Assembly3 Workbench/en

Introduction
Assembly3 is a external workbench that is used to perform assembly of different bodies contained in a single file or in multiple documents.

The Workbench is based on several features implemented in C++ in the core of FreeCAD. Thus it is fast enough to allow the user to move constraint parts in an assembly interactively with the mouse.

It was developed as a testbed for the App Link object that was eventually included in FreeCAD 0.19.

Compatibility
Assembly3 was inspired by Assembly2, but it is not compatible with it. If you have older models made in Assembly2, you should stay with FreeCAD 0.16 and use Assembly2 there.

New models developed with Assembly3 should only be opened and edited with this workbench.

Although they may have similar tools, Assembly3 is not compatible with A2plus nor Assembly4. Models created with these workbenches should be opened only with their respective workbench.

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Testing
The Assembly3 workbench is under development and not yet available via FreeCAD's Addon Manager. It will be made available as soon as the development of FreeCAD and the Assembly3 workbench has advanced enough to allow an installation via the Addon Manager.

From FreeCAD V0.19 a merge of core features from a special Assembly3 development branch to the FreeCAD main development branch has been started. It is expected to require many month to fully integrate all new core functions to the main development branch.

However, since begin of 2020 the are enough core features already integrated in the FreeCAD main branch of V0.19_pre that the Assembly3 python workbench can be used, at least for initial testing. If you are interested to discover the new Assembly3 features or if you want to support the development team by testing the already available features, please use the download options below and provide feeback to the Assembly thread in the forum.

For download there are two options
 * A special branch of FreeCAD with all local modifications for Assembly3, for download see here. The version is based on an earlier FreeCAD V0.19 version, so it does not have the latest features compared to the official development versions.
 * The Linux AppImage has a fixed integration of the Assembly3 workbench and its dependencies. There is not further configuration required, so Assembly3 features can be used along with all other current. Download the AppImage here, see the link in the section "Assets", e.g. ' FreeCAD_0.19-19955-Linux-Conda_glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage' at the time of writing.

''Note For Windows the only option is to use the special build (first option). It is planned to include the Assembly3 workbench in the AppImage until it will be available through the Addon Manager.''

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Links

 * App Link object that makes Assembly3 work.
 * FreeCAD_assembly3 repository and documentation.
 * Assembly3 preview, big discussion thread.
 * Test tutorial for Assembly 3 WB by jpg87.
 * Current Assembly Status
 * External workbenches
 * External workbench list