Understanding FreeCAD: Lesson 4 Auto Scale Features with Formula | Part Design | Beginners Tutorial

Lesson 4 We will be learning about how to create and use formulas in FreeCAD to reference features such as pads and pockets to other features so we can, for example scale one pad in the part design workbench and other pads and pockets will adjust themselves automatically. We will create a simple object where each feature (pads, pockets etc) will be linked together via a formula so, for example when we come into a pad and change the thickness and / or length, all of the other features will automatically update with the new thickness and length even if we want features such as pockets that are set, for example, half way through a wall, we can automatically update these to reflect the new depth when other features are updated. We will even look at references geometry in FreeCAD's sketcher workbench and reference this to a pad in the partdesign wb.
#FreeCAD , #CAD #3DPrinting, #CNC
Journey with me and

Next Lesson:
Lesson 5 Inverse / Reverse pocket. Curvature with profiles (Beginners course)

Previous Lesson
Lesson 3 (1 of 4) Model a Piston Crank Shaft Assembly Animation in Part Design A2Plus

Donate:

Patreon

Subscribe:

Browse my Redbubble Shop:

[brianprice]

Another useful tutorial. I prefer using spreadsheets. When using sketches or pads to reference the 'base' dimension it is important choose the correct one. i.e. 001 or 002 or the original.

[justrosy]

When you typed in "/2" then clicked on OK, it was so fast that I missed it the first several times through. I had to slow the video down to .5 to even see it, and even then it flew off the screen fairly quickly. It might help the visual if you could freeze-frame the screen in the video editor you use, so that the "/2" portion of what you first typed into the Formula Editor shows up for an extra 2 seconds or so, beyond what it does at normal speed. Anyway, this resizing thing is really cool! Thanks for showing this to us all!

[sonik]

04:00 - there is a special command for drawing a square - create a square with the center.
The rest is very informative. Thank you.
(sorry, translation DeepL Translate)

[timinwsac]

This looks like a good option, in some cases. I tend to get lost with using a split screen and going back and forth between the two documents. Just out of curiosity what version of FreeCad are you using here?

[trevorphillips-cw]

May I say that while your videos of a few years back were good, from what I have seen of this new series so far they are a lot better. I think this is mainly because the early videos in the last series tended to focus on a specific command/commands. This caused some issues for me.
Firstly, in isolation, there was little that could be done with each command, and it wasn't always obvious to me how useful they in fact were. There wasn't a sense I was learning very much at all. Secondly, once a command had been learnt, I found it was easily forgotten - partly because it wasn't being used again in the following videos. Thirdly, the videos I saw in that series, being very simple, didn't show mistakes - common input errors, or the foibles of Freecad; and therefore didn't show how to spot or correct them. I thought every 'error' was due entirely to my own stupidity, when in fact some, at least, were just inconsistences in FC or easily made and simple mistakes. As an example - the earlier version of FC did have an option for Sketch Validation; but it wasn't clear to me - or from posts elsewhere, to many others - how to activate it as under many circumstances it was greyed out... Here, we are shown exactly how to use it.

This new series of videos, because they go straight in with full model creation - together with some improvements to FC itself - have solved those issues and made the whole thing more understandable, easier to remember, and progress much faster for my simple and ageing mind! Well done and thankyou for your excellent work.

[Tokamak_]

It is possible to create features based on equations? For example in other parametric softwares you can say that if the part it is 100mm in length to have two holes, if the length of the part is 200mm to have three holes, etc.

[dragonlord]

I'm following through these and just wonder, do we have to do them in number order or can we jump around say do lesson 2 then 15 then 6 etc.?
same with can we flit between understanding freeCAD and Learn freeCAD or should we do one 'course' then the other

[khalidahmed]

Hi, could you please share your settings? I end up getting different results some times. Thanks.

[GeezerGramps]

Why not just use mirror for the 2nd hole?