over some of, or
it as quickly and as efficiently manipulate, the existing constraints to save us some
as possible. A common example time. Starting over, if we draw one circle for example
might be placing circles to become pockets, holes, or in the upper left-hand corner of the square, we can
pads in a sketch. As a first example, let’s go straight constrain the radius and then the position by setting
to the Sketcher Workbench and create a new sketch a vertical and horizontal distance constraint between
in any plane. the centre point of the circle and the origin point
Figure 1 In Figure 2, you can see the desired sketch item of the plane. Next, select the circle and the Y axis
Creating arrays
can produce on the left, a small square with a hole in each corner. datum line. We can now click the ‘Create symmetric
fascinating To create this sketch, we drew four separate circles geometry with respect to the last selected line or
geometries from
a single copy and constrained each of them dimensionally and point’ tool icon. This should now create a second
48
Figure 2
This symmetrical square sketch with circles
can be created in numerous ways
circle, with the same radius constrained and in a

mirrored position in the upper right-hand corner of
our square. It doesn’t have the positional constraints, the rectangular surface. Close the sketch and then
but it is in the same mirrored position as the original, perform a pocket to cut the slot into or through the Figure 3
Using the rectangular
so if you add a vertical and horizontal constraint pad. Just to add to the example, select an edge of array tool to save time
without changing the default position then they will the slot and apply a fillet, which should auto-complete in sketches
remain correct. Of course, you can then select the around the entire pocket edge. Figure 4
two circles and the X axis datum line and repeat the Creating a linear array
of chamfered pockets
process to create two more circles in the lower left DESIGN PARTS WITH PART DESIGN
and right corners. The Part Design Workbench has some specific array
Another approach is to use an array tool called tools, and we are going to try the ‘Create a linear
‘Create a rectangular array pattern’. Starting again pattern feature’. With nothing selected in the file tree,
with just our upper left constrained circle highlighted, click the linear pattern tool. You should now have a
click this tool and you’ll see a dialog box (Figure 3). In dialog opened in the Tasks tab of the Combo View
the dialog, set the column and row number each to window. At the top of this dialog, you should see a
‘2’ and then tick the ‘Equal vertical/horizontal spacing’ panel titled ‘Select feature’ and all the available
checkbox as well as the ‘Constrain inter-element features should be listed; in this case, that is the pad,
separation’ box. Clicking OK, if you now move your the pocket, and the fillet. For now, highlight just the
mouse around the sketch area, you will see a line pocket item in the list and click OK. You may see a
protruding from your original circle; this represents duplicate pocket in the other end of your rectangle
the angle at which your array will be created and now, but don’t worry if you don’t. You should see that
the distance from the original circle. Left-click to the dialog box in the Tasks tab has now changed;
place the rectangular array of circles into the sketch. scroll down to the bottom of this new panel. You
Don’t worry if you set it at a slight angle: click on the should see two adjustable parameters: ‘Length’ and
generated angle constraint and set it to zero degrees. ‘Occurrences’. The value of Length represents the
Finally, edit one of the distance constraints it has
added; as our original circle is 12 mm from the datum
point vertically and horizontally, we set the constraint
distance to 24 mm, which makes our square array of
circles fully constrained and accurately placed.
For our next examples, let’s move to the Part
Design Workbench and create a body and then create
a sketch in the XY plane. In the sketch, draw a simple
rectangle and don’t worry about constraining it. Close
the sketch and pad the sketch to any thickness.
Next, select the upper face of the padded rectangle
in the preview window and click to create a new
sketch on that surface. Select the ‘Create a slot in
the sketch’ tool and draw a small slot at one end of
49
TUTORIAL
you click the ‘Remove feature’ button and then

highlight the feature in the preview or in the file
tree view.
Sometimes we might want to make an array of
objects radially. As an example, start a new body and
in a sketch on the XY plane, draw a circle with 30 mm
radius; constrain the centre of the circle to the datum
Figure 5 point. Close the sketch and pad the circle. Similar
Creating a polar to our earlier example, create a sketch on the top
pattern of slots
around a disc surface of our cylinder and draw a small slot to create
a pocket. First, leave the slot without constraints and
length of the array and isn’t linked to the length of any position it somewhere in the upper left quarter of our
attached object. At the default length of 100 mm with cylinder face and perform the pocket.
two occurrences, this might place the second
occurrence of the pocket outside of the rectangular ROUND AND ROUND
pad. Increase the number of occurrences to 5 and Again, with nothing highlighted, click the ‘Create a
adjust the length of the array so that your array of polar pattern feature’ tool icon. The resulting dialog
pockets fits in the rectangle. You might also discover box is similar to our earlier linear pattern tool. Click
that if the length is shorter than the multiple widths of ‘Add feature’ and select the pocket that we made.
the pocket, it will overlap the pockets in the array. Scrolling down, leave the axis and angle settings
Before we close this example, you’ll note that our as the default and set the occurrences to 5. If you
fillet hasn’t been replicated in the array. To add the have the ‘Update view’ box ticked, you should see
fillet, click the ‘Add feature’ button, then either select that the pocket is replicated and rotated around the
part of the original fillet by clicking it in the preview datum point. As our original slot was off axis, the
window. Alternatively, you can swap to the Model tab array positioned the repeated slots relative to this
and select the fillet in the file tree. Now, when you original position; we can of course go all the way back
click OK on the linear pattern dialog in the Tasks tab, to the root sketch of the pocket and adjustments
you will see the array with the fillets added to each will be recomputed to the pattern array. As shown
instance of the pocket (Figure 4). Removing a feature in Figure 5, we closed the polar pattern dialog and
is slightly counter-intuitive in that you can’t select the opened the slot sketch in the file tree. In the slot
feature to remove in the list in the ‘Add/remove sketch, we constrained the slot so that the centre of
feature’ box in the dialog. Similar to adding a feature, the slot was positioned on the Y axis datum line.
QUICK TIP
Press SHIFT+V or
SHIFT+H to quickly
add a horizontal or
vertical distance
constraint between
two selected points
or a selected edge.
Figure 6
Simple array
of parts using
the rectangular
array tool
50
Many times we will want to create more complex
arrays, sometimes with more complex geometries
or sometimes not in a single continuous body, which
means we would be working outside of the Part
Design Workbench. The built-in Draft Workbench has
some array tools that can be extremely useful for this,
but it’s a useful Workbench for much more as well.
ON REPEAT
As a simple example, let’s start a new empty project Delete the polar array and let’s try the circular array
and move to the Part Workbench. Click the ‘Create a tool. Highlight our test cylinder and click the ‘Circular Figure 7
Creating circular
cylinder’ tool to create the default 10 mm tall cylinder array’ tool icon. This tool works differently in that the arrays of Part objects
with 2 mm radius. Next, use the drop-down menu to number of copied objects in the array is dependent on
move over to the Draft Workbench. Let’s highlight the size and spacing of the array rather than a directly
the cylinder in the file tree and then click the array input value.
tool icon, which resembles a collection of six blue In the dialog box, the ‘Radial distance’ is the radius
rectangles. In the dialog box, the first items you can of each circle in the created array; we set this to
adjust are the ‘Number of elements’; edit the X and 50 mm for a test. If we don’t change the centre of
Y values to 5 and leave the Z at 1. This is then aiming rotation and leave it at the datum or zero point, then
to create a rectangular array of 5×5 of the cylinder the first circle in our array will be made with a
object. Next, we can edit the spacings of the array.
It’s slightly counter-intuitive in that the X, Y, and Z
elements each have an X, Y, and Z input box, but if FOLLOW THE PATH
Sometimes we will want to create an array of objects,
”
but constrain them onto another object or path. This
can be achieved using the path array tool. In a new
Many times we will want project, once again go to the Part Workbench and
to create more complex create a first cylinder and set the radius to 30 mm and
leave it at 10 mm tall. Then create a second cylinder and
arrays, sometimes with leave it with the default dimensions of 10 mm tall and
”
2 mm radius.
more complex geometries Move back to the Draft Workbench and first select
the object of which we wish to create an array; let’s
select our second, smaller cylinder. Next, we select
you play with the values and apply the array, you’ll the path we want the array of objects to be connected
to; holding CTRL/CMD, click the lower outer edge of
soon see what effect these have. For now, in the ‘X
the larger cylinder. Then click the ‘Path array’ tool; this
intervals’ section, set X to 10 mm. In the ‘Y Intervals’
applies an array without a pop-up dialog box, but the
section, set Y to 10 mm and leave the Z, as we only resulting array has some editable parameters in the
have one layer in our array. Clicking OK, you should Combo View window. You should see the array has
now see an array of our cylinders spaced at the been created with four instances of the smaller cylinder
intervals we set (Figure 6). placed equidistantly around the larger cylinder edge. If
Highlight the array item in the file tree and delete we highlight the array object in the file tree and adjust
the ‘Count’ parameter, it will add or remove instances
it. We should now see our cylinder item and if we
from the array and redistribute the count to maintain
highlight it and press the SPACE bar, we’ll make it equal distances between each instance.
visible again. Next, let’s try the ‘Polar array’ tool from
the Array tools drop-down menu. In the dialog, leave QUICK TIP
the polar angle set to 360 degrees to create a full Near the Part Design
circle array and set the number of elements to 5. We pattern array tools,
need to add a point which is the centre of rotation; if you might notice the
we left the centre of rotation set at the 0,0,0 point, ‘Create a mirrored
feature’ tool, which
we would simply create five cylinders placed on top
is similar to the
of each other. Change the Y co-ordinate to 10 mm symmetric geometry
and then click the OK button. You should now see a tools on the Sketcher
circular array of five cylinders appear. Workbench.
51
TUTORIAL
50 mm radius from this point. The second circular layer Create a new project and move to the Draft
Figure 8 will be made at a further 50 mm from the first circle Workbench. You should see a grid on the XY plane.
Some of the tool
icons on the Draft so therefore will have a 100 mm radius, etc. Next, the If you don’t, find the ‘Toggle Draft Grid’ icon, which
Workbench: top row ‘Tangential difference’ is the spaced distance between looks like a mesh and is at the end of the snap toolbar
drawing tools, middle
row snap options, and instances of the array object in the same circular layer icons; toggle this button until you see a draft grid.
lower row includes of the array. We initially set this to 15 mm, but play You may notice that the Draft Workbench has a
array tools
with this value to see how it affects your test arrays. collection of drawing tools that look similar to the
The ‘Number of circular’ is the number of concentric Sketcher drawing tools. They do work in very similar
circles that are added, spaced as we said at the radial ways, but in the Draft Workbench, wires and edges
distance; we set this to 3 for our test. Finally, there is are drawn without constraints and use either snapping
the Symmetry input; it’s difficult to explain the effect, to the grid or other objects, or inputting positional co-
but this value controls the number of symmetric ordinates. As such, the Draft Workbench has a lot of
planes an array has – the best thing is to start with options for different snapping styles. For our example,
it set to 1 and then change the values and see what we need to enable snapping by clicking the ‘Snap Lock
effect it has on your array! With the above settings, On/Off’ padlock icon. This should now activate the
you should see an array similar to Figure 7. other snap icons; we want ‘Snap grid’ and ‘Snap near’
We’ve seen that the Draft Workbench array tools to both be on, as seen in Figure 8.
can be used to create arrays of copies of a part, but First, let’s draw a polygon on the Draft grid so that
they can also be applied directly to sketches and it sits on the XY plane. Click the ‘Create a regular
even be applied to bodies created on the Part Design polygon’ tool icon and then left-click to draw a polygon
Workbench. The caveat with arrays of a Part Design around the datum or zero point. To help you draw it
body is that the array will usually create separate accurately, zoom in towards the datum point and you
Figure 9
Drawing a pentagonal objects that cannot be considered part of the original should see the cursor lock to the grid before you click
polygon in Draft is body. When this occurs, the array is listed outside of to draw. Adjust the polygon placing circle to roughly
similar to the Sketcher
Workbench apart from the active body in the file tree and the original body 6 mm in diameter. In the properties dialog, you can
not using constraints part visibility is toggled off. adjust the number of sides, but as a default it is set
Figure 10 As a final example exploring arrays, let’s create a at three. If you create the default triangle, you can
Creating points to act complex-looking decorative array using other Draft
as snapping points for
a B-spline Workbench tools to create the underlying geometries.
52
Figure 11
Using the B-spline tool to draw a curved line
between the points we created
highlight the Polygon object in the file tree and adjust

the number of sides in its properties table.
CURVED LINE
Next, let’s create some points which we will use to
create a curved line in three axes. The first point of
the line is going to be the centre of our polygon, or
the zero point. Click the ‘Create a point object’ and
click to place a point at the datum. Next, let’s add a and in the dialog, select the Polygon item we drew
second point and then raise it on the Z axis. We are from the left-hand list, and click the right-facing arrow
aiming to create a curve, so place this second point to add it to the right-hand column. Next, click the
on the XY grid at a random point close to the zero but ‘Sweep Path’ button, then left-click on the B-spline
not on it. We went with an X co-ordinate of 6 and a curve we drew in the preview window and click
Y co-ordinate of -2. Having created this second point, ‘Done’. Check the ‘Create solid’ box and click OK. You
we highlighted it in the file tree and, in the dialog, should now have a curvy swept hexagonal object in
adjusted the Z axis position to 30 mm. You may need the preview (Figure 12). Figure 12
Using the sweep
to adjust the zoom, but you should see this point now Moving back to the Draft Workbench, select the utility on the Part
rise up above the plane. We added two more points swept object in the file tree and then click the polar Workbench to create
the final part for
above: the next had the co-ordinates X = -28, Y = 0, Z array tool icon. You can then left-click in the preview our array
= 60, and the final point was at X = -10, Y= 9, Z = 80 window to select a centre of rotation (Figure 13). We
Figure 13
(Figure 10). put our centre of rotation at around -30 mm on the X Selecting a centre of
rotation for the array
Creating a curve between the points we just made axis to create our array of five of our swept items; you of swept items; we
is easy with the ‘Create a multiple-point B-spline’ tool. can see the completed array in Figure 1. chose -30 in the X axis
Select this tool and hover near the upmost point we
just made. When you are hovering, if you are too far
away from the raised point, you’ll see that next to
the pointer position there is an icon that looks like the
Draft grid icon; this indicates that if you click, you’d be
snapping to the grid. If you are close enough to the
raised point, this icon disappears, and if you left-click,
you will attach the B-spline to the point. Left-click
on the upper point and then move to the next lower
point and left-click again; continue to do this until you
reach the last point at the zero position. Left-click
to attach the last point and then click the ‘Close’
button (Figure 11).
Just for a moment, we are now going to switch to
the Part Workbench to use the sweep utility. On the
Part Workbench, click the ‘Utility to sweep’ tool icon
53
FreeCAD, surfaces, and projection
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD, surfaces,
and projection
Turn lines and sketches into solid objects
Figure 1
Creating curved
surfaces, and
projecting other
objects onto or
through them, can
create interesting
and useful effects
O
ften, we’ve begun with a sketch doesn’t have too tight a set of curves (Figure 3). We
and then extruded it to create the don’t need to constrain the B-spline that we have just
first building block of our project created, so go ahead and close the sketch.
or design. Similarly, here, we are Moving back to the Part Workbench, select the
going to start with a sketch, but we sketch in the file tree, and copy and paste the sketch
are going to explore creating surfaces to create a second identical sketch that will appear as
from sketches or wires to build an object. To begin, ‘Sketch001’ in the file tree. Select this second sketch
let’s go to the Sketcher Workbench and create a new in the file tree and, in the sketch dialog, increase the
sketch on the XY plane. Z axis value in the Placement > Position drop-down to
Select the ‘B-spline by control points’ option from move the second sketch directly above the first. As
the ‘Create a B-spline in the sketch’ drop-down in the a rough estimate, our curvy sketch is around 120 mm
drawing tools area, and draw a collection of B-splines at its longest point, and we moved our copied sketch
around the origin point, making sure that the final upwards by around 25 mm (Figure 4, overleaf).
B-spline ends at the first B-spline point (Figure 2). You should now see, in the preview view, two
We aren’t aiming for anything in particular, just an sketches perfectly aligned above one another. Select
interesting curvy outline that has some inner and outer both the sketches in the file tree and let’s create our
swooping curves. Play around moving the B-spline first surface by clicking the ‘Create a ruled surface’
control points until you get a shape you like that tool icon. Hopefully, you now see that a surface has
54
QUICK TIP
We covered the
basics of the Part
Workbench and the
Sketcher Workbench
in the first two parts
of this series, which
started in issue 37.
been created between our two sketches, similar to our file tree to go all the way back and select our original
example in Figure 5 overleaf. sketch. We can then click the Extrude tool and add
You’ll notice that, as it stands, our surface doesn’t -3 mm to the Z axis custom direction and set the length
have any thickness and our object isn’t a solid part option to 0. Clicking Apply, we should have added a
with a top and a bottom. If we wanted to create a base underneath the offset wall to complete our tray.
solid shape, of course, we would have used a single Previously in this series, when we have worked
sketch and the pad or extrude tools. Instead, let’s aim with solid objects, we have often created sketches
to make our curved wall either attached directly
”
into a sort of tray with a to a flat face of an object
base, and turn our ruled or drawn on a plane,
Doing this incorrect
surface into a wall with like XY or XZ, and then
some thickness, but experiment makes us think extruded or pocketed
open at the top. First, through an existing solid.
about the projection of axes
”
let’s make the ruled With a curved object,
surface we created have through workpieces such as the wall of our
some thickness but, tray, drawing directly onto
just for fun, let’s look the surface is not really
Figure 2
at the wrong way to do this using the extrude tool. possible. However, we might often want to add design The rough
Doing this incorrect experiment makes us think about aspects to a curved surface. One approach to this is to arrangement of
B-spline points before
the projection of axes through workpieces, which we use ‘projection’. Imagine placing your hand in front of a finishing the B-spline
will return to as a subject later in this article. Select display projector and seeing the shadow of your hand
Figure 3
your ruled surface and click the ’Extrude’ tool; in the on the projection surface on the wall or whiteboard. Finishing our B-spline,
dialog, select the Y axis as a custom direction and We can do this in FreeCAD, except the projector is we adjusted the
control points to
set to extrude it a couple of mm. Apply the extrusion. referred to as the camera view and is simply the create a curved shape
Inspecting the results, you’ll see that it works for some
parts of the surface but not for others, as the extrusion
is projected across the ruled surface in the Y axis.
Applying an extrusion like this also leads to some parts
of the extrusion being added inside the boundary of the
ruled surface, but other parts extruded outside. Select
the extrusion in the file tree and delete it, and toggle
the ruled surface so that it is visible.
One of the best parts of using FreeCAD is the ability
to apply multiple operations or tasks to a single piece
of geometry. To add a base to our curvy wall, to make
it into our curvy tray, we can use the drop-downs in the
55
TUTORIAL
tree, selecting Transform, and moving and rotating the

