FreeCAD 1.0 - Reducing Friction by tweaking UI settings

In this video we discuss how to reduce friction in FreeCAD 1.0 by changing some quality of life settings
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00:00 Introduction
00:20 Downloading and running FreeCAD
02:18 Starting screen
03:32 Moving Tasks panel
03:56 Why it is important
04:29 Refreshing the view
04:44 Increasing UI size
04:55 Moving Property panel
05:40 Configuring Report view
06:00 Graphics settings
06:18 Increasing sketcher marker size
06:52 Configuring Workbenches
07:20 Disable Part workbench?
07:46 Enabling Tab bar
08:14 Automatic feature refinement
08:39 Random shape colors
09:37 Auto removing redundant constraints
10:58 Constraint symbol and Font size
11:26 Showing Body while in Sketcher
12:03 Increasing line thickness

[RoadSideMaker]

Did I miss any quality of life settings? Let me know

[DeltaWhy]

One setting you missed is 'pick radius', which makes it easier to select things (edges, points, etc.) without having to click on the exact pixel, and without changing the visual size.

I would also leave Draft workbench enabled - there are a lot of useful tools in there, especially if you're importing DXF or STEP files from other programs. Upgrade/downgrade, draft to sketch, move/rotate/scale, and text tools. Mesh workbench is also needed if you want to import and modify STLs.

Great guide, I'll definitely try your recommendations of moving the Task panel to the other side of the window, and section view by default.

[Dude]

It took me until 1:28 until I realized this is about usability friction not mechanical property friction. Awesome video by the way!

[Beppetheboss]

Wow, that was super useful!
I have been using FreeCAD for five years now and it was a pain sometimes.
I just changed all the settings as you did and I already know that they will avoid me a lot of headaches!
Thank you so much!

[deeeeeds]

Another great video. Appreciate you taking the time to explain and show what each setting does, not just rattle off a dozen settings with no context.

[kuddel]

Thank you for showing us these tweaks! :)

[PeterBellemans]

Finally a good explanation with some very helpful tips. Please consider creating a video for the assembly WB

[comediehero]

Dude these settings help so much coming from an inventor background. Thank you!

[Emrullah_BASER]

Thank you. I started to freecad few days ago and now its look more good for me.

[bobrowles]

I've been a FreeCAD user for ~ 4 years and didn't know of someone these customizations.... Thank you,

[ichbrauchmehrkaffee]

My personal most ciritical setting that I changed was in Sketcher -> General:
disable "Esc can leave sketch edit mode"

coming from Inventor, I was used to spam Esc to abort any action I was currently in, but FreeCad used to kick me out of the sketch-editor,
which annoyed me to death.
I don't know if this option was available prior to v1.0, but I'm very glad it exists, nonetheless

[zk_]

Great video. A lot of useful tips. I recently tried a weekly build of 1.1dev. I don't care much for the new external geometry tools. I much prefer the old tool.

[RNMSC]

It's going to be really nice when we are done with the release candidate part of the move to production schedule, and a flatpak gets generated of the production software that is marked as an actual upgrade of 0.21.2 so that we, who don't trust that the final release won't have breaking effects on models created in the RC releases, from experience, can start using all these wonderful tips.

[harrywieldraaijer]

This is very useful for me. Thank you very much!😀

[Rez]

I like to keep all the workbenches enabled, but reorder them so sketcher is at the top, then part design and part. This way pressing W, 1 takes me to the sketcher, W, 2 to part design and W, 3 to part wb.

[jonnytango]

Excellent, just about to throw Freecad away after using it for 7 years and you came to it's rescue.

[ArtificialMaze]

Most important thing exporting settings to another device or just after a new installation.

[Paulklampeeps]

I just realize even in the v1 of freecad we can only mirror features not "body" in the part design workbench, It's such a let down

[haysoos]

The real question is why aren't some of these already set as 'sensible defaults'?

[henninghoefer]

What do you think of Ondsel, which seems to be FreeCAD with a nicer UI config by default?