Nothing to say, I only want to thank the people developing freecad, the world would be a better place with more people like you.

I've been working on my first larger FreeCAD project. It's a case for the SKR Mini E3 V3 and a mosfet module for a highly customized 3D printer that I'm building. This was the first model that started to shift my philosophy from designing an object to also organizing the project, optimizing for FreeCAD, making redesigns less painful, and troubleshooting FreeCAD issues as needed. General thoughts, takeaways, and questions below:

• FreeCAD is parametric in nature so it is much happier when you change existing constraints or items in sketches rather that deleting and creating new ones.
• The most common (at least for me) way that things would break is that items in the tree would lose their attachment faces or reference geometry. The quickest fix for this was to select the item from the tree, and pick a new face using the "Map Mode" item in the data view.
• Right clicking and moving the tip around in the tree to sensible points before adding whole new sketches keeps things organized. After a complete draft model is done, new features rarely belong at the end of the tree.
• Rename everything as you work, it will keep you from getting lost.
• One the model got big/akward enough disabling recomputes of the body and in sketches and recomputing manually saved my sanity.
• Keeping a Youtube video rolling or a PDF in another window to read during long recomputes also saved my sanity. I have more empathy for the Catia V5 draftsmen at my previous job.
• Using the pattern and multi-transform tool would have saved me some headaches on this project, but for now it's on the list for later.
• Before exporting as an STL it is mandatory (for me) to scan through the tree for any icons denoting possible issues, and then starting at the top click through each feature and view/verify it. Things can still get broken by changes even if there is no error.
• The assembly view and the fasteners workbench add on are a much faster way to check fitment and sizing of things than a 3D print. It takes an extra 15+ minutes but it can save 9 hours. I am still a super newbie at the assembly view.
• Chamfers and fillets can take a really long time to recompute if the surface has changed a lot. It is a life saver to keep them at the very end of the tree and sometimes if enough has changed it is faster to delete them all and just re-make them rather than site through the recomputes. There is probably a better way here so please let me know if you have one.
• The fastest way to get better info is to say something incorrect with confidence on the internet, so please let me know what sounds off or can be improved. If you have any killer tips for project like this let me know!

If you want to look at the model or have some use for the object the FreeCAD design files and STLs are up on Printables. https://www.printables.com/model/1828921-beta-version-the-beehive-case-for-skr-mini-e3-mosf

From https://bsky.app/profile/freecad.org

So i made this cool wall shelf for my cd collection that is 320mm x 160mm

I just want to give a huge thank you to all of the folks in this community that really take the time to teach and help. Lurked for a bit, been in and out of FreeCad a few times too. Being able to see something in my head, model it fairly closely, and have it in my hands in less than 48 hours is insane. A real motivator to keep learning and creating solutions!

*I should have added to the title that video is narrated.

I'm trying to move away from vibes, graph paper, and pencil into parametric modeling and I'm running into some performance issues. Is there something obvious that is eating all my cycles? I am open to everything I am doing here being wrong.

The gate I am working on here is about as simple as they get. Flat, easy to lay out on paper or in 2d cad. I could do this in the draft workbench, maybe, but I am looking for the flexibility that making things parametric would give me.

Eventually I would like to start modeling more complex 3D spindles that I have been done by "feel" in the past. I would like to model them to show the customer rather than making samples for a job I may not get.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (16) @ 4.56 GHz

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT [Discrete]

Memory: 31.25 GiB

Create a triangle wave on an edge and why not a sine.

• 00:01` Intro
• 00:33 SineWall performance was abyssmal
• 01:06 TriangleWall
• 01:57 Get the tool
• 02:22 Demo
• 04:34 Interlocking tiles
• 06:32 Finding a vector normal to an edge
• 08:09 It works on non-planar faces (surfaces)

https://github.com/pyro9/GrabBag/tree/master

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COVKF25ttLY

Does anyone know how I can pocket this half tube shape in CAM? I can't get it to work. Perhaps I've created the pocket incorrectly in Part Design? I sketched a circle on the side face and then used 'subtractive cylinder', when I move to CAM and use any of the operations it gives me:

09:12:03 PocketShape.ERROR: Pocket does not support shape Model-Body.Face3

09:12:03 Geom.INFO: Zero working area to process. Check your selection and settings.

Any help or poiting towards specific vids or literature would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey everyone!

I'm pretty new to CAD, 3D modeling and 3D printing.

I'm trying to edit a model I found on Printables. My goal is to add a flush top feed to it, similar to this other model. The issue is that FreeCAD keeps freezing for 4–5 minutes on almost every action, making it completely impossible to work with.

Here’s what I’ve done so far (maybe I’m missing something or doing something the software doesn't like):

1. Downloaded the main 3MF file containing all parts.
2. Extracted just the lid as an STL using OrcaSlicer.
3. Repaired the mesh and reduced the face count by 50% using JustFixSTL (since FreeCAD's 'Evaluate & Repair' and 'Evaluate Solid' were throwing errors).
4. In FreeCAD (Mesh Workbench): split the mesh into individual components.
5. Decimating the meshes: -25% on the 4 clips and -75% on the lid (best I found without losing quality).
6. In the Part Workbench: created shapes from the meshes ("Shape from mesh") and converted them to solids ("Convert to solid").
7. Cleaned up: created refined shape copies ("Refine Shape") for each component, then removed the old meshes and intermediate shapes.
8. In Part Design: created a new Body using the lid solid as a BaseFeature.
9. The issue: I make a simple rectangle sketch and try to "Pad" it but FreeCAD freezes and stops responding for 4–5 minutes on every step from there.

Does anyone know why FreeCAD is behaving like this ? Or is there a better workflow to achieve what I'm trying to do ?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm trying to dressup cam array profile cam , but it's not working; I don't know how to use it.

Trying to do a very simple first project to get used to operating the program. I have lots of computer drawing experience , but no 3d.

I make the body, pad it, make the sketch for a pocket, but get a red wire frame. I've gone through the validation and cannot find anything wrong, except that it doesn't work.

I don't even know what to ask. So thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I am trying to produce a polar array in Lattice2, but none of the settings that I can see have the 'function' button to allow using VarSet variables. Does Lattice2 not do VarSets or am I missing something?

Yo por ejemplo que soy carpintero y se utilizar muy poco freecad. No es el mejor sofware para modelar muebles. Pero tengo entendido que freecad es de codigo abierto. Supongo que a de haber. Me gustaria saber si ustedes algun mod /plugin. No importa para que sea.