object until we are happy with the position. It’s not too
critical how far away from the surface the object is, but
it’s a good idea to leave a reasonable gap so you can
see the effects of the projection. In Figure 7 overleaf,
we have rotated the preview view to show how our
projection was set up.
With your preview view and your projection object
correctly set, click the ‘Project edges, wires, or faces
of one object onto a face of another object’ tool. In
the dialog you will see a long button that says ‘Select
projection surface’ – click this button and then select
the surface onto which we want to project. Next, click
current view in the preview window. The equivalent of the ‘Add face’ button and select the face of the object
your hand is the object you want to add to a surface, you wish to project that is visible in the preview view. It
and our ruled surface is the object onto which we may take a few seconds, but the selected face should
want to project. Whilst this might sound complex, it’s turn a purple colour. You’ll need to change the extrude
actually pretty straightforward to do. height to a value that works for the shape of your
Whilst we have used the imported, and then projection surface. In our example, the extrusion height
extruded, dog logo for this first example of projection, was 3 mm – this gave enough height for the whole
you can use any small extruded part, perhaps a small logo to be projected to the lowest parts and highest
extruded circle or square. First, we need to choose parts of the curve of the ruled surface. Experiment
which surface area of our object we want to project with values until you get a projection that works for you
the logo onto. You can project parts onto any surface, (Figure 8). Finally, click ‘OK’ and you should now see
but obviously if the surface is very folded, the effect your object projected onto the curved surface of your
isn’t going to work as well; therefore we chose a tray part. Of course, now you can remove or toggle the
larger, smoother face. We then need to orient that visibility of the part you used to make the projection.
chosen face to be pointing at us when viewed in the A common use for projection is to create 3D text
preview, remembering that the preview window is effects. Let’s first look at how to generate 3D text in
the projection viewpoint. With that established, we FreeCAD, and then let’s use some text and project it
then need to move our object we want to project onto our curved surface again. Then we can combine
onto the curved surface into a position in line with the projecting onto a curved surface with some Boolean
projected surface and the preview window. We can part operations to create some interesting effects.
do this via the usual right-clicking the object in the file For simplicity, let’s just open a new project to look at
Figure 4
A copy of our B-spline
sketch is created
and raised above the
original in the Z axis
Figure 5
Creating a ruled
surface between two
identical sketches
56
the text tool we are going to use. In the new project,
open the Draft Workbench and then click the ‘Create
a shape from a text string’ tool icon, which looks like a
yellow ‘S’. In the dialog, you can see some positional
co-ordinate input boxes which select the point at
which our text will be created from. If you move your
pointer over the grid in the preview window, you
SURFACE WORKBENCH Figure 6
Creating a filled offset
will see that these co-ordinates react to where your gives our ruled surface
Using the ruled surface tool on the Part Workbench some thickness
pointer is. For this example, let’s leave them set at is useful. In some ways, it is the first step towards
0,0,0, which you can either type in or click the ‘Reset thinking about 3D modelling in terms of edges and
point’ button. You need to point the ShapeString tool surfaces – rather than creating a 3D object via
extrusion or padding, and then cutting and adding
”
parts to and from it.
Surfaces in FreeCAD are given their own
It’s not too critical how far Workbench, and it’s certainly worth exploring in its
own right. The ruled surface tool we use in this article
away from the surface the has some limitations – one main one being that, if
object is, but it’s a good idea to you have a closed path like the base of our curvy
”
tray, the ruled surface tool can’t be used to create
leave a reasonable gap a surface filling the path. This is why we create a
small extrusion from the original sketch. If you are
interested, create a sketch similar to the first B-spline
sketch we created in the main tutorial, and then move
at your font installation folder. Clicking the ellipsis at to the Surface Workbench. Select the first tool icon,
the side of the ‘Font file’ input box should open a file ‘Creates a surface from a series of picked boundary
browser. On Ubuntu flavours of Linux, you will need edges’, and in the dialog, click ‘Add edge’, and then
to right-click in the file browser and check the ‘show select the sketch edge in the preview window. You
hidden files’ option, and font files can usually be found should see a surface created filling the sketch area.
at usr/share/fonts. On Windows 10, the location is
usually C:\windows\fonts. Navigate to your font folder
and select a font. In the ‘String’ input box, type the text QUICK TIP
you want to create, and then set the height of the text, You could also
noting that the text height is not in the usual ‘point’ project onto a
font units found in word processing packages, but surface using the
usual height method,
rather, in millimetres. Clicking OK, you should now see
and then use the
the text string you input created in the draft preview Transform function to
window. Notice that it creates a wire/edge, but also move the projection
creates a surface face. to a specific depth.
57
TUTORIAL
through the selected surface to a set depth. To see

how this works, a useful experiment is to project into
a part that is partially transparent. In a new project,
create some example text using a ShapeString, and
then return to the Part Workbench. Click the ‘Create a
cube solid’ to create a cube. Resize the cube so that
it is larger than your text ShapeString, and then right-
” The surface tools and

projection approaches can
create very complex effects
and designs
”
click and select Transform; move the cube item down
underneath the ShapeString, ready for projection.
Click the Projection tool and select the surface of
You should also see that you have a the cube item we just made. Then select the faces of
‘Shapestring001’ object in the file tree (Figure 9). Now the ShapeString in the usual way. Add 2 mm of height,
that you have a ShapeString object, you can move but add 5 mm of depth to the projection, and then
back to the Part Workbench and perform the usual sort project onto the cube item. Select the cube item in
of operations upon it. Whilst not totally necessary, if the file tree, right-click, and select Appearance. In the
we extrude the ShapeString on the Part Workbench a appearance dialog, slide the ‘Transparency’ slider to the
little, say 3 mm, it means that we can use the simple right to set the transparency to around 40%. Closing
‘Transform’ operation we used earlier to move the the Appearance dialog, you should now be able to see
object into our projection position. that the cube is partially transparent, and we can see
Figure 7
A rotated view We can now use the text in the same way as we the projection is inside the cube to a depth of 5 mm.
showing the setup
we created to project
used our small logo or part in the earlier projection Finally, we can select the cube and then the projection
the logo part onto example. In Figure 10, you can see that we have again object, and click the ‘Make a cut of two shapes’ tool to
our curved tray wall
projected the text onto the curved side of our curvy remove the projection from the cube object. This is a
Figure 8 tray example. useful effect if you are trying to make a text-based sign
Our logo projected
onto our curved You may have noticed when we set up a projection, object for 3D printing (Figure 11).
part. It creates a as well as a height input box, there is also a ‘Depth’
useful and pleasing
embossed effect box. Of course, the depth option allows you to project
Figure 9
Making a ShapeString object is the basis of
creating 3D text effects
58
Figure 10
Combining our new
skills, it’s easy to
project text onto
curved surfaces
VECTOR GRAPHICS Figure 11

The depth setting
in the projection
For our example of projecting a part onto a curved dialog makes it easy
surface, we have used a small dog logo, which to create cut-out
projection effects
was imported as an SVG and then extruded into a
part. The SVG file for the dog logo is a single path
outline – experiments with more complex SVGs had
varied results.
The ability to import an SVG is a really useful
feature occasionally, and works well. We simply
went to File > Import and navigated to our SVG. When
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER! selected, we get a dialog asking if we want to import
As a final experiment, we can put together all the as a ‘Drawing’ or ‘SVG as Geometry’. We need to
techniques we’ve covered in this part of the guide. select the latter, and then the dog logo is imported and
We’ve returned to our slightly odd-shaped curved tray, appears in the file tree as an object labelled ‘Path’. On
the Part Workbench, if we select the imported SVG
and we have once again set it up with our example
and then click the Extrude tool, we can extrude in the
text ShapeString projected onto it. This time, we have usual way. We extruded the little dog logo to 2 mm.
kept our height at 10 mm and set our depth to 10 mm, There are also ways to import an SVG and convert
which provided more than enough depth to fully the SVG into a sketch so that we can constrain its
project the text through the curved wall of the tray. contents, making it usable in other Workbenches. A
You can see above that it looks a little messy, but useful video tutorial on this, by the author, is available
here: hsmag.cc/ImportSVG.
in Figure 1 you can see the result when we have
performed a cut operation to remove the projected
object from the tray. It’s an interesting fretwork-type
effect that can make a very pleasing object, although
for 3D printing we would have to model some struts to
keep the floating parts of the lettering in position!
The surface tools and projection approaches can
create very complex effects and designs, but we
mentioned earlier that they have their limits. How, for
example, could we create a pattern or text that flows
completely around a cylinder or other curved shapes?
Next up, we’ll look at other tools and techniques to get
us solving these issues, and more.
59
Design your own ring
TUTORIAL
Design your
own ring
Learn to work with curves as
we make a piece of jewellery
Figure 1
An example of mapping sketches around cylinders, this ‘maker
chic’ 3D-printed ring acts as a spanner for M2 to M5 nuts!
another design. Let’s start by looking at how we can

wrap a sketch around a cylindrical object.
Open FreeCAD and use the Addon Manager to add
the Curves Workbench. Click Tools > Addon Manager.
When the list populates, scroll to the Curves
Workbench and click to install. Once downloaded and
installed, you will be prompted to restart FreeCAD.
Once you have restarted FreeCAD, open a new
project. For our first example, let’s start in the Part
Workbench. Click the ’Create a cylinder’ tool icon
and then highlight the ’cylinder’ object in the file tree.
In its dialog box, change the radius to 10 mm and
the height to 30 mm. Next, let’s switch over to the
newly installed Curves Workbench. In the preview
window, select the surface that forms the outer wall
of our cylinder, and then click the ’Map a sketch on
I
a surface’ tool icon. You’ll notice in the file tree view
n the previous section, we looked at that a new ’SketchOnSurface’ object appears and
projection as a tool to add geometries that this is a drop-down menu item. If you click it to
or objects onto curved surfaces. In this open the drop-down menu, it should contain only one
month’s tutorial, we will discuss the limitations item: mapped sketch. If you double-click on this item,
of projection and look at how we can map it will open the Sketcher Workbench. In the sketch,
sketches onto the surfaces of curved objects. there will be a blue rectangle. When geometry lines
Along the way, we will make a geeky maker ring in sketches in the Sketcher Workbench are blue, it
to 3D-print, and we will also explore some more means that they are construction geometry that acts
complex uses of the Curves Workbench. as a guide but doesn’t appear in the sketch as part
Last month we projected objects onto curved of the object. They have many uses, but in this case,
surfaces, and this works well in many instances. It the ’Map a sketch on a surface’ tool has created a
has some limitations, though; the major one is that by construction geometry that matches the dimensions
design, projection works with a fixed projection view of the cylinder’s face and acts as a containing area
and as such, it can’t be used to wrap a design around for our mapped sketch. For a first simple example,
60
Figure 2
Drawing sketch items
to be mapped onto
the face surface of
our example cylinder
Figure 3
Using the thickness
dialog to extrude
our mapped sketch
off the surface of
the cylinder
let’s draw a rectangle somewhere inside the blue

construction rectangle (Figure 2).
Having drawn a rectangle inside the construction
geometry, close the sketch and you should
automatically return to the Curves Workbench.
You should now see the rectangle we drew on the
surface of the cylinder in relative position when the
blue construction geometry is wrapped around the
cylinder. If you don’t see your mapped rectangle,
rotate the cylinder as it may be positioned out of
view. You can now close the drop-down mapped
sketch on the file tree and when you select the
parent SketchOnSurface item, the small mapped
rectangle should be green and selected in the
preview window. Selecting this, we can perform
some operations on this sketch like any other. With
the sketch highlighted in the dialog, set the ’Fill faces’
option to ’true’ and then increase the ’thickness’ a
few millimetres. You’ll see the sketch is extruded out
from the face of our cylinder (Figure 3).
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the resulting
objects made using mapped sketches work in the a useful (ish!) 3D-printed ring. Let’s start in a new
same way as other objects with regard to the Part project and once again with the Part Workbench.
Workbench and other tools. In Figure 4 (overleaf), Create a cylinder that is just a fraction larger than
you can see that we have added some fillets to the the diameter of one of your fingers and around
edges of the part and used the appearance menu to 12 mm tall.
set the object’s colour. We’ve also gone one step Create another cylinder that is slightly larger
further in that we have clicked the surface of our in diameter but the same height – the difference
mapped object and created another SketchOnSurface between the first and second cylinder diameter
object to create the small extruded hexagon. will be the thickness of the ring. If you don’t move
As well as adding more mapped sketches to either cylinder, they should be aligned and concentric
build up complex geometries, we can use Part around the origin point. Select the second larger
Workbench tools such as the Boolean operation cylinder first and then select the first cylinder and
type tools to make cut-out parts using the mapped click the ’Make a cut of two shapes’ tool icon from
sketch. As an example, we thought of a fun mini the Boolean tools selection. You should now have a
project to make and 3D-print. We are going to make basic ring shape.
61
TUTORIAL
Figure 6
Our hexagonal spanners extruded through the ring using
a negative thickness value
could then constrain the nut size by selecting

