Jump to content

PartDesign Workbench

From FreeCAD Documentation
PartDesign workbench icon

Introduction

The PartDesign Workbench provides tools for modeling solid components. It is mostly focused on creating mechanical components that can be manufactured and assembled into a finished product. Nevertheless, the created solids can be used for any other purpose such as BIM modeling, finite element analysis, or machining and 3D printing.

The PartDesign Workbench uses a feature based methodology. A component is represented by the Body object container. The Body defines a local coordinate system and contains the cumulative features that define the component. Most features are based on parametric sketches and are either additive or subtractive. For example, the Pad tool adds the extruded sketch to the developing solid, the Pocket tool subtracts the extruded sketch. Each feature is cumulative and builds on the result of preceding features. It is also possible to use primitives (Cylinder, Sphere, etc.) as well as solids created outside the Body as features.

See the feature editing page for a more complete explanation of this process, and then see Creating a simple component with PartDesign to get started with creating solids.

The Part Workbench provides an alternative constructive solid geometry (CSG) methodology for building shapes. For a detailed discussion of the Part Workbench versus the PartDesign Workbench see Part and Part Design.

Tools

The Part Design tools are all located in the Part Design menu and the PartDesign toolbars that appear when you load the PartDesign Workbench.

Part Design Helper Features toolbar

  • New Body: creates a Body object in the active document and makes it active.
  • New Sketch:
  • New Sketch: creates a new sketch on a selected face or plane. If no face is selected while this tool is executed, the user is prompted to select a plane from the Tasks panel. The interface then switches to the Sketcher Workbench in sketch editing mode.
  • Attach Sketch: attaches a sketch to geometry selected from the active body.
  • Validate Sketch: verifies the tolerance of different points and adjusts them.
  • Sub-Shape Binder: creates a shape binder referencing geometry from one or more parent objects.
  • Clone: creates a clone of the selected body.

Part Design Modeling Features toolbar

Additive tools

These are tools for creating base features or adding material to an existing body.

  • Pad: extrudes a solid from a selected sketch.
  • Revolution: creates a solid by revolving a sketch around an axis. The sketch must form a closed profile.
  • Additive Loft: creates a solid by making a transition between two or more sketches.
  • Additive Pipe: creates a solid by sweeping one or more sketches along an open or closed path.
  • Additive Primitive:

Subtractive tools

These are tools for subtracting material from an existing body.

  • Pocket: creates a pocket from a selected sketch.
  • Hole: creates a hole feature from a selected sketch. The sketch must contain one or multiple circles.
  • Groove: creates a groove by revolving a sketch around an axis.
  • Subtractive Loft: creates a solid shape by making a transition between two or more sketches and subtracts it from the active body.
  • Subtractive Pipe: creates a solid shape by sweeping one or more sketches along an open or closed path and subtracts it from the active body.
  • Subtractive Helix: creates a solid shape by sweeping a sketch along a helix and subtracts it from the active body.
  • Subtractive Primitive:

Boolean

  • Boolean Operation: imports one or more Bodies or PartDesign Clones into the active body and applies a Boolean operation.

Part Design Dress-Up Features toolbar

These tools apply a treatment to edges or faces.

  • Fillet: fillets (rounds) edges of the active body.
  • Chamfer: chamfers edges of the active body.
  • Draft: applies an angular draft to selected faces of the active body.
  • Thickness: creates a thick shell from the active body and opens selected face.

Part Design Transformation Features toolbar

These are tools for transforming existing features.

  • Mirror: mirrors one or more features.
  • Multi-Transform: creates a pattern by combining any of the transformations mentioned above, as well as the Scale transformation.
    • Scale: scales one or more features. This is not available as a separate transformation tool.

Additional tools

Some additional tools available in the Part Design menu:

  • Shape Binder: creates a shape binder referencing geometry from a single parent object.
  • Involute Gear: creates an involute gear profile that can be padded.
  • Sprocket: creates a sprocket profile that can be padded.
  • Shaft Design Wizard: Generates a shaft from a table of values and allows to analyze forces and moments. The shaft is made with a revolved sketch that can be edited.

Context menu

  • Set Tip: redefines the tip, which is the feature exposed outside of the Body.
  • Move Object To…: moves the selected sketch, datum geometry or feature to another Body.
  • Move Feature After…: allows reordering of the Body tree by moving the selected sketch, datum geometry or feature to another position in the list of features.

Obsolete tools

  • Create a datum plane: creates a datum plane in the active body. This tool is not available in 1.1 and above.
  • Create a datum line: creates a datum line in the active body. This tool is not available in 1.1 and above.
  • Create a datum point: creates a datum point in the active body. This tool is not available in 1.1 and above.
  • Create a local coordinate system: creates a local coordinate system attached to datum geometry in the active body. This tool is not available in 1.1 and above.
  • Migrate: migrates files from FreeCAD versions below 0.17 to version 0.17. This tool is not available in 1.0 and above.

Preferences

  • Preferences: preferences for the PartDesign Workbench.
  • Fine tuning: some extra parameters to fine-tune PartDesign behavior.

Tutorials

Examples

For some ideas of what can be achieved with Part Design tools, have a look at: PartDesign examples.