The NEW Ondsel FreeCAD Assembly Workbench in FreeCAD : Is it a game changer?

At the end of December 2023, I experimented with Ondsel's new Assembly workbench for FreeCAD. However, it was still in early development, and my experience felt premature to share without sounding overly critical. Fast forward to just under two months later, and I decided to give it another try with the latest version of Ondsel FreeCAD ES – and what a difference it made!

Despite still being in its early stages, the Assembly workbench has made significant strides. With its fast solver and user-friendly constraints, the new FreeCAD Assembly workbench is showing great promise. In this video, I dive into assembling a model and share my firsthand experience with the workbench.

It's worth noting that I haven't consulted any documentation or received tutoring on using this workbench. This marks only my second time using it, and I'm impressed by the progress that has been made. Additionally, I compare it against the A2 plus workbench for added context.

[pierreboyer]

Thanks for the video, it's good to see all the small UI traps for a new user. So I'll fix those asap :)

[Firask]

I am currently practicing all your videos for freecad for beginners in Ondsel, kudos for you brother 💐💐

[TheRealClutch]

THe TeachingTech channel just did a video on Ondsel today. He could learn a lot from your videos! Thanks for the content you produce, it is very valuable to the community.

[Ticktok_of_Oz]

I am very curious about your thoughts on Ondsel, their business plan, what that could mean for freecad, and your level of trust in their interactions with the freecad community. Are they a benefit to freecad, or are they just looking to make a quick buck off of other peoples work in open source?

[ClayShoaf]

12:35 & 15:03. The random locking of parts is driving me crazy. I have two parts saved in two different files and when I originally created them and created a new assembly, they could move around just fine, but then Ondsel crashed. Now if I try to create a new assembly and import my parts, they are locked in place, after I click "Ok", with seemingly no way to freely move them around again.

[ANGGORODWINURROHMAN]

thanks for the video, what shortcut to move part when it already assambly

[bzbdev]

With several workbenches available (eg. Assembly3, Assembly4, A2plus, etc). Which should I choose to focus on learning? Do they all do pretty much the same thing?

[bambukouk]

I like the way you are making clear which version of FreeCAD you are using 😜👍
I am also pleased that you are having a look at Ondsel assy WB
do inserted links retain connection to originals?
if you change path will it break the link?


thank you

[TwoHeadedHawk]

Its very good work and I can't wait to see it upstreamed to the main branch. That said, there is still a lot to be desired with the solver and I hope they continue to improve it. FreeCAD sorely needs a decent assembly solution out of the box.

[jakegingrich]

Is there such thing as a construction geometry part in a2plus WB?
Been using it and had assembled many parts and realized I had to change my pain parts dimensions, I did so and it threw everything out of whack because the part changed. I was thinking if I had a fake box I could reference everything off of that would be better.

[shirayukix]

The main problem I'm having right now, and it may be me not knowing the best practice, is trying the add assemblies into assemblies, as well as constraining them together. The imported assembly doesn't show a coordinate when selecting anything and immediately crashes the appimage the moments I select the object I wish the constrain it to (happens vice versa as well).

Also, I notice that, while closing the file from the tab, it immediately opens a tab for the linked part from other files.

[jccom]

Coming from ONSHAPE this is extremely similar and familiar. I very much like.
39:00 you cant use a fasten mate on 2 surface that cant touch each other. due to other mates up the tree preventing.
awesome video.

[SeanLumly]

The UI has come a LONG way from version 0.19 in my distro's repo. I may have to manually install the developer build...

[jhaand]

This looks very good. And it's much faster. Although I find the way of joining things a bit puzzling. Although some experience with A4 might help.
For a static assembly, I still think A2+ works best at this moment.

[martinsvensson]

Only mating holes. How do you mate a surface then if there are no holes?

[beresfordromeo]

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

On the failure of your last joint I assume the slider joint is also a revolute joint so it should be capable of taking care of alignments where you need a revolute joint but there is a gap between the parts.

[chrisBruner]

Shouldn't the parts be inside the assembly? I find it confusing when the parts are at the same level.

[BerndFelsche]

Last joint didn't work because of the gap and the prrvious joint that locked the opposite face.

It'd be better to insert the pins/screws and have joints related to them. In theory, two pins into the handle, allowing a revolve joint, will lock the handle.

It looks like you don't have to position and rotate before joint definition as the solver will work it out anyway.

[thorstenpapendorff]

how to open ondsel.... i installed it already but i can´t open it

[lukecze]

Problem with the last joint was most likely caused by manually rotating the handle. If you've selected the second hole which was aligned with the hole on the end of the handle It could've worked fine.