two opposite points and applying a horizontal
Moving to the Curves Workbench, we will dimension. We added roughly 0.1 mm to the
map a sketch to the outside surface of the ring M-series given nut sizes to make them an easy fit
as we did earlier with our cylinder. Click the outer – you can see the sizes we used in the constraint
surface and then click the ’Map a sketch on a values (Figure 5). We preferred our hexagon
surface’ tool icon once again. Click to drop-down spanners positioned randomly, but you could
Figure 4 and double-click the mapped sketch, which will open constrain them to be on the centre line and more
Parts created using
mapped sketches in the Sketcher Workbench. equally spaced if preferred.
behave similarly to Our idea for this maker ring is that we will cut Once you are happy with your hexagons, close
other objects, and you
can add fillets and out some hexagonal shapes that not only look the sketch and you should see the mapped sketch
chamfers and change
their appearance
decorative but will serve as an emergency small around our ring. Select the SketchOnSurface object
settings as usual spanner tool. As such, inside our construction and, in the dialog, set ’fill faces’ to ’true’ – but this
Figure 5 geometry, we added some hexagons sized to time, add a negative value equal to the thickness
Our mapped sketch common small metric nut sizes. We went for M2, of your ring design in the ’thickness’ input. Our ring
laid out and partially
constrained with M2.5, M3, M4, and M5. You don’t need to fully is 2 mm thick, so we went with -2 mm. This should
the M-series nut constrain the sketch, but we opted to align one line now have extruded the mapped sketch through the
dimensions, plus a small
clearance allowance of the hexagon with a vertical constraint so that we ring (Figure 6).
Now that we have all the objects created, it’s a
case of moving to the Part Workbench and selecting
the ring first, then the SketchOnSurface object, and
then creating a cut of the two parts to create our
ring. We can then use File > Export to save our ring
as an STL file suitable for slicing and printing. You
can see the ring we made in Figure 1.
Using the sketch mapping tools on the Curves
Workbench is just one example of what can be done
with this workbench. Almost every tool on the Curves
Workbench could have a tutorial written about it,
but let’s look at a couple of tools to make a complex
curved surface that curves in all axes.
We are aiming to make an object that looks like an
aeroplane cockpit canopy cover as it’s a challenging
shape to model. Again, we are not particular about
the dimensions of the object and, as such, we
are not worried about constraining aspects of
the design.
62
To begin, create a new
project, move to the Part Figure 7
Using the ‘Create a
Design Workbench and create symmetric geometry’
a body. Create a sketch in the tool on the Sketcher
Workbench to create
XY plane; in this sketch, let’s two B-splines that will
create a B-spline. This B-spline form the side edges
of our canopy
is going to be the lower side
edge profile of our canopy
cover. Click the B-spline tool and start the B-spline
attached to the X axis to the left of the
origin point. Add some points and then finish the
B-spline to make it look similar to the left-hand side
of Figure 7. Before we close the sketch, select the
B-spline that we just made and click the ’Create a
CURVED CONE
symmetric geometry with respect to the last selected If you want to map a sketch onto a cone shape and you want to work in Part Design,
line or point’ tool to add a mirrored B-spline on the the ’Map a sketch to a surface’ tool works a little differently. You have to draw your own
right-hand side of the Y axis line (Figure 7). construction geometry and do things in a slightly different order. As an example, in a new
Create another sketch in the active body, but this project, move to the Part Design Workbench. Create a new body and create a first sketch
time in the XZ plane. We need to import the in the XY plane. Create a circle roughly 100 mm in diameter around the origin point. Close
this sketch. Create a second sketch in the XY plane and draw a smaller circle for the
endpoints of the mirrored B-splines that sit on the XY
top of our cone around the origin point – again, don’t worry about constraining these
plane (the starting end of the B-splines in the previous sketches too much. Closing the second sketch to return to Part Design, highlight the
sketch). In the new XZ plane sketch, click the ’Create second sketch and in the dialog, under the ’Attachment’ submenu, go to ’Position’ and
an edge linked to an external geometry’ tool and raise the Z axis value – we went with 25 mm, to move the sketch upwards.
zoom in to select the endpoints of the two B-splines Select both the sketches in the file tree and then click the yellow and red ’Loft a
from the first sketch. Now that we have those points selected profile through other profile sections’ tool icon. Click OK and you should have
available, draw another B-spline that begins with the a cone. Moving to the Curves Workbench, select the curved outer face of the cone and
then click the ’Map a selected sketch’ button. Different to earlier examples, you will see
point constrained to the left-hand B-spline from the
that a mapped sketch object appears without the SketchOnSurface object. Double-click
first sketch. Place the second B-spline point on the Z the mapped sketch object and you will move to the Sketcher Workbench, but there won’t
axis line above the origin and attach the final B-spline be any construction geometry.
point to the imported edge of the mirrored B-spline. Toggle the ’Toggles the toolbar or selected geometry to/from construction mode’
button to turn the sketching tools blue, and then draw a construction geometry rectangle
from the origin point. You can work out the exact shape and size of the curved cone
Figure 8 surface limits, but for this example we just drew a rectangle that would fit on the cone
A B-spline in an XZ plane sketch attaches the rear edges of the surface with room to spare.
original B-splines and will form the rear edge of the canopy
Toggle the Sketcher tools back so that they no longer draw geometry objects, and
draw an object inside the rectangle. We went for a ‘slot’ object. Close the sketch to
return to the Curves Workbench. Finally, select both the ’additive loft’ object that is our
cone and the mapped sketch in the file tree and then click the ’Map a selected sketch’
button again. It should now create the SketchOnSurface object and map our slot onto
the cone’s surface. Similar to earlier examples, we can add thicknesses and perform cut
operations to create our design.
63
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP
Often in mapped
sketches objects
cover the
construction
geometry. Click the
‘When in edit mode
switch between
section view and
full view’ tool to
solve this.
”
and press the SPACE bar. You should now see the
Creating datum planes is an incredibly useful blue lines and labels for the XY, XZ, and YZ planes.
”
Click the ’Create a new datum plane’ tool icon on
tool in many projects the Part Design Workbench. You should see a ’Plane
Parameters’ dialog box appear in the Combo view
area. At the top of the dialog, you will see four boxes
When you finish this B-spline, you should have a with ’No reference selected’ written in each box.
symmetrical curve that will form the rear edge of our To the left of the first box, the button text should
canopy design (Figure 8). read ’Selecting’ – if for any reason it doesn’t, click
We now need to add a similar smaller B-spline that on that box until it does. If we imagine our desired
will connect the front ends of the original mirrored new datum plane by visualising where we want to
Figure 9 B-splines to form the front edge of our canopy design. sketch, we could describe the plane as a sort of XZ
Setting up a new Of course, these points don’t sit on a datum plane, plane moved to the far end of our original mirrored
datum plane to
attach a sketch to so we need to add a datum plane to work on first. B-splines. This kind of hints as to how we will create
Creating datum planes is an incredibly useful tool the new datum plane. First, let’s click on the XZ plane
Figure 10
Creating a ruled in many projects. To help us set up our new datum that we made visible in the preview window. You
surface is the first plane, let’s make the three standard plane origins should now see that the new brown-coloured datum
step of creating our
final curvy canopy visible. To do this in the file tree, highlight ’origins?’ plane moves onto the XZ plane. Double-check the
dialog; you should find that the first box now has
’XY_plane’ in the input, and the button now says
’Plane’. Click the button until it returns to ’Selecting’.
Finally, we need to move and zoom to select the
endpoint of one of the mirrored B-splines we made
in the original sketch. This should make that vertex
point the reference of our new datum plane, which
stays oriented as parallel to the XZ plane. Once it’s
in place, you can click OK to close the datum plane
dialog (Figure 9).
With the new datum plane highlighted in the file
tree, click the ’Create a new sketch’ tool to open a
new sketch. Import the B-spline endpoints to the
sketch and make a smaller B-spline to form the front
of the canopy in the same way that we did the sketch
for the canopy rear on the XY plane.
64
To create a surface for QUICK TIP
our canopy, first we are Seriously, don’t
going to make a flat ruled depend on this
3D-printed ring
surface between the original
to try and fix your
sketch lines and then we bike or anything!
are going to use the ’Sweep
profiles on 2 rails’ tool and
the ’Approximate points to
NURBS curve or surface’ tool.
To create the ruled surface,
move to the Part Workbench,
select the two B-splines of
the original sketch, and click
the ’Create a ruled surface’
tool (Figure 10).
Moving to the Curves
Workbench, in the file tree
view, select the new ruled surface object and select have a perfect canopy surface. Of course, the surface
the two sketches that create the rear and front edge created is similar to our earlier ruled surface in that it
shape of our canopy design. With these three objects has no thickness dimension – we can, however, use
highlighted, click the ’Sweep profiles on 2 rails’ tool. familiar tools to create a thicker solid object. With the
Your computer may take a little time to process this, ’Approximation Curve’ object highlighted in the file
but once it’s complete, you should have a collection of tree, you can move to the Part Workbench and click
points, or a ’point cloud’ in the preview window that the ’Offset’ tool. In the offset tool dialog, you can
is beginning to look like the shape of our aeroplane create an offset and check the ’fill offset’ box to create Figure 11
Creating a point
canopy (Figure 11). There are plenty of options to a thicker canopy (Figure 12). cloud which we can
increase and decrease the resolution of the point cloud, We’ve seen a small range of tools on the Curves convert into a curved
surface using the
but for this example the default settings are adequate. Workbench in this chapter, but we’ve only scratched Curves Workbench
To convert the point cloud into a surface, make the surface of what this workbench is capable of. As
Figure 12
sure that the Sweep2Rails object in the file tree view ever, there is a heap of knowledge on the FreeCAD Our completed
is highlighted, and then click the ’Approximate points community forum as well as lots of videos and canopy design
finished by creating
to NURBS curve or surface’ tool. You should now tutorials online to help you explore the rest. a filled offset
65
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FreeCAD: Working with circuits
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD: Working
with circuits
An open-source workflow for
electromechanical creations
K
iCad is an excellent open-source component and need to create a 3D model for your
PCB design package that can render part. FreeCAD has us covered for this – there’s an
populated 3D images of circuit add-on workbench that contains specific tools to
board designs. In combination with make this process much easier.
FreeCAD, we can create custom Start FreeCAD and then install the KiCadStepUp
component models for KiCad or import Workbench. To do this, go to Tools > Addon
KiCad PCBs whole, allowing us to design enclosures manager and find the KiCadStepUp Workbench in
or other surrounding systems. Let’s check out some the list, then click Install. Once downloaded and
FreeCAD tools that simplify these processes. installed, you will be prompted to restart FreeCAD.
One of the concepts in KiCad is that a schematic Once restarted, you should see the workbench in
component is assigned a physical footprint from the workbench list. Start a new project in FreeCAD
a list; that footprint consists of numerous items: and move to the KiCadStepUp Workbench, where
copper pads, silkscreen drawings, and more, we’ll first take care of a little housekeeping.
which all appear in your PCB design. Commonly, a Once in the workbench, click Edit > Preferences
Figure 1
A PCB file imported 3D model is assigned to the footprint so that you and scroll down the icons on the left-hand side
from KiCad with can view your components and your PCB in 3D. to find the preferences for the KiCadStepUp
missing models
added with FreeCAD, Occasionally a 3D model might be missing or might Workbench. Click that icon, and at the top of the
and a rudimentary not fully represent your component, or indeed, page, there is an area to set up the paths to where
enclosure design
added you might be working with a custom footprint and KiCad stores its 3D models. To find these, open
68
Figure 2
A small KiCad PCB
project imported
into FreeCAD
KiCad and click Preferences > Configure Paths, the copper traces and pours – we will look at this
this should open a dialog box that shows the later in the tutorial – but doing so adds complexity to
locations and paths set within KiCad. Copy the the model that you may not need and might make it
paths to the relevant 3D model file locations and difficult or slow to move the PCB model. You will
put them in the boxes in the FreeCAD KiCadStepUp also see that the different components on the PCB
preferences dialog. are listed in the file tree view as separate parts. This
The first thing you might want to do in FreeCAD means that the components can be treated in a
is to move over to the KiCadStepUp Workbench and similar way to any FreeCAD part. You can toggle
do a quick test to import a 3D model of a KiCad PCB.
In FreeCAD, open a new project and then move over
to the KiCadStepUp Workbench and click the yellow
GETTING PERMISSION
icon with a green arrow which reads ’Load KiCad It’s highly likely that if you are creating 3D models
PCB Board and Parts’ as you hover over it. Navigate for KiCad components, you will want to save them
to one of your KiCad PCB board files (the file in the into the 3D packages folder so that you can quickly
KiCad project that ends .pcb) and open it. find them and use them in KiCad. We run KiCad on
You should notice a couple of things (Figure 2). Linux, and by default, when installed, the library and
modules folders are only read and writeable as the
The first thing is that when you use a tool icon on
root user – the general user won’t be able to make
KiCadStepUp, it automatically launches a floating changes. On Linux, we can use a terminal to switch to
toolbar with a collection of the most commonly be the root user and use the classic chmod command
used KiCadStepUp tools on it. You can move this to make the relevant KiCad folders read and writeable
out of the way, or indeed close it, but the toolbar for our regular user login. Press CTRL, ALT, and T to
will persist when you move to other workbenches, open a terminal, then switch to root user using the
which, later in this tutorial, we will find useful! command sudo su and put in your password when
prompted. Once logged in as root, input the following
QUICK TIP
Secondly, you should see your PCB import as a We’ve used
command using the file path to the folders you want
3D model. You will receive a couple of messages to make read and writeable. We’ve opted to make all the 'tooltips' to
about the import – just close these, and you should the folders inside our KiCad modules folder read and describe tool
be left with your PCB in the preview window. The writeable, and as such, our command and file path icons in every part
imported PCB doesn’t have the traces visible or the read: chmod -R a+rw usr/share/kicad/modules. of this FreeCAD
series. If you are
silkscreen items. You can import the silkscreen
struggling to find
using a KiCad DXF export and importing into the tool icon, hover
FreeCAD, but most of the time, we probably won’t over a few and read
need that level of detail in FreeCAD. You can create the tooltips!
69
TUTORIAL
individual parts’ visibility, for example, by

