FreeCAD Assembly Tutorial - The new a2+ Workbench has arrived.

The newly released a2+ workbench is the first incarnation of an easy to use functinal Assembly tool in FreeCAD. We have seen several other attempts but for various reasons, the excellent efforts fell short. This version seems to make the grade.

This video is a general introduction to the new Assembly workbench.

I have released .step file versions of the parts in this video in case you want to play along. Currently the model pictured here does not work well. When it is finalized I will be releasing it on thingiverse / tinkercad etc., with instructions on my web site.

For now here is the github:

[TalpaDK]

Any reason for not using the circular edge constraint?
Seems like it would have reduced the number of needed constraints to 1/2

Edit: Oh and thanks for making me aware of a2+ (thought that assembly 2 was still the only option available)

[marcinjakubowski]

FreeCAD is improving on a daily basis, and it will undoubtedly be the market leader in a few years.

[rocktcatU]

A quality assembly workbench was the only thing FreeCAD needed in order to compete with commercial CAD packages, and now it has arrived!

[SandhanSarma]

Fantastic tutorial! It will be great to have tutorials in FreeCad where you could show designing movable mechanical systems.

[loghorizon]

finally someone explaining the functions.

[VladiFx]

Thank! More freecad videos please, especially 0.18! When making a reassambly, what freecad uses? cpu or gpu? What do we need, to run fast? Fast one thread or multi-thread?

OK seems like it's time to prepare for the transition. Was monitoring/waiting v0.2 release but you teased me 😉

[bhishmadesai]

Thank you for posting.
You need to slow down little bit. When ever you choose any tool, explain about it. That will help more to beginner.
Please not that beginners only sees these video.

[funkysod]

Very interesting! Thanks! Btw does it just work with parts or can you use bodies as well?

[artgoat]

"Import Part To Assembly" would be a good thing to call it. A part icon with an arrow would be a good icon.

[klausbraun]

There is a new version of A2plus out now. The constraint buttons in the toolbar are deactivated at first look. If you select geometry which you want to use for constraining, the appropiate constraint buttons get activated.
If you want to know, which geometry is to select in which order, you can read the tooltips of each constraint button.

[ericbuijs]

As always great tutorial Paul. There is one thing I don't get. How do you keep track of the degrees of freedom in the a2+ Workbench?

[artgoat]

Is A2+ included in the recent 0.18 development builds? It'll be nice when, someday, it is just called "Assembly" instead of Assembly2, Assembly3, Assembly2+, etc!

[kaboomjones]

wonderful video, thank you. i'm new to freecad: how do i get the navigation cube you have? i googled a bit and all i see are people either using it or talking about it, but not how to get it. i have 0.17 on windows 10, freshly installed today

[motojc]

Thanks for the video! I'm trying to get an assembly extension, what is your recommendation between A2+, Assembly2 and Exploded Assembly? I see 3 options in Addon manager. Thank you.

[aomanchutube]

Will there be an assembly explode animate and assembly constraint animate module? those would be awesome.

[josegegas]

do you mind sharing your FreeCAD parts?

[marcushoutzager]

i keep getting "The highlighted parts where not moved. They are
not constrained (also over constraint chains)
to a fixed part!" for every constraint. Any idea whats going on? just have to simple copy parts

[bhishmadesai]

I am not able to import part drawing from other files. I am using FreeCAD Version 0.18 + Assembly 2.
Please help.

[baruchba]

If you have 1/2 the parts made can you begin the assembly before all the parts are drawn and continue the assembly process as parts are made?