Figure 3 highlighting the part in the file tree and pressing the
A PCB we have
designed in KiCad
SPACE bar.
that uses an IC Sometimes when working in KiCad, you’ll design a
package that doesn’t
have a 3D model in board using a component or components that don’t
the standard libraries have a 3D model for you to use in the 3D viewer. is there is actually a 3D model of the small part of
Figure 4 Or indeed, you might be creating a custom footprint PCB board it populates and all the geometry of the
Most electronics and custom components for use in KiCad and they footprint. If we create a model of the component
component packages
have details of their won’t have a standard 3D model or models. We say that would be placed on top, we can add this to
dimensions within their
datasheets, which can
’models’ because often in KiCad, an object or part the list of items included in the KiCad 3D viewer to
be found online in the 3D viewer will have multiple models lined up complete our 3D board view.
to create the 3D view. In Figure 3, you can see a The first step of this is to identify some
PCB we are working on that uses a 4.4 mm wide accurate dimensions for the part. Most electronics
TSSOP16 package IC which is missing in KiCad’s components will have these details in their
3D viewer. The footprint is there, and we can see datasheet, which are available online. We found
the copper pads, vias, and silkscreen, but the actual a diagram for the correct TSSOP16 package that
placed component isn’t there. The footprint that matched our component and used this to create our
simple 3D model.
Armed with our dimensions, we fired up FreeCAD
CENTRE LINES and began to model our part. We went for a
When we found the dimensions for our IC package, simple approach that dimensionally represents the
we noticed that the dimensions for the pin spacings component but is only representative in design
were drawn and labelled relative to the centre line and lacks detail and refinement. We used the Part
of the pin. As we had this information, it made sense Workbench and began with a rectangle sketch that
to use it, and as such, we added an extra point we cloned 16 times and aligned to create the pins
constrained to the centre of the short vertical line of
of the IC component. Using the simple clone tools
the pin. This meant that we could then use this point
on each pin rectangle to positionally constrain the on the Sketcher Workbench is definitely useful for
pin without converting any dimensions off the original creating multiple similar parts such as these pins.
drawing. To add a point in the Sketcher Workbench, Our IC is a little over 4 mm wide, and as such, each
you simply use the 'Create a point in the sketch' tool. pin rectangle was 0.65 mm wide. It’s worth noting
that at this scale, FreeCAD will automatically slip
between mm, μm, and nm when you are applying
constraints, but if you replace the unit letters, you
can, of course, input them as fractions of a mm.
Having laid out our 16 rectangles to represent the
pins, we extruded the sketch on the Part Workbench
up to a height of 0.5 mm. Right-clicking on the
extrusion in the file tree, we clicked Appearance and
set the colour to a silver/grey (Figure 5).
We then added a second sketch via the Part
Workbench and drew a simple rectangle that
70
would represent the body of the IC component. As we imported the footprint, it aligned pretty well with
we had positionally constrained our pin sketches our model of the IC, but we wanted to move it very
around the origin point of the XY datum plane when slightly. If you have created your model away from
we constrained the the origin point, you can
”
rectangle, similarly it right-click and select Figure 5
meant it was in the Transform in the usual Our very simplified
correct position. We
We used the Part way to move the part
approach to
creating the IC pins
then extruded the Workbench and began with around in the preview – the model will be
representative and
rectangle to the height window to get it roughly
a rectangle sketch that will be accurate in
”
the area that the
of the IC package taken positioned. Then in the component sits in, but
from the datasheet. We we cloned 16 times KiCadStepUp toolbar, isn’t finely modelled
added a tiny chamfer there are some clickable Figure 6
to the upper outer buttons for the X, Y, and Loading the KiCad
footprint file into
edge of the extrusion as a token nod to modelling Z axes, and you can set tiny increments in their FreeCAD allows us to
prettily! Finally, we changed the appearance of the dialogs. We tweaked our model in increments of position and check
our 3D-modelled
extruded rectangle to black – you can see this in +- 0.01mm to get the pins of our package well component
Figure 7. Once we were happy with the look of our
package, we selected the pins and the body of the
IC model and used the Union operation on the Part
Workbench to create a single fusion object. This is
important as KiCadStepUp can only export a single
object as the 3D model to be used in KiCad.
Having created our simple model, the
KiCadStepUp Workbench has some great tools
allowing us to check the fit and position of the
model relative to the KiCad footprint model. On the
KiCadStepUp Workbench, click the ’Load KiCad PCB
Footprint’ tool and navigate to the footprint file for
the component you are modelling.
Select the footprint and it will be imported into
the preview window of FreeCAD and appear as a
folder of items in the file tree view (Figure 6). When
71
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP aligned on the pads of the imported footprint

(Figure 7 overleaf). You can also see that the
Looking at your
KiCadStepUp toolbar is available for use when open
footprint in the
Assign Footprints and undocked, even though we are on the Part
window in Eeschema Workbench. This is a really useful feature.
in KiCad can be Once you are happy with the position of your
useful to work out component, it’s time to export the model to the
the file path to a correct file path to be then used in KiCad. Again,
footprint location to
with the model selected as our single fusion object
open in FreeCAD.
in the file tree view, we clicked the ’Export 3D
model to KiCad’ tool icon. When you click this icon,
some dialog boxes will appear: the first two are
’mesh deviation’ and ’crease angles’, which we left
with their default values. The next two dialogs ask if
you want to change the colours of the parts of your
model from their current values to suggestions that we then navigated to the folder that would make
match common options used in KiCad. We left both sense to store the model we had created; for our
our colours on the ’as is’ option to use the colours model, this was the Package_SO.3Dshapes – we
set in FreeCAD, but feel free to experiment. Once pasted our two files here. Having saved everything,
you have OK’d the dialogs, two files will be created: we can now close FreeCAD and launch KiCad once
a WRL file and a STEP file. On our machine using again. Opening up our PCB project, we now need
”
the stable Linux app to assign the additional
image of FreeCAD 0.19, component model to
these two files were KiCad allows you to connect our footprint. There are
written to the folder a few different places
multiple models to each
that our app image is in KiCad that we can
stored in. Find the two instance of a footprint, so we create this association,
”
created files on your but as this is a complete
Figure 8
Adding our new 3D
can add our component here
machine and note that PCB project, we did it
model to be rendered
in position on our they are titled with from within PCBNew.
PCB project in KiCad
whatever the highlighted part was called in the Opening the project in PCBNew, we selected
Figure 7 file tree, in our case, ’fusion’. We renamed both the component footprint and pressed the E key
With the fusion
part selected in the the files to a more useful and descriptive name, to edit it. In the resulting ’Footprint Properties’
file tree, you can use TSSOP16_4.4mm – we then copied and pasted window, there is a tab called ’3D Settings’. At the
the translation tools
from KiCadStepUp them into the correct KiCad folder. In our instance of top of this tab there is a window with a list of 3D
Workbench to KiCad, the 3D packages are located as usr/share/ models currently associated with this footprint. In
nudge the part into
an exact position KiCad/modules/packages3d. Within that folder, this case, there is just one model, and the model
is the 3D render of the footprint without the placed
component on top. Brilliantly, KiCad allows you
to connect multiple models to each instance of a
footprint, so we can add our component here. First,
click the ’+’ icon to create a new empty item in the
list. Next, click the folder icon, which is next to the
+ icon, to set a path to the component model file.
Navigate your way to find the WRL version of the
files we exported from FreeCAD and moved to the
correct KiCad module subfolder. Once selected, you
should see a preview of the model. Click OK and
check that the new listing is ticked in the checkbox
(Figure 8). Close the Footprint Properties window
and then select View > 3D Viewer. If everything is
well, you should now see your PCB rendered with
your nice new 3D component model. In our project,
72
Figure 9
Success! Our new
IC models correctly
placed in the KiCad
3D viewer
we repeated the above steps twice as we had two small 3D parts created only where collisions and
of the same IC component on our board. You can interferences occur. It’s not immediately apparent
see the 3D view in KiCad is now complete with all why this might be useful, but if you consider that
its components (Figure 9). you could use these collision parts in combination
While creating models for missing 3D with boolean operations to cut away parts of an
components for KiCad is a great achievement, enclosure where objects are overlapping, you can
we have only really scratched the surface of what see that these models have merit, and, of course,
the KiCadStepUp Workbench can be used for. if they aren’t of use, you can simply delete them!
Of course, the most obvious use is to be able to
create CAD models of projects around the PCB
model. All the usual FreeCAD tools are still at our
FINER DETAILS
disposal, and as a super-quick example, we made Often a simple model of a PCB is going to be most
a simple tray enclosure using a body in the Part useful, enabling us to design around it and see how it
Design Workbench (Figure 1). You can use all the fits within our design. As such, KiCadStepUp imports
the simplest version of the PCB file that it can, simply
usual tools and tricks; for example, you can toggle
the board edges and the component models, so we end
between section and full view in the Sketcher up with a model that has the dimensional geometry of
Workbench with the PCB model behaving like any our PCB. However, we can also use KiCadStepUp to
other object. We created a pocket in our padded add more detail to our PCB model. One of the simplest
enclosure idea and moved the PCB model into a ways is to add the traces and copper pour layers into
rough position inside the pocket. As an example of our 3D model. To do this, select the imported PCB part
how useful this tool can be, we highlighted both in the file tree and then click the ’ksu tools Add Tracks’
tool icon. When you click the item, reselect the KiCad
the enclosure body and the PCB model in the file
PCB file for the project and then click Open. This may
tree view and then clicked the ’Check Interferences take some time and also will increase the complexity of
and Collisions’ tool icon on the KiCadStepUp the model, but you should see your traces and copper
Workbench. It took a short while to process, but you pour appear on your PCB model.
should see that the Report View window opens and
a list is slowly generated of any components that
collide with any other components in the complete
design. If you have parts of your PCB touching or
overlapping your enclosure or design, they will
be picked up in this operation; however, it will
also list the touching components on the PCB, for
example, where a pin passes through a hole. This
is useful in itself, but you might also notice that it
creates collision parts in the file tree – these are
73
Getting Meshy in FreeCAD
TUTORIAL
Getting Meshy
in FreeCAD
Get your designs ready for 3D printing, CNC milling, and more
S
TL files have been around since see we have created a cube object and a sphere
the 1990s, and in simple terms, object in the Part workbench and cut part of the
they contain a mesh of triangular sphere out of the cube.
facets that describe the shape of the With the cube object selected in the file tree,
design. STL files are a common mesh click File > Export and you should see that FreeCAD
format to use in 3D printing where they suggests you export the object as an STL file.
are imported into a ‘slicer’ piece of software that Give the file a name and export it, and it’s ready
generates the G-code for the 3D printer to follow. to be sliced for 3D printing. In the background,
As such, STL has become a standard file type for FreeCAD has made a lot of sensible choices about
sharing 3D print designs on sites such as Thingiverse the resolution of the mesh of our exported part.
and GrabCAD and more. Whilst heavily associated Put simply, FreeCAD makes a choice about the
with 3D printing, STL can often be used for other number of triangle facets our exported STL mesh
processes such as CNC milling or routing. object contains.
Most of the time, for simple parts, creating an STL Sometimes we might want to have more control
file in FreeCAD is simple and somewhat automated. over the mesh that‘s created for our part, and we
As an example, let’s quickly create any object in the might want to change the resolution to get the best
Part or Part Design workbench. In Figure 2, you can results for our project. This is one area where the
Figure 1
A simple example of
a mesh with an issue
we have discovered
using an automated
analysis tool
74
Figure 2
A simple part used as
an example of how
easy it is to generate
an STL mesh file
Figure 3
Creating a mesh
on the Mesh
workbench allows
for more precise
control of settings
and the subsequent
resolution of the part
more specialised tools on the Mesh workbench can should be 0.10 mm, and the second value, ‘Angular
help. As an example, we have a nose cone part for a deviation’, should be 30 degrees. If they aren’t, set
rocket designed – let’s move to the Mesh workbench them to these values and then click OK (Figure 3).
using the drop-down menu to create some different
resolution meshes to compare. RESOLVING RESOLUTIONS
On the Mesh workbench, highlight the nose cone You should now have two objects in the file tree: your
part and then click the tool that reads ‘tessellate shape’ original nose cone part and the new mesh object.
on the tooltip as you hover over it. This tool is also Similar to other items in the file tree, you can toggle
accessible by clicking Meshes > Create mesh from the visibility of the mesh and the part by highlighting
shape. You should see a dialog box in the combo view the object and pressing the SPACE bar. Select the
area, and you should see two changeable values on original nose cone part and set it as invisible so that
the Standard tab. The first value, ‘Surface deviation’, we just see the mesh object in the preview window.
You can see in Figure 4 that the created mesh
consists of lots of triangles closely approximating the
part, but we can adjust the values to increase the
” FreeCAD has made a lot of sensible choices about
”
the resolution of the mesh of our exported part
resolution of the mesh if we delete our first mesh,

make the nose cone part visible, and highlight it so
we can create a new mesh. For this mesh, let’s set
the surface deviation to 0.03 mm and the angular
deviation to 10 degrees. You should see, similar
to Figure 5, that the resulting mesh is a higher
resolution and more precisely matches the original
part. Of course, this also increases the complexity of QUICK TIP
the mesh and, if taken too far, may well begin to slow While STL files are
down your graphics card performance. the most common
mesh file, they aren’t
To export a mesh from the Mesh workbench, you
the only ones. In fact,
can highlight the mesh in the file tree, right-click, and many would argue
select ‘Export mesh’. There are numerous options of that STL are not great
STL types, but we tend to export as ‘Binary STL’ and, files for mesh objects.
75
TUTORIAL
Figure 5
Our second mesh resulting in a
higher resolution mesh, which more
closely matches our nose cone part
these seem to work well with our slicing software for using Boolean functions to stick objects together,
Figure 4 3D printing. One thing to note is that the Export mesh or subtract one shape out of another. If we want to
Our first attempt at
creating a mesh of the function seems to want us to add the ‘.stl’ to the file turn around the hook part of our mesh file, we will
nose cone part name in the name input box. create a copy of the hooked end and rotate it using
Of course, creating a mesh file from an object we these tools.
made in FreeCAD is just one small aspect of the work
of the Mesh workbench. One area it is particularly REGULAR SOLIDS
useful in is for editing and amending mesh files. This First of all, click the ‘Build a regular solid’ tool
scenario often arises when we’ve found an object icon or select the same tool by clicking Meshes >
online that we wish to 3D-print but will require some Regular solid. You should now see a small window
reworking. Often, if you are downloading an object with a drop-down to select various shapes, cubes,
from a website such as Thingiverse or GrabCAD, you cylinders, etc., and some entry boxes to add
may only have the option dimensions. We will
”
to download a mesh file/ create a cube 35 mm
STL, or indeed you might long, 50 mm wide, and
have the project file but it
The Mesh workbench 10 mm high. Similar
is made in software that has some tools that are again to working with
you don’t own. solids on the Part
similar in approach to
”
As an example, we workbench, if you
have an STL file of a the Part workbench highlight the cube object
hands-free door puller. in the file tree, right-click
Let’s pretend that, in and select Transform,
use, we decided it would be better if the hook faced we can then move the cube into place over the
the other way round. We could, of course, with the hooked end of the door puller (Figure 7).
QUICK TIP knowledge within this FreeCAD, draw this part from Next, select the two objects in the file tree and
The Intersection, scratch in a matter of minutes, but let’s use the click the ‘Intersection’ tool icon. You will now see an
Union, and Mesh workbench to make some changes. Click the additional item in the file tree labelled ‘Intersection’.
Difference Boolean ‘Imports a mesh from a file’ tool icon and navigate to If we toggle the cube item to be invisible and then
operation tool icons
the STL file and select to import it (Figure 6). select the intersection item, we can then right-click
look like green
versions of their The Mesh workbench has some tools that are and use Transform to move the intersection object,
counterparts on the similar in approach to the Part workbench, where which is a copy of the hook section, away from the
Part workbench. we create simple solid objects and combine them rest of the door puller object. Next, make the cube
76
visible once more, select the door puller object and
the cube and then perform a ‘Difference’ Boolean
operation on it. You should now have a version of
the original door puller with no end and a copy of the
hooked end (Figure 8).
All that remains is to move and rotate everything
into the new position, and then we can use the
‘Union’ Boolean operation to create a new single
mesh object. We can then highlight the new door
puller union object and click the ‘Export a mesh to file’
tool to create our new STL file ready for 3D printing.
Continuing to use our door puller tool project as an
example, let’s explore how we create a Part object
from a mesh. Moving to the Part workbench, we can
highlight the mesh – in our case called ‘Union’ in the
file tree view – then click Part > Create shape from
OPENSCAD Figure 6
Importing an STL
mesh. You should now see that a part has been made file to the Mesh
FreeCAD is a community-developed, open-source workbench for editing
of our door puller object (Figure 9). Let’s make our piece of software that uses other open-source pieces
mesh object invisible in the file tree to explore our part. of code and modules within it. Another excellent
You should see that the part object creates its faces open-source piece of CAD software is OpenSCAD,
and edges based on the triangles in the mesh, which which uses a code-based approach to 3D modelling.
Files and models created with OpenSCAD can be
means that it is an accurate copy, but also means it
imported directly to FreeCAD. FreeCAD has an
can be a little challenging to work with. You can, of OpenSCAD workbench to enable people to use the
course, select faces and map sketches to faces, which best of both software approaches.
is pretty straightforward on larger flat sections of a part In the Mesh workbench some of the functionality,
but gets challenging if you consider the curved part including the Boolean operations we are using in this
of our puller. It can also be useful to convert meshes article, require OpenSCAD to be installed and a path
to the OpenSCAD executable to be set up in FreeCAD.
to parts if you want to recreate aspects of a mesh
Head over to openscad.org and download and install
design. Converting a mesh to a part means that you
the latest version for your operating system. Once
can use the ‘Link to an external geometry’ tool in the installed, back in FreeCAD, move to the OpenSCAD
Sketcher workbench to pull in reference points to workbench and then click Edit > Preferences and
create sketches over parts converted from meshes. scroll down to select the OpenSCAD icon. In the
Sometimes we might want to work with extremely Preferences dialog, the first item is an input box to
complex mesh files. If you’ve ever downloaded a set the file path to the OpenSCAD executable – your
system should have detected the correct path, but it’s
complex model, such as a model of a person or object
worth opening the file location and checking it is all
that’s full of complex organic curves, you might notice set correctly. Once checked, click the Apply button
that your graphics card starts to slow down when and close the preferences.
you manipulate the object. The FreeCAD
Figure 7
Creating a mesh solid cube and positioning
it over the part we intend to rotate
QUICK TIP
You might want to
install the brilliant
Rocket workbench
using the Add-on
Manager if you want
to play with the nose
cone design.
77
TUTORIAL
”
and 3212 faces. Next, click the ‘Decimates a mesh’
tool, which appears as a green diamond-shaped
Mesh decimation must be used in moderation, as taken
”
tool icon. In the Decimating dialog box that appears,
too far, it’s easy to completely destroy the object set the reduction level to 50 percent and leave the
absolute number box unchecked. Click OK. In the
preview window, if you are still zoomed in, you should
Mesh workbench has a handy tool to play with notice the resolution of our puller part change, it
optimising the mesh resolution that may be able should look cruder and the triangles should be more
to reduce the data, or put simply, the number of obvious (Figure 10).
triangles in a given mesh while still retaining enough If we check the details of our mesh object in the
detail. This tool is called the ‘Decimation’ tool. Mesh dialog box, we can see it has reduced the number of
decimation must be used in moderation, as taken points, edges, and faces by 50 percent to 803 points,
too far, it’s easy to completely destroy the object, 2409 edges, and 1606 faces. This carries through to
which can also be a fun experiment. In the preview affect the file size of an exported mesh, and indeed,
window, let’s zoom in so that we have a close view exporting this decimated version creates a file size
Figure 8 of a part of the internal chamfer on the large hole percent smaller than the none decimated mesh. If
New parts created in our door puller object. Notice that when zoomed you zoom out on our 50 percent decimated mesh
and ready to be
put back together in, you can see the facets that make up the mesh version of the door puller, you’ll see that it makes
in our improved
configuration
surface. As this is a small file, we’ve made this mesh very little real-world difference to the resolution of
a pretty high resolution, but let’s explore the effects the object, and the size and shape of the object is
Figure 9
With the two parts of of decimation. First, select the door puller object, in unchanged. You can experiment with the decimation
the puller rearranged, our case called ‘Union’ in the file tree. Notice that in value – it can be quite amusing to see what happens
we combine them
back into a single the dialog box, once selected, we get some details to a shape when you approach the near 100 percent
mesh using the Union of the number of points, edges, and faces our mesh decimation values.
Boolean operation
ready for export contains. For us, these are 1606 points, 4818 edges, Sometimes we might work with mesh files, or
indeed create mesh files, that have issues and
problems. The Mesh workbench has a tool that
enables us to quickly and repeatedly analyse meshes
for problems. With our mesh object highlighted, click
the ‘Opens a dialog to analyse and repair a mesh’ tool.
This should open a large dialog box on the right-hand
side of the preview window. There is a list of potential
problem items that FreeCAD can analyse a mesh
for. You can analyse a mesh for each item on the list
individually, or you can click ‘Analyse’ on the ‘All above
tests together’ option at the bottom of the list. Close
that dialog box for now, and let’s quickly make a new
simple object with a problem!
78
In a new project, move to the Part workbench described as non-manifold. Another way to create QUICK TIP
and create two identical default cube solid objects. a non-manifold example is to create a tube with no Another useful
These default to 10 mm cubes, using Transform, ends where the surface of the tube has no thickness tool on the Mesh
move the second cube object up 10 mm in the Z – this can be done using lofting tools or sweeping workbench allows us
axis and across 10 mm in the X axis. Finally, highlight operations in FreeCAD, for example. to scale mesh object.
Simply select the
both cubes in the file tree view and perform a Union
mesh in the file tree
operation to make the two cubes – one part called FIXING THE ISSUE and click the ‘Scale
‘Fusion’. Moving to the Mesh workbench, with our Having analysed our cubes example and found the selected meshes’
fusion object highlighted, click the ‘Tessalate shape’ non-manifold edge issue, we may well be tempted tool icon.
tool icon to create a mesh object. You can see the to click the Repair button next to the offending
resulting mesh imported in Figure 1. Make the issue in the dialog box. If you try this, FreeCAD will
original solid part fusion object invisible in the file automatically apply a repair, but be prepared for this
tree, highlight the mesh object, and then reopen the to fail as it will only work occasionally on simple
mesh analysis dialog as before. Double-check that problems, such as a small gap on a surface that
your mesh object is the object listed in the Mesh needs closing. It’s always worth a try, however, and
Information section (especially if you have multiple you can always undo any odd changes the repair
projects open), then click the Analyse button on the functions apply. For the sake of completeness, let’s
‘All above tests together’ option. The tests will run manually create a solution. If we move back to our
quickly, and you should see just one error reported. part object and delete the fusion object so that we
You should see that in the list of analysis areas in have our two separate cubes, move the upper cube
the dialog, the ‘Non-Manifolds’ section has a check back over and into the lower cube creating a couple
box with one non-manifold issue found. A simple of millimetres where they overlap. Then create a new
way to think of this common error to understand mesh and analyse it – you should see that you have
when something is non-manifold is to consider if cured the manifold issue.
it is possible to be manufactured. In this instance, Finally, while we’ve looked at some useful stuff on
our two cubes are only connected at one edge and the Mesh workbench, we have only really scratched
they do not overlap at all, which means, in essence, the surface of what’s available. As ever, there is lots
that the connected edge is infinitesimally small. more information, and tutorials, to be found online
Of course, it’s impossible to create a connection on both the FreeCAD community forums and in the
between these objects, and as such, they are FreeCAD wiki.
Figure 10
Using the ‘Decimate a
mesh’ tool to reduce
the resolution of a
model can make a
complex model easier
to work with
79
FreeCAD: intermediate sketching
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
intermediate sketching
Often a sketch is the foundation of a part, and we have only
looked at the basics. Let’s delve deeper into more intermediate
features and approaches for sketching in FreeCAD
W
e have already looked at the rectangle sketch into a larger cuboid. Next, select
basics of sketching in the any face on the cuboid in the preview window and
Sketcher workbench and then click the ‘Add a sketch’ tool to open a sketch that is
occasionally looked at other attached to that face.
Sketcher features, such as If we imagine that we want to add a hole to the
cloning and making multiples upper right-hand corner of our selected face, and
of objects (on page 48). As such a fundamental that we want the hole to be specifically placed with
approach to creating parts, it’s certainly worth looking respect to the upper right-hand corner, this is slightly
at in more depth. tricky. It’s tricky, as the sketch underlying the cuboid
To begin, let’s revisit an approach we have used object is unconstrained and we don’t know its size
previously which we can use as an example. Open up or its position relative to the origin point. We have
FreeCAD and start a new project, move to the Part used a tool previously though that allows us to import
Design workbench, create a body, and then create a underlying geometry and help us solve this issue. The
sketch in the XY plane. tool we have used is the ‘Create an edge linked to an
In your new sketch, draw a rectangle using the external geometry’ tool which, when selected, allows
‘Create a rectangle in the sketch’ tool and don’t worry us to select underlying geometry objects, edges,
about constraining it. Close the sketch and, back on and points, and make them selectable in the current
the Part Design workbench, use the Pad function (on sketch. So, to accurately place a hole positionally
the ‘Task’ tab in the combo view window) to pad the relative to the upper right-hand corner, we can simply
select the right-hand edge of the cuboid and then, in
turn, use that imported geometry to set horizontal and
vertical distance constraints to the centre of our hole
Figure 1
Using the Polyline circle sketch (Figure 2).
tool, in various modes, In essence, what we have done in our hole, in a
to trace accurately
over the imported cuboid example, is use an underlying geometry to
image object
create a guide point in the new sketch onto which we
can attach constraints. We can see, therefore, that
guide points can be incredibly useful, but often we
may need a guide point in a position where there is no
underlying geometry that we can import. An incredibly
powerful feature of the Sketcher workbench is that
we can switch all the drawing tools to ‘construction’
mode. In a new project, again move to Part Design,
create a new body, and create a sketch in the XY
plane. Find the tool icon that looks like a red box over
a blue dashed box, where the tooltip reads ‘Toggles
the toolbar or selected geometry
80
to/from constructions mode’, and click it. You should Click the ‘Toggles the toolbar or selected geometry
see that all your drawing tools now turn from white to/from constructions mode’ once more, and then
lines in the icon to blue. select the ‘Line’ tool. Click and draw a line that starts
You should note, at this point, that drawing whilst at the origin point and moves out at an angle to
in construction mode is exactly the same as standard meet the edge of the circle. Do this twice, with one
mode. All the tools work in the same way; however, construction line in the lower right-hand quadrant of
the geometries drawn will appear as blue lines and, the circle, and one in the lower left (Figure 4).
”
when you move back to the Part Design workbench
or other workbenches, you won’t be able to see any
construction geometry. The power of construction Often we may need a guide
geometry is that, when you toggle back to normal point in a position where there
geometry to draw visible parts of the sketch, you can,
is no underlying geometry that
”
of course, attach points or constrain visible sketch
edges and point to the construction geometry. Toggle we can import
back to normal drawing tools, and let’s work through
an example to show this in use.
In Figure 3, you can see the completed object we Next, click the ‘Fix the angle of a line or the angle
are aiming to make. We’ll use some construction between two lines’ tool, and select the vertical Y axis
geometry to help, but along the way we will also line and then the lower right-hand construction line.
explore the ‘Create a slot’ tool that we haven’t used As we want the three slots to be equally spaced, set
yet in this series. First, let’s draw a standard circle in this angle to 120 degrees. Repeat this, selecting the Y
our sketch. Select the circle drawing tool and, starting axis line and the lower left construction line so that
from the origin point, draw a circle. Double-check
your circle is centred to the origin, and then use the
Figure 2
‘Constrain an arc or circle’ tool to set the diameter of Using imported
external geometry to
the circle to 30 mm. Due to the nature of the plane create a guide point to
origin point and axis lines, you might now appreciate constrain items to
that we have the Y axis line onto which we can attach Figure 3
one of our slots correctly but that, as there are three This slotted plate
uses construction
equally spaced slots, we don’t have geometry onto mode geometry to aid
which we can constrain the further two slots. We can the placement and
constraining
solve this by drawing two construction mode lines. of the slots
81
TUTORIAL
we have both our construction lines correctly

positioned (Figure 5).
Select the ‘Create a slot in the sketch’ tool, and
make sure you have toggled the drawing tools
back to normal mode and you aren’t still drawing
in construction mode. Draw a slot by clicking
somewhere on the vertical Y axis line and dragging
down towards the centre of the circle, but don’t
connect the sketch to the centre origin point. Notice
that when you draw with the slot tool, numerous
constraints are automatically added, and this includes
that the slot is either vertically or horizontally
constrained. Let’s fully constrain this slot. Begin by
selecting the lower point on the Y axis line and set
a vertical distance between it and the origin point
of 5 mm. Next, select the two points in the slot that
Figure 4
Setting up a pair of
‘M’ HOT KEY are on the centreline, and create a vertical distance
construction lines to between them of 20 mm. To set the width of the slot,
be constrained to the
correct angle to align select either set of two points that are at the end of
our slots
the outer line, and mark the connecting point of the
Figure 5 arc which forms the slot end. With two selected, set
Our construction
lines created and the the distance between them as 3 mm. This results in
first slot added and a fully constrained slot with a length of 23 mm (slot
constrained on the Y
axis line length, plus the radius of the arc at each end) and a
width of 3 mm (Figure 5).
A very useful feature within the Sketcher workbench, SORTING YOUR SLOTS
when using the Polyline tool, is the M hot key. When To draw the other two slots is slightly more complex.
the Polyline tool is in use, pressing the M key cycles the Draw a slot of any size in the lower left-hand
tool through various modes that are incredibly useful. quadrant. Again, the drawn slot will be constrained to
To explore this in a new sketch, select the Polyline tool vertical or horizontal automatically, and so we need
and draw a few random lines in the standard mode.
to delete those constraints to be able to position it
Without right-clicking to complete a polyline, press
the M key once. This first new mode enables you to on an angle. Find the small red horizontal or vertical
automatically place a right angle line segment. Click the dash that is the constraint. Highlight this with a left-
QUICK TIP M key once more, and it will cycle the angle placement click and delete it with the DELETE key. You should
The Image relative to the last polyline point. Click M again, and you now be able to drag the slot into an angled position.
workbench works can now draw an arc that is anchored tangentially on To correctly place the slot following the construction
with lots of common the last point of the line. Another M press changes the
line, we can use a single symmetry constraint. First,
file types, including arc orientation, and a final M press allows you to draw
an arc anchored to the last point, but not tangential.
select two points that are at the end of the same
SVG. However, you
Whilst this sounds complex in description, it’s simply arc forming the end of the slot, and then select the
might be able to
import an SVG as a case of playing with the Polyline tool and it soon construction line. Next, click the ‘Create a symmetry
geometry, negating becomes instinctive. constraint between two points with respect to a line
the need to sketch it! or third point’ tool – this should now constrain the slot
82
QUICK TIP
Most of the
functions we have
shown in this article
work whether you
are in construction
or normal mode
in Sketcher.
Figure 6
Using the ‘Trim an
edge’ tool to remove
intersecting lines
to be aligned with the construction line perfectly. We let’s open a new project and again move to the Part
can now add distance constraints to bring the slot to Design workbench, create a new body, and then a
the same relative position as our first slot. However, sketch on the XY plane.
note that, due to the angle, we can’t use vertical or In this sketch, first let’s select the ‘Create a circle
horizontal distance constraints, so we need to use the in the sketcher’ drawing tool, and draw a circle
‘Fix the length of a line or the distance between a line anywhere on the plane. Next, select the ‘Create a
and a vertex’ tool. rectangle in the sketch’ tool, and draw a rectangle
Repeat the above to get all three slots fully that overlaps the circle. If we now select the ‘Trim an
constrained, and then close and pad the sketch to edge with respect to the picked position’ tool, we can
get the final result. Whilst this is a relatively simple use this to get rid of parts of lines we don’t require.
example, it does show how combining construction If you click a line that intersects another line, that line
geometry alongside section will be deleted,
”
regular geometry is even if they are from
a powerful sketching separate objects like our
approach. You can use
The Trim tool is only of use circle and our rectangle.
all the drawing tools in when a line intersects In Figure 6, you can see
construction mode and, that we have deleted
or is connected
”
as such, there is no end two line segments inside
to the possibilities. to another line the circle that belonged
Moving away from to the rectangle circle.
construction mode, We can of course also
another really useful pair of tools are the ‘Extend an remove the line that belongs to the circle that is in
edge with respect to the picked position’ and the between the lines of the rectangle in exactly the same
‘Trim an edge with respect to the picked position’ manner. That just leaves the now disconnected line
tools, the latter of which is particularly powerful. If left over from the rectangle that is free-floating inside
you have used Inkscape, the excellent open-source the circle (Figure 7). If we now try and use the ‘Trim
2D vector graphics software, you probably have used and edge with respect to the picked position’ tool, we
the concept of Boolean operations, union, difference, will get an error message. The Trim tool is only of use
intersection, and more, to combine different primitive when a line intersects or is connected to another line.
shapes. This is similar to how, in the Part workbench, If we had deleted this line first using this tool, it would
we use Boolean operations to combine primitive have worked as it was still connected to the rectangle,
solids. It’s a feature in Sketcher that I missed at first, but now this tool will fail. For non-connected lines
until I discovered the ‘Trim an edge with respect such as this one, you can simply left-click on it to
to the picked position’ tool. As a simple example, select it as an item and press the DELETE key.
83
TUTORIAL
QUICK TIP
When you import
an image, it tends
to import in an
angled view. The
view buttons and
cube work exactly
the same with the
image plane, and
pressing ‘top’ will
give you a top-
down view.
A similar useful tool is the ‘Extend an edge with workbench, ‘Image’, to import picture files to
respect to the picked position’ tool. In a new project particular planes. We also can then scale the images
and a new sketch, draw a rectangle and then draw correctly and more. Let’s create a new project
some polylines near the rectangle that don’t quite and move to the Image workbench. On the Image
meet the rectangle lines, similar to Figure 8. Next, workbench, you will see that there are three main tool
select the ‘Extend an edge with respect to the picked icons. Find the tool icon that reads ‘Create a planar
position’ tool and left-click on one of the lines that image in the 3D space’ and click it. Next, navigate to a
doesn’t meet the rectangle. If you move the cursor, picture file you want to import (Figure 10).
you can now extend this line to any position you like
Figure 7 or, as it crosses the line forming part of the rectangle, FINAL STEPS
Trying to use the Trim
tool to delete the final that line will become highlighted meaning that you Once you select an image, you will get a dialog box
unconnected edge
will result in an error. can attach the line to the rectangle at that point asking which plane you would like to attach the
However, we can (Figure 9). This tool works not just on straight line image to. We opted for XY in the first instance. The
simply select the line
and delete it geometry, but will also work to extend arcs and more. dialog box also has an ‘Offset’ input box – this is the
Another slightly advanced sketching approach is distance from the selected plane where the image
Figure 8
Setting up some lines the concept of sketching over an imported image, is placed. It’s useful, when intending to trace parts
that don’t meet, for our
example of using the
or images, to create some geometry that matches a of the image in Sketcher, to have the image placed
‘Extend an edge’ tool real-world object. To do this we can use a separate slightly under the plane, so we added a -0.1 mm
offset before clicking OK. You should now see your
image loaded onto the selected plane and you can
see an ‘imageplane’ object appear in the file tree
view. Of course, like most items in the file tree, you
can toggle the visibility of the imageplane item on and
off using the SPACE bar.
Having imported our image successfully, we can
switch to the Part Design workbench. Create a new
body and then create a new sketch in the XY plane.
If you imported the image with the correct negative
offset, you should now see the image in the Sketcher
workbench but with the datum lines above the image.
To double-check, draw a shape in the sketch and
make sure it appears over the image. You can now
begin to draw and trace parts of your image using the
Polyline tool. Using the M key to cycle through the
different polyline modes, as described earlier in this
article, can allow you to quite quickly create outline-
traced sketches of quite complex items (Figure 1).
84
Figure 9
The lines are now
extended into the
rectangle – the
upper line has been
constrained onto the
upright line of
the rectangle
Figure 10
A photograph
imported to the XY
plane, and appearing
in the preview
window and in the file
tree view
Tracing imageplane objects is an excellent

approach, but one problem is that images, especially
photographs, rarely scale correctly when imported.
If you have followed along and imported an image
and traced (or partially traced) parts of it, as a test,
select a line and click the ‘Fix a length of a line or the
distance between a line and a vertex’ constraint tool.
You’ll probably see that the length of the line doesn’t
match the reality of the object. In our case, if we click
the first line on the upper part of the metal blade of
our shear in Figure 1, we get a length of 105 mm,
which is way too big. Whilst there are ways to scale a
complete sketch using the Draft workbench, a better
approach in this instance is to scale the imageplane
object before we do too much work with it. If we
have access to the object in the image, we can simply is parallel to the object means that when we trace the
measure a part of the object. item, we aren’t tracing a skewed version of it. Making
To scale our image plane object correctly, let’s sure a photograph is taken directly from above can
hide the sketch by toggling its visibility in the file help; or, if sizes allow, even better is to create a scan
tree using the SPACE bar. Then, return to the Image image of the object on a flatbed scanner. Finally, if
workbench. Click the ‘Scales an image plane by you add a ruler or a cutting mat with a grid to the
defining a distance between two points’ tool icon and background of your image, you can use this as the
a ‘Scale image plane’ dialog box will appear. First, reference points for the ‘Scale image plane’ tool for
input a known distance that applies to two points on really accurate results.
the object. So we input 46 mm. You then click on the
first point on the imageplane object, so we clicked
on the point on the top of the blade at the fulcrum
point on the shears. Next, you click the second point
representing the other end of the distance you input.
In our case, this is the point at which the upper blade
joins the handle. Finally, the dialog asks you to click
the imageplane object you want to scale. Then you
click OK, and the imageplane object is now scaled
correctly to the object (Figure 11).
With a little forethought, we can make our image
Figure 11
scaling process a little easier and more accurate. If we Using the ‘Scale
image plane’ tool to
are creating the image ourselves, there are a couple make our reference
of things we can do. Firstly, ensuring that our image image the correct size
85
Sheet folding in FreeCAD
TUTORIAL

Let’s look at an amazing workbench that makes working with sheet metals,
or other foldable sheet materials, simple to CAD
I
n this section, we are going to work mostly ‘BaseBend’ has appeared in our file tree. Similar to if
on an add-on workbench called ‘Sheet we had extruded our part, we can still make changes
Metal’, so let’s get that installed. Open up to the underlying sketch, and those will be pushed
FreeCAD and click Tools > Addon manager, and through to the BaseBend object. There are also
then scroll down the list to find ‘Sheet Metal’. numerous parameters in the BaseBend object dialog.
Click to install the workbench, and then close Notably, you can adjust the thickness of the sheet –
the Addon manager – you will get prompted to this is useful since the BaseBend object, as you will
restart FreeCAD. see, defines the sheet thickness for the rest of the
Once you have restarted FreeCAD, start a new attached design.
project and, as a very simple first example, let’s first Next, let’s select one of the edges on the
go to the Part Design workbench, create a body, and BaseBend object. We selected the upmost edge line
then create a sketch in the XY plane. of one of the longer sides. With that selected, click
Inside the sketch, let’s create a rectangle around the ‘Extends one or more face, connected by a bend
the origin point. We don’t need to fully constrain this on existing sheet metal’ tool icon, which should be
sketch, but let’s give it a horizontal and a vertical second from the left in the Sheet Metal workbench
constraint, making it roughly 12 cm by 6 cm. Once this toolbar. You should now see that we have created a
is done, close the sketch. Without making further new section of our sheet design, folded at 90 degrees
changes to this sketch, we can move straight away to to the original sheet (Figure 2). This new object
the Sheet Metal workbench. In this workbench, with appears in the file tree labelled ‘Bend’ and subsequent
our sketch highlighted in the file tree, let’s click the bends will be labelled ‘Bend001’, ‘Bend002’, etc.
‘Create a sheet metal wall from a sketch’ tool icon, Highlighting the ‘Bend’ object in the file tree, we can
Figure 1 which should be the furthest to the left on the Sheet adjust plenty of parameters. We’ll leave the first
An example design
that could be Metal tools toolbar. parameter, Bend Type, as it is, set at ‘Material
fabricated from You should see that our sketch has been extruded Outside’, but have a glance at the options for later on.
a single piece of
sheet metal slightly to form a sheet, and that a new object called You’ll note that our new folded section is folded down
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FORGE
from the original BaseBend object in the Z axis. If we Next, let’s select one of the short edges of our
wanted this section to fold upwards, we can change BaseBend rectangle sheet and add a second bend to
the ‘angle’ parameter in the dialog. Setting this to -90 create a wall at 90 degrees. You’ll notice that at the
rotates the folded section to point upwards. Similarly, corner where the two folds meet, there is a small
we can set the angle of this fold to any amount we gap. This is a by-product of working in sheet metal,
choose. Moving down the parameter list, we can use where the radius of a fold means that folded sections
”
the ‘gap1’ and ‘gap2’ stand slightly off the
parameters to make the BaseBend object. You
folded object not the full Corner relief is a small also may note that the
length of our attached cutaway that, similar to the two folds join together at
BaseBend edge. So, for a very sharp point where
earlier notches, stops the
”
example, in Figure 3, we they join the BaseBend
have added a gap value metal distorting when folded object. Again, in real life,
of 10 mm to each of that sharp convergence Figure 2
Creating an initial
those parameters. You point could create ‘BaseBend’ object
and adding our first
may need to click the ‘Recomputes the current active distortions in the piece as it is folded, so it can be a folded section
document’ button or press CTRL+R to see the good idea to add some corner relief. Corner relief is a
Figure 3
changes in your model. small cutaway that, similar to the earlier notches, Adding gaps
You’ll notice that not only does the bend object stops the metal distorting when folded. To add corner automatically can
add notches which
reduce in length by the gap amount, but also that relief, we need to select the two edges which run would allow sheet
there are some small ‘relief’ notches automatically into the corner on the BaseBend object. You can see metal to be folded
without distorting at
added at the end point of the bend. This is good these edges selected in Figure 4. the fold point
practice in sheet metal work as, if you fold a bend
that connects to a straight edge, the end of the bend
will distort the straight edge at the point it joins it.
Adding the notch stops this distortion from occurring.
If you wanted to not have a relief notch added, you
can scroll down to the ‘Parameters relief’ section and
set the relief factor to ‘0’ and then set the ‘use relief
factor’ setting to ‘true’. This option might be useful if
you are using the Sheet Metal workbench to design
using different materials, such as thin card or plastics.
Before we move on, please also note that, in the
‘bend’ object dialog, you can change the length of the
added bend part. Before we add more bends, undo or
delete any changes you have made so that we have
our simple BaseBend, and our first bend object that is
full length with no gaps, etc.
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TUTORIAL
With the two lines selected, the ‘Corner Relief to

sheet metal corner’ tool icon should become active
(seventh from the left on the Sheet Metal workbench
toolbar). Clicking the tool should create a corner relief
object in the file tree, and also create a circular hole in
the corner of the two folds (Figure 5). There are
options for other corner relief geometries in the
corner relief object dialog. Whilst a circular relief
might be easy to create in a flat sheet design using a
drill, you might prefer a square relief or another shape.
Finally, there are also options for ‘circle scaled’ and
‘square scaled’ geometries. These are useful as, if we
use a scaled corner relief but then add other folds
around that corner, as we are about to do, the scaled
relief is sized so that it won’t interfere with the
subsequent fold. Therefore, after experimenting, set
the corner relief to ‘circle scaled’.
As you can see, we automatically appear to be
making a tiny metal tray or lid! We might in real life
Figure 4 FOLD GEOMETRY want to create folds around the corners of the side
walls to create a very rigid structure. If we select one
To set up a corner
relief, you must select
the two edges that When you fold sheet materials, including sheet of the outer edges of the shorter sides folded wall
run into a corner point metals, there are numerous forces in play inside the and click the ‘Extends one or more faces’ tool again,
between folds
fold. On the inside of the fold, the material is under another bend object appears and we now have a
a compression force and, on the outside of the fold, folded metal piece that completes the corner.
the material is being expanded. In the diagram below, However, this piece currently sits inside/on top of the
the dotted green line represents the line through the
other folded wall section (Figure 6). Of course, this
material where these forces swap from compression
to extension and vice versa. This line is called the would be impossible to make, so we need to use an
neutral axis. In different materials and at different offset to place this fold correctly.
thicknesses of materials, this line will be in different
positions. The reason this is important is that it dictates ADD AN OFFSET
where fold lines are accurately placed to create the Highlight the new bend object in the file tree and, in
overall dimension of a piece accurately. The position
the dialog, click the drop-down menu for the ‘Bend
of the neutral axis is given as a ratio of the material’s
thickness; this ratio value is called the K-factor. You can
Type’ option. Select ‘Offset’, and now the new fold
search online for the K-factor of a given material at a will be offset by the amount specified by the ‘offset’
given thickness, but also be aware of what industrial field further down the dialog. Our material is 1 mm
standard the K-factor value is being stated in, either thick, so if we change the offset amount to 1 mm, the
ANSI or DIN. We found that a K-factor ratio of 0.4 ANSI new section is on the outside of the two tray walls.
was commonly given for 1 mm aluminium sheet. Using Or, if we input -1 mm, then the fold sits on the inside
this value when using the ‘Flatten sheet metal folded
of the walls. Whilst this works, it does mean that our
object’ tool will ensure that all your fold geometry is
accurate for the material you wish to use. material touches inside the folded overlapping
sections. This becomes an issue later in the process
when we want to flatten our design, as it requires a
clearance between folded surfaces. Therefore, set
compression your offsets to 1.1 mm to create external folds with a
small clearance. Having created all the parts to make
one corner of our metal tray, we can continue around
the BaseBend object, adding further folds and corner
reliefs until we have four walls with folded corners.
One interesting thing to note about designs made
this way on the Sheet Metal workbench is that they
extension can still be manipulated and worked on by tools on
other workbenches as normal. One quick example is to
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FORGE
Figure 5
Adding corner relief
to points where folds
adjoin can make it
easier to produce your
design accurately in
sheet metal
design back out after we have completed it.

Flattening and unfolding the design then allows us to
see the basic shape of the flat sheet that we need to
cut to create our object. To flatten the design on the
Sheet Metal workbench, we need to select a face
which will be the reference plane to flatten the part
to. With our metal tray design, the obvious choice is
to pick the outer large surface of the BaseBend
object. With that face highlighted, you then need to
click the ‘Flatten sheet metal folded object’ tool icon,
which is fifth from the left on the Sheet Metal
workbench toolbar. You should now see a dialog box
move to the Part Design workbench, select a suitable appear, titled ‘unfold sheet metal object’; you may
edge, and apply a chamfer or a fillet. A more useful also see that the report window opens at the bottom
example is to perhaps add sketches to our metal tray of the screen with a report that ‘engineering mode is
design. If we were to fabricate this tray, we might like not enabled’. Don’t worry about the report window
to add holes in the design for bolts or rivets to fix the message: just close the report window. In the dialog
folded corners firmly. To add a sketch to this design, box, make sure that ‘generate projection sketch’ is
you work exactly as if you were adding a sketch to any ticked and then also tick the ‘Manual K-Factor’ box.
face in any design. First, move to the Part Design When you tick that box, you will need to input a
workbench and select one of the external folded tab K-factor value. We read that an 0.4 ANSI value was
faces and click the ‘Add a sketch’ button. We then appropriate for our 1 mm thick sheet metal design
drew a 2 mm radius circle, imagining we might use a when working in aluminium.
4 mm diameter rivet. Again, just like any sketch on a
face, we used the ‘Create an edge linked to an external
geometry’ tool to be able to position our circle relative
to the end of the folded tab, (Figure 7).
Closing the sketch, we then used the pocket tool
on the Part Design workbench to create a hole, and Figure 6
Initially when you
selected ‘through all’ as the type so that the holes create an overlapping
would be created on both sides of the design. Whilst corner, it is placed
directly on top of the
we could have done this in a single sketch, we added other folds
another sketch to create the same holes at the other
Figure 7
end of our tray. Setting up a sketch
To fabricate an object, such as our tray created to create holes for
fixtures in our
from a folded sheet, we need to be able to flatten our tabbed metal tray
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TUTORIAL
sketch item visible, and then highlight it and use File

> Export to export a variety of file types (DXF, SVG,
and many more) to create printable plans, or to use to
create G-codes for a milling machine or to cut on a
laser cutter.
Whilst there is a lot of mileage in what we have
looked at so far, there is the fact that everything we
designed in our tray example was a fold that started
or extended from an existing edge of an object. Let’s
Having input 0.4 and ticked ‘ANSI’, we can then click look at using sketches to create fold lines that are not
Figure 8 the ‘OK’ button. Depending on your computer, it may on the edge of items but inside the face of a sheet. To
Flattening our design take a few moments but, once processed, you should begin, we created a new project, moved to the Part
creates a flat 3D
object of our unfolded now see two new objects in the file tree view – Design workbench, and created a sketch in the XY
sheet, and also a
sketch object
‘unfold’ and ‘unfold sketch’. These two new items plane. In the sketch, we drew the object in Figure 9.
exist outside of the active body containing our folded You don’t have to faithfully recreate this sketch, but
design; so, to tidy the file tree view, we can close the you can create something similar to play with
drop-down menu of the active body so that our file these techniques.
tree just has three visible list items: ‘Body’ and the Moving back to the Sheet Metal workbench for a
two new unfolded items. You can also see in the moment, we selected our sketch and clicked the
preview window our two new items: a blue line ‘Create a sheet metal wall from a sketch’ tool icon
sketch and a semi-transparent unfolded sheet of our again to create a basic BaseBend object. Notice that,
design. Toggling off the Body item in the file tree similar to padding or extruding a sketch, this tool
means we can inspect these items more clearly acknowledges that internal geometry is going to be a
(Figure 8). Of course, like most objects, we can void. Next, we want to create some further sketches
change the appearance and position of these items. that will act as folding lines for our project. Let’s aim
to fold each side wing twice at 45 degrees. Move
NUMEROUS USES again to the Part Design workbench, highlight the
We can use these items in numerous ways. For upper face of our BaseBend object, and create a
example, we might use the ‘Unfold’ object to be the sketch on it.
basis of an engineering drawing by pushing views of For our first fold sketch, we drew a vertical line
the object through to the TechDraw workbench and across one of our wings 15 mm in from the edge,
adding dimensions and coordinates. This is useful if which we imported using the ‘Create a linked edge’
you needed to traditionally mark or scribe a layout tool. Once this single line was set up, we closed the
onto sheet metal. You could also make only the sketch and returned to the Sheet Metal workbench.
Figure 9
A sketch that contains
a number of internal
holes and has side
‘wings’ to be folded in
numerous places
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FORGE
Figure 11
Our winged object,
flattened, has
retained all the
additional features
and folding points
on the sketch and
3D object
Figure 10
Our first fold using
a sketch line as a
fold position
To create this fold, you first need to select the face

where the sketch is attached on the BaseBend object
in the preview window; this feels a little counter-
intuitive and we naturally would select the whole
BaseBend object in the file tree, but this doesn’t
work. With the correct face selected, hold the CTRL
key and click the sketch in the file tree. With these
two items highlighted, you should now see that the
‘Fold a wall of metal sheet’ tool becomes visible. Click
this tool icon and you should see a 90-degree bend
appear in your part at the sketched line, a ‘fold’ item
appears in the file tree, and the sketch should be
toggled to not visible. Highlighting the fold item, you
can then use the dialog to make changes – we set our area of the circle rather than inside it. We repeated the
fold to 45 degrees (Figure 10). process above for the other side of the object and, as
a finishing touch, we added a chamfer to the upper
SUMMING UP wing corners using the chamfer tool in the Part Design
For our next fold, we again used the Part Design and workbench. You can see the completed item in Figure
the Sketcher workbench to create a sketch containing 1. One of the reasons we added the chamfers was to
a line that went across the ‘wing’ at the point it prove that even when you add geometry on other
connected with the circular centre section of our workbenches, the ‘Flatten folded sheet metal object’
object. Again, we created edges linked to external will still work correctly and carries through all QUICK TIP
geometry to be able to draw the line precisely at geometry on the designed object. In Figure 11, you When creating
those points. Moving back to the Sheet Metal can see that we have flattened our designed part, and sketches that will
workbench, we again selected the upper face of the everything is still present and correct. act as fold lines, you
object and then selected our sketch containing the It’s been a pleasure to explore this workbench and, need to create each
line in a separate
fold line. Applying the ‘Fold a wall of sheet metal’ tool, in the most part, we have found it very straightforward
sketch, as you
we again set the fold angle to 45 degrees and, this in use. We particularly like that the workbench can will need to adjust
time, we also changed the ‘position’ to ‘backwards’ as accomplish so much with so few tools, and this fold parameters
this meant the radius of the fold lay outside the flat makes for a pretty straightforward experience. individually.
91
FreeCAD, Frames and Pipes
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD:
frames and pipes
Let’s look at a new workbench: the ’Dodo’ workbench
allows us to create complex frames and pipework
from a collection of different profiles
Figure 1
An example of creating
pipework with the
W
Dodo workbench
hile there’s no denying that menu. Click the ’Open FrameBranch Manager’ tool,
you could design sheet metal and you should see a dialog box similar to the one
objects without using the shown in Figure 2. To create a frame, we need to
Sheet Metal Workbench, it select a profile for the frame extrusions. There’s
makes a sheet metal design a collection of preset profiles included that model
much quicker to generate and real-world standard metal extrusions. Let’s select
work with. In this section we're looking at the ’Dodo’ a simple 40 mm × 40 mm square extrusion with a
workbench, which treats working with framed objects 5 mm wall thickness. Click the drop-down menu that
and designs or pipework in a similar fashion. currently reads ’IPE’ and select ’RH’, and then select
To begin, open FreeCAD and click the Tools > the ’RH40×40×5’ by highlighting it in the list below.
Addon manager, then select Dodo on the list. Click Next, click on any edge of the cube in the preview
install. When installed, you will be prompted to restart window and then click ’OK’ in the Open FrameBranch
FreeCAD. Restart FreeCAD and then create a new Manager dialog box. You should now see that every
project. Let’s look at making a framed object first. edge of the cube object has had the 40 mm × 40 mm
To begin, move to the Part workbench and use the extrusion added to create a frame. You can, of course,
’Create a Cube Solid’ tool to create a cube that is in the file tree view, make the cube object invisible to
750 × 750 × 500 mm. get a better view of our frame (Figure 3).
Next, let’s move to the Dodo workbench, which You’ll notice that our frame has all the required
is listed as ’Dodo WB’ in the workbench drop-down sections but that they all overlap at the corners. We
92
Figure 2
The Open
FrameBranch
Manager dialog,
open and ready to
create a frame on
our cube object
need to extend or trim these frame parts to make a

frame that could be fabricated in real life. With the
Open FrameBranch Manager still open, we can use
the ’Get Targets’ and ’Trim/Extend’ buttons to help
us do this quickly. First, select an inside face of one
of the frame sections and then, holding down the
CONTROL key, select the opposite inside face – with
both of those selected, click the Get Targets button.
We have now defined the reference as to where we
want to trim or extend other frame structure objects.
Next, select any face of a frame piece that crosses
the target faces that we want to trim to between the
target faces. Click the Trim/Extend button and you
should see that our cross member now is shortened to
directly fit inside the other pieces (Figure 3). We don’t
need to select new targets to also trim other frame
pieces to the same length; even the piece below the Moving to the Dodo workbench again, click to
trimmed piece can be trimmed. We can select faces launch the Open FrameBranch Manager. Let’s select
on the three other pieces and click the Trim/Extend a different profile – we went with ’IPE80’, which is a
button to bring them all common steel H-section
”
to length. You can also, used in buildings and
when required, select structure fabrication.
the outside edge faces We need to extend or trim Again, click any edge
of objects as targets, and these frame parts to make of the sketch in the
the Trim/Extend button preview window and
a frame that could be
”
will extend pieces to the then click ’OK’. You
correct length. fabricated in real life should now see a frame
It’s worth noting appear made from the
that although we have H-section. You can, of Figure 3
used a solid object as the basis of our frame, we course, use any face of any of the IPE80 parts to Our cube has had
frame elements
can apply frame structures directly to sketches. As set targets again to trim or extend other sections added, and the
a quick example, create a new project and move to. Another useful tool in the Open FrameBranch upper section of
the cube frame has
to the Sketcher workbench and create a sketch of Manager dialog is the Rotation tool. Select any face of been trimmed and
a rectangle with an extra line spanning across the a section of frame and experiment by either moving extended to make
the frame members
rectangle inside – our rectangle was 100 cm × 50 cm. the dial, or by typing an angle into the input box. sit correctly
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TUTORIAL
As you move, trim, and extend H-sections, you

Figure 4 EXTRUDE A SKETCH will probably start to see the limitation of the Dodo
When H-frame
sections overlap, they workbench. If you position a corner of our frame,
often create joints You might have noticed that within the Open
that aren’t correct for FrameBranch Manager dialog, there is the option to similar to Figure 4, you will see that although the
the real world
select ’<by sketch>’ in the drop-down menu where H-sections are in the correct position, the overlapping
Figure 5 you select the different profile families. This is a portion of the sections aren’t trimmed. Of course, this
Applying a really useful feature that allows us to draw a custom
workaround solution would be impossible to realise in a real-world build.
profile for extrusion into frame elements as a sketch.
with the Part We’ve created a workaround that works with simple
workbench ’Slice However, there is a particular rule that we need to
Apart’ tool gives follow when drawing a sketch for it to work correctly. H-section overlaps; this can lead to quite a complex
us a more correct file tree, but it’s still useful to look at here. Arrange a
H-section interface The rule is that you need to draw your profile with
the Polyline tool, and you need to draw the polyline corner of the frame so that it looks like Figure 4, and
in an anticlockwise orientation. In a new project, then select the two H-section objects that form this
create a sketch on the XY plane and draw a simple corner in the file tree inside the ’Travatura’ group –
profile shape using the Polyline tool. Remember,
select these in an order so that the part you want to
you can change the behaviour of the Polyline tool
remove the overlap from is selected last. We opted
using the M key on your keyboard, and it’s possible
to create profiles with arcs and tangent lines as long to make the internal part the object we wanted to
as you create the profile moving in an anticlockwise trim off the overlapping parts, which are two small
direction in the sketch. For good practice, you should sections on the top and bottom of the H-section. Next,
fully constrain the sketch; however, for a simple test move to the Part workbench and click the ’Slice Apart’
sketch profile, it isn’t necessary. Once you have a tool, which is in a drop-down menu off a tool icon for
profile sketch created, you can test it by first moving
the less common Boolean operations. You should now
to the Part workbench and creating a large cube to
use as a target for a frame and then moving to the have a new group in the file tree called something like
Dodo workbench to create the frame. When selecting ’Exploded Slice’ – inside this group exists a copy of
the profile for the frame, click the drop-down menu our target intersecting part. In the file tree view, toggle
and select <by sketch>. You should see your sketch the visibility of the original target part in the Travatura
’sketch’ listed in the dialog box. Select that, and then group to invisible, then, in turn, toggle the parts inside
select an edge of the cube, and click OK as we have
the Exploded Slice group to work out which parts you
done before. You should see a frame created using
your sketch profile. If you’ve accidentally created need to remove or make invisible. You should end up
a sketch in which the polyline isn’t moving in an with an H-section part within the Exploded Slice group
anticlockwise direction, you will probably still see that fits the corner assembly perfectly as if ready for
some frame elements, but they won’t follow the edges welding in a real-world build (Figure 5).
of the cube and will extrude in random directions.
INTERESTING INTERSECTIONS
So far, we have made frames with frame members
at 90 degrees to each other. Of course, it’s possible
to create frame structures around sketches or paths
with other angles in them; however, we need to use
some workarounds if we want to create accurate and
neatly trimmed intersections. As an example, let’s
create a rectangular object with a large 45-degree
plane on one end to create a frame around.
In a new project, open the Sketcher workbench and
create a new sketch in the XZ plane. Create a sketch
similar to Figure 6. In this example, it’s probably
94
useful to fully constrain your sketch so that we know attachment method. In the sketch, use the ’Create
accurately where frame elements will be placed. an edge linked to external geometry’ tool to import
Next, move briefly to the Part workbench and extrude any edges and vertices that will help you create your
the sketch into a large frameable object. sketch. Then, use the Polyline tool to create a sketch
Moving to the Dodo workbench, once again open that will remove all the material you need to remove
the FrameBranch Manager dialog and create a frame from your target frame section. You can see our
on our object in the usual way – we opted again to sketch in Figure 8.
use the RH 40 × 40 × 5 square box profile. When Next, move to the Part workbench and extrude the Figure 6
you initially create the frame, you’ll notice that the sketch you just created. Extrude it in such a way that Our base sketch
in the XZ plane to
angled sections need to be extended to fully meet it moves through the frame element you wish to cut create our wedge-
the vertical and horizontal sections. If you then select material from. You can only perform a cut operation shaped frame object
targets and Trim/Extend, you’ll see that the angled using two parts, so the next step is to select one of Figure 7
section now extends through the other sections with the angled frame members from inside the Travatura When working
with angled frame
some excess material. You can see this in Figure 7, folder in the file tree and then select the extrusion we sections, it’s hard
where the front angled section hasn’t been extended just made. Click the ’Make a cut of two shapes’ tool; to make frame
members adjoin
and the rearmost section has. this should perform the correct cut on one of the correctly
REMOVING OVERLAPS
Continuing to Trim/Extend, we can get the horizontal
and vertical frame members to adjoin correctly,
as seen in Figure 7. Now we are ready for our
workaround solution for the angled parts. Basically,
the idea is to create parts that cover all the material
we want to remove and then, using the Part
workbench, we can use Boolean cut operations to
remove the unwanted overlap sections. There are, as
ever in FreeCAD, numerous ways we could achieve
this. We could, for example, create simple solid
cuboid objects on the Part workbench, move them
into place, and then perform the cut operations.
Another, perhaps cleaner, approach is to map
a sketch onto the frame to create an extrusion
that matches the material we need to remove and
then perform the cut operation. Select the outside
face of one of the short upright frame sections,
then, on the Sketcher workbench, create a sketch.
When prompted, choose ’FlatFace’ as the sketch
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TUTORIAL
angled frame members. Next, select the other frame

member you wish to cut excess material from and
then select our extrusion object, which now can be
found inside the ’Cut’ object folder that was just
created in the file tree. In Figure 9, you can see that
this has worked perfectly and has given us the frame
member arrangement that we wanted to achieve.
The Dodo workbench doesn’t just have excellent
tools for creating framed designs, it also has a
collection of tools for making pipework designs
easier to realise. Like many aspects of FreeCAD, it’s
incredibly capable, but we can start with some simple
examples that you can build on as you explore the
tools. In a new project, let’s start by making a sketch
in the XY plane. We created a simple square U shape
using the Polyline tool. We made it a reasonable
size because, if it’s too small, when we add pipes
following the sketch, it might fail if the pipe corners
can’t fit in the dimensions of the sketch. It’s worth
noting that pipe and frame objects on the Dodo
workbench can be applied to not just sketches but
also wires created using Draft tools, or you can simply
add pipe objects onto other existing pipe objects.
With a sketch created, move to the Dodo workbench
”
and click the ’Open PypeLine Manager’ tool icon.
In the PypeLine Manager dialog box, there’s a
You can add pipe objects range of standard pipe types to select from – we
and other peripherals chose the ’DN40’ pipe from the ’SCH-STD’ group.
This is a common pipe dimension with a 40 mm
by simply attaching them
”
internal diameter. Next, click any part of the sketch
to an existing pipe in the preview window and then click the ’Insert’
button in the PypeLine Manager dialog. This should
Figure 8
A sketch set up for
extrusion to create
an object that will
cut away and trim
the frame members
correctly
Figure 9
Using our workaround,
we now have the ends
of the angled frame
members correctly
trimmed
96
automatically create a pipe that follows the complete Often pipework uses flanges as joining mechanisms
sketch path with the 90-degree curved sections between pipe sections, and as such, the Dodo
added (Figure 10). workbench has a Flange tool. At the other end of our
We mentioned earlier that you can add pipe objects pipe experiment, we selected the outer edge of the
and other peripherals by simply attaching them to an pipe end and clicked the ’Insert a Flange’ tool. There
existing pipe. There are numerous tools that help us do are various flange standards in the dialog box – we
this. Selecting the outer edge of one end of our U-bend selected a DN40 type to fit our existing pipe edge. We
pipe construction, click the ’Insert a Reduction’ tool. then clicked Insert to add the flange (Figure 1).
The larger end of the reduction is automatically defined We’re sure by now that you have the general
by the diameter of the selected adjoining pipe, and so idea, but it’s worth exploring the other tools available
we simply use the ’Insert Reductions’ dialog to select to manipulate and create pipe systems. There are
the smaller end of the reduction. In Figure 11, you can tools for adding valves of differing types, U bolts to
see we opted for the ’DN20’ size, and then clicked the secure pipes to other structures, tools to cap the
Insert button to add the reduction. end of pipes, and tools to create flowing branches in
It’s as straightforward to add a simple length of pipes. There really isn’t much you can imagine that
straight pipe to an existing design. Again, select the you couldn’t design using these tools. Finally, it’s
Figure 10
edge of the thin end of the reduction we just added also worth exploring how you could add to designs Creating pipework
and click the ’Insert a Tube’ tool. In the dialog box, using the workbenches we have looked at previously. that follows a
sketch is simple
select the tube type that matches the diameter of When adding flanges, for example, it would be quite using the PypeLine
the reduction (DN20) and then type a dimension into straightforward to use the ’Fasteners’ workbench Manager tool
the length input box to set the length of the tube to create nuts and bolts to join flanges together. We Figure 11
Adding a reduction
you require. Finally, click the Insert button to insert looked at the Fasteners workbench as part of the part to our simple
the tube. Similarly, we can add a curved section or tutorial working with assemblies on page 42. pipe example
’elbow’ into the design using the ’Insert a Curve’ tool.
When inserting a curve, you select a target edge as
before and then select a matching tube profile – again,
we chose DN20. You then need to add a bend angle
and a bend radius into the input boxes. Starting with
values of 90 for each gives you a good result – you can
experiment with other values. A small issue with this is
that it’s easy to input values that can’t actually exist and
therefore won’t work! Once you have your values and
options selected, click the Insert button to insert your
curve. Finally, with the ’Insert Elbows’ dialog, you have
a dial wheel that you can adjust to change the angle of
the curved elbow you have just added. You can see the
reduction, manually added pipe, and the angled curved
elbow we have just added in Figure 1.
97
FreeCAD, summing up!
TUTORIAL
FreeCAD,
summing up!
We look at where you may like to explore next as part
of your ongoing FreeCAD journey!
I
n this final part of our guide to FreeCAD, changed the stylesheet to ‘Darker Orange’, and
we thought it might be a good idea to look increased the tool size to medium.
at some areas that you might like to For a more significant change, you might like to try
explore now that you have a good grasp of a different user interface. This can be achieved by
the basics. You probably have some installing the ‘ModernUI’ workbench from the Tools
intermediate skills if you have followed > Addon menu. You’ll be prompted to restart
through this guide fully, so let's look at other areas FreeCAD and will be rewarded with a different UI
of FreeCAD that you might explore. where one of the major differences is that the
For the sake of consistency throughout this series, workbenches are tabbed across the top of the
we have used FreeCAD in its most default screen, allowing for quick switching (Figure 2). If you
appearance – this makes it easier for people to don’t like the ModernUI, you can uninstall it in the
recognise where tools are from the images etc. usual way using the Addon manager but, additionally,
However, it’s possible to change up the theme and you need to create and execute a macro to return to
even change the user interface entirely. For simple the original FreeCAD UI. This is straightforward to
changes of theme go to Edit > Preferences and then achieve – you select and copy the macro script text
click the General tab. You should see options to that is supplied in the description of the ModernUI
change the ‘stylesheet’, as well as options to change workbench in the Addon manager. Then, from any
the size of the toolbar icons. In Figure 1, we have workbench in FreeCAD, click the Macro drop-down.
Figure 1
Changing the
stylesheet options
in FreeCAD can
customise the colours
and also change the
tool icon sizes
98
require a little editing and tweaking. It’s been described
to us more than once that macros are the gateway to
writing your own workbench!
Figure 3 We’ve come to the opinion, whilst exploring FreeCAD,
The Macro tools can be used to create simple and Figure 2
complex automated processes alike that it really is unique as a CAD environment and we love Available via the
that it isn’t trying to be an open-source clone of another Addon manager,
Modern UI changes
In turn, click Macros and, in the Execute macro tool. This becomes really clear when you look at the the design layout of
window, click Create (Figure 3). Paste in the macro range of workbench environments there are for FreeCAD and uses
tabs for each
script copied from the Addon manager, and then FreeCAD. There are so many we haven’t explored as installed workbench
close the tab and click Save and give it a name when
prompted. Return to the Execute macro window,
highlight the macro you created, and click Execute to
ROTATING
run the macro. Then, restarting FreeCAD, you’ll have Sometimes you might want to make your 3D model move, and, as ever in FreeCAD,
returned your installation to the original state. there are numerous ways to achieve this. At first glance, you might jump to installing
Whilst on the subject, macros in FreeCAD can be the Animation workbench from the Addon manager, but currently this only supports
older Python 2-based versions of FreeCAD. It’s worth keeping an eye out for if it gets any
incredibly useful. If you have regular tasks that you do
updates in the future. A current popular approach to animating assemblies is to use the
repeatedly, or similar objects that you create across a Assembly 4 workbench. We haven’t looked at this in the series, but we did look at an
range of projects, a macro may help to streamline assembly workbench, A2plus, in issue 43. Whilst you are exploring and learning these
your workflow. You don’t have to script a macro by approaches, a super-simple way to create a rotating movement of your part or project
hand either, you can create macros using the record is by using the turntable tool. Located at Tools > View Turntable, when you launch the
turntable dialog, you’ll see a couple of simple parameters: you can adjust the angle of
”
the view of the part and you can set the speed of rotation. You can also set the view
to full screen and also set a timer for the length of time the part rotates for. Click the
Essentially, once a macro is play button and your rotating part springs into life. You can use the turntable function in
combination with a screen recorder application to make rotating video clips.
recording, it builds a script of
all the actions you perform until
you stop the macro recording
”
function. Essentially, once a macro is recording, it
builds a script of all the actions you perform until you
stop the macro recording. You can then save and
name the macro, and execute the macro whenever
needed via the macro menu. A simple way to try this
is to create a new sketch and then start the macro
recorder. Draw a couple of circles and constrain them,
and then perhaps Pad them using part design, and
then stop the macro. You can look over the script and
execute it to repeat the same task. Often macros
99
TUTORIAL
part of this guide, but we wanted to highlight a few workbench, and then used a tool to generate a wall
examples that you might like to go on to explore. from the wire outline. We’ve then used the built-in
Perhaps the most obvious one we haven’t looked tools to simply click and add preset windows and
Figure 4
A small, simple at is the Arch workbench which is built into FreeCAD, doors in our simple structure. Don’t be fooled by our
example beginning
to explore the
usually at the top of the workbench list. Arch is short first attempt, though: check out some of the amazing
Architecture for Architecture, and it’s chock-full of useful tools to structure designs in Arch on the FreeCAD forums to
workbench tools
help you design buildings and structures. Whilst you get properly inspired.
Figure 5 may well need to look through the wiki page or find The Robot workbench is perhaps a great example
An amazing
workbench that an online tutorial, you can quite quickly get going with of just how powerful a tool FreeCAD can be. Whilst
enables commercial this fabulous workbench. In Figure 4, we have drawn the Robot workbench is still included in FreeCAD, it
robot arms to be
placed and controlled a simple rectangle using the draft tools in the Arch isn’t being particularly actively developed, but it’s a
fun workbench to play with for a few minutes. Often,
CROWD IN
with many workbenches, the FreeCAD wiki has a
succinct tutorial to work through to get you up and
running with the basics of the bench. The Robot
One of the many ways in which people can contribute to the FreeCAD community is by
helping translate FreeCAD so it can be used in many different languages. This is a large
workbench is no exception, and working through the
task but is being well achieved due to the use of ‘Crowdin’. The Crowdin website really instructions at hsmag.cc/RobotTutorial, you can
simplifies crowd-sourced translation. You simply set up an account, click a language import an industrial robot arm. In Figure 5, we used a
you want to help with, and you are presented with every part of FreeCAD text split into Kuka IR500, and you can create trajectories to move
little areas. Click an area and then try and translate a few terms or sentences. You the arm through, which then can be played like a
can also view and comment on other people’s translation attempts which means, with script. If you happen to own or have access to a Kuka
enough people, the translation becomes more and more accurate. This peer reviewing
robot arm in real life, you can even export the
aspect of the Crowdin platform also means that your translation doesn’t have to be
perfect – often there is no perfect translation and, as such, all attempts help inform the subroutines you create to run on the machine.
best option. Once a language is translated, the FreeCAD developers can then pull that The Path workbench is FreeCAD’s main CAM
language into the platform for an upcoming release. Check out the FreeCAD Crowdin environment, and is where you can set up CNC
page here: crowdin.com/project/freecad. routing and milling toolpaths to create parts on a wide
variety of machines. We wrote about the Path
workbench outside of this FreeCAD tutorial series
way back in HackSpace magazine issue 25. Of
course, FreeCAD has developed a lot since then and
the Path workbench, with its amazing dedicated
developers, is one of the most actively developed
areas of FreeCAD. As such, it’s changed somewhat
since our write-up, but there’s plenty of information
about it online. It’s definitely worth exploring, and
offers robust and powerful CAM approaches, and is
capable of creating G-codes post-processed to suit a
wide variety of machines (Figure 6).
The FEM workbench enables complex analysis of
objects under loads, and this type of FEM/FEA
approach often is quite expensive to perform in other
proprietary CAD environments. It requires a couple of
100
Figure 6
The Path workbench is a
powerful CAM tool enabling
toolpaths and G-codes to
be created and simulated
for CNC machines
extra external packages to be installed/configured,

and then models can be assigned material properties
and then tested under loads. To get a fleeting
appreciation of what this looks like, even without
installing the extra packages, you can open one of the
example projects bundled into FreeCAD on the FEM
workbench, and see the type of strain/stress analysis
and representation you can achieve (Figure 7).
When we looked at the Mesh workbench on
page 74, we needed to have another CAD
environment, OpenSCAD, installed on our machine
to enable some of the Mesh workbench features.
There’s also, however, a dedicated OpenSCAD
workbench within FreeCAD. OpenSCAD differs from
many CAD packages in that it is script-based. This aren’t included either in the main download or in the
means you ‘code’ your CAD models. For example, to Addon manager. These are often in development and Figure 7
One of the included
make a cube in OpenSCAD, you might write a line experimental in nature, but it can be fun if you find FEM workbench
that looks like ‘cube([10,10,10],true);’ which something in the community that relates to examples. This
example analyses the
creates a 10 mm cube centred around the origin something you know about or are interested in. deflection of a beam
point. The addition of a dedicated OpenSCAD Sometimes these workbenches are not included under load
”
workbench means that if as development on them
(as we did) you have has ceased. However,
used OpenSCAD and are Perhaps you have your own often the open licences
moving to FreeCAD, any idea for a tool that you’d like to of these archived
components or models workbenches mean that
create for FreeCAD, or an issue
”
you have made in someone could begin to
OpenSCAD can still be that you think you can solve work on them again.
used within your They also may still be
FreeCAD designs. The functional and of use.
workbench also allows you to create new parts using One excellent example is a workbench first released
OpenSCAD scripting directly (Figure 8). If you’ve back in 2015: the Glider workbench enables the
solved a really hard geometry in OpenSCAD, this design of paragliding canopies and recently, in 2021,
gives you not only the option of reusing that work, a forum member posted pictures of a paraglider in QUICK TIP
but also for that work to be enhanced using all of flight that had been designed with this innovative Remember that
FreeCAD’s other tools. workbench (Figure 9). FreeCAD is made
Whilst there are more than enough workbenches Are you a developer? FreeCAD is always interested and maintained
to get to grips with listed in Addon manager, there in attracting more developers to contribute to the completely by
are also workbenches out in the community that software. The majority of the FreeCAD volunteers. Be kind!
101
TUTORIAL
Figure 8
The OpenSCAD
workbench offers all
the functionality of the
excellent OpenSCAD
environment built
into FreeCAD
Figure 9
The Glider workbench
is not under active
development, but
is still is being used
by a small number
of users to produce
amazing projects
In this final part, we wanted to recap and

expand upon other sources of help, should you need
it, for FreeCAD. One of the best resources out there
is the FreeCAD community forum –
forum.freecadweb.org. We’ve mentioned it before,
but it’s worth repeating a couple of points about the
forum. First of all, there’s a really high chance that
there is information that can help you with your
particular situation already on the forum. It’s vast, and
a search query for your subject will often return a
heap of golden knowledge. It’s definitely worth
searching before adding a new question or thread.
Secondly, in order for community members to be
well-equipped to answer a question, it’s really useful if
you post basic information about your operating
system, version of FreeCAD, etc. Wonderfully,
FreeCAD has this built-in: if you go to Help > About
FreeCAD from any workbench in FreeCAD, you will
workbenches are written in Python. However, there see your system information with a handy ‘Copy to
are also some workbenches and areas of FreeCAD clipboard’ button (Figure 10). Click the button and
written in C++. There are many areas to look at, or paste it into your opening post, followed by your
perhaps you have your own idea for a tool that you’d question, and it may well make it much easier for
like to create for FreeCAD, or an issue that you think someone to answer.
you can solve. Sometimes you’ll find that something in FreeCAD
The first port of call is the forum, and in particular doesn’t work as you expect it to. Again, a good bit of
‘Developers corner’, where it would be a great idea to forum searching and wiki reading will often yield a
introduce yourself. Read the pinned thread, ’Read this solution, but sometimes something might be broken.
first if you want to write code for FreeCAD’, to get It’s always worth, and always preferred, that you
the basic orientation of the FreeCAD developer search the forum, and post on the forum, checking if
community approach. others have had your experience and allowing other
102
community members to help identify if it is indeed a
bug. If the consensus is that it is a bug, then
someone in the community will raise it as an issue in
the correct way or will inform back in the thread that
the issue is a previously identified issue. Often, the
answer will be that an issue in the current stable
release version of FreeCAD has been addressed in
the developmental version of FreeCAD. On that
subject, the developmental versions of FreeCAD are
always available for people to try. We’d suggest, as
we have throughout these articles, that using the
latest stable version whilst you are learning is
recommended, but as you understand more it can be
fun to try the developmental versions, which often
show a sneak preview of new, interesting features Figure 10
and developments. Also, as FreeCAD is open source, The ‘About FreeCAD’
tab allows you to
there are some forked alternate versions of FreeCAD copy details of your
– this helps to keep FreeCAD development machine, FreeCAD
version, and
innovative, as the forked versions often explore operating system
different features and approaches. One popular forked
version of FreeCAD, that contributes a lot of and there are numerous short tutorials on different
development back into the main FreeCAD branch, is workbenches. It’s got heaps of information clearly laid
the LinkStage3 fork by Realthunder – with some of out, and the wiki is already available in numerous
the basics under your belt, you might like to try it out. languages. It also has wider reading on FreeCAD. A
So, as we come to the end of this guide, it’s nice wiki entry that gives a quick-read version of
perhaps worth considering where to look for other FreeCAD’s origins and history can be found at
sources of information and tutorials on FreeCAD, as wiki.freecadweb.org/History.
well as perhaps places to find some inspiration! First We hope this guide has been useful, and we feel
up for inspiration, new releases, and new feature that if you worked through all 16 parts, you would be
announcements – and pretty competent at
”
also a great place to see modelling in FreeCAD. In
challenging, interesting YouTube is absolutely our opinion, it’s definitely
work done in FreeCAD a process that requires
– is following the official
crammed with tutorial videos, practice, and with each
@FreeCADNews and pretty much any area of new model you’ll find
”
account on Twitter. some area that requires a
FreeCAD is covered
Watching that Twitter new approach to be
account, you’ll see the explored and learnt. As
wide range of approaches people use with FreeCAD such, it’s a great idea to work with FreeCAD as much
and also come across people doing CAD challenges as possible. One thing we have seen a lot of in the
using FreeCAD and more. They often post using the communications we've had preparing this guide is
hashtag #madewithfreecad, and it’s astonishing to that often CAD communities have competitions or
see what people have made. YouTube is absolutely ongoing challenges which can not only be good fun,
crammed with tutorial videos, and pretty much every but also provide opportunities for you to expand and
area of FreeCAD is covered. One particular YouTube learn more approaches.
channel, Joko Engineering, deserves particular We’ve really enjoyed writing the tutorials that
mention for excellent tutorials that not only cover comprise this guide for HackSpace magazine, and
using FreeCAD tools, but also often explore we hope that you have enjoyed it too. Many thanks
underlying CAD concepts. to those of you that have worked through all the
We’ve mentioned it a few times, but the official tutorials, reaching out to us on social media to
FreeCAD documentation is in the form of a wiki and is share your progress. We continue to look forward
available at wiki.freecad.org/Getting_started. All to see what you can create using the brilliant
the built-in workbenches and tools are documented, FreeCAD platform.
103
Thank you for reading
FreeCAD For Makers
FreeCAD is a free-to-use, open-source design

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your next project faster, more accurate, and
more fun to build.
We’ve brought together the best FreeCAD

projects, previously published in HackSpace
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immensely useful software.
Read HackSpace magazine, the

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ISSUE 230 OUT NOW

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