External workbenches

From FreeCAD Documentation
Revision as of 21:08, 31 March 2019 by Vocx (talk | contribs) (Moved Assembly2 to the deprecated section, as essentially it has been superseeded by A2plus and Assembly3)

Introduction

Power users have extended FreeCAD with various custom workbenches and addons that are not integrated into the FreeCAD source code but can be added to an existing FreeCAD installation.

Most extensions can be installed from the Addon Manager, menu Tools → Addon manager; specific instructions are provided in each extension page.

Current extensions

General

  • Defeaturing provides tools to edit STEP models by removing selected features.
  • DynamicData allows creation of container objects for holding custom properties.
  • WebTools contains a series of tools to communicate with Web services from within FreeCAD.

Architecture and facilities

Assembly

As of FreeCAD 0.18 there is no official assembly workbench. However, several external tools have been created or are in development to manipulate objects to produce assemblies.

  • A2plus provides tools to create multi-part assemblies. It is a fork and extension of the Assembly2 Workbench.
  • Assembly3 (github link) is in development and requires a forked version of FreeCAD with some core changes. It is the most complex solution and supports things like interactive kinematics.
  • Assembly4 (github link) is a solution based on the forked FreeCAD branch that Assembly3 uses. It does not work with constraints at all and focuses on building structures with Local Coordinate Systems (LCS). This is computationally friendly, and should allow for creating large assemblies with may parts. This is the newest of the assembly workbenches and is intended more as a demonstrator.
  • Manipulator is aimed at helping users in aligning, moving, rotating and measuring 3D objects through a friendly graphical interface.
  • WorkFeatures adds a wide range of helper objects such as alignment planes or axes, and tools to help you to position and align objects along those helper objects.

Engineering

  • EM Workbench ElectroMagnetic Workbench for FastFieldSolvers free tools.
  • KicadStepUp is aimed at helping both KiCad and FreeCAD users in collaborating with electrical (ECAD) and mechanical (MCAD) design.
  • LCInterlocking (github link) tools to create parts for laser-cutters. Add tabs and hinges. Export to SVG.
  • SheetMetal provides tools to design and unfold sheet metal parts.

Deprecated extensions

Missing documentation

(February 2019) These extensions lack documentation in this wiki. If you are the developer or a user of these addons, consider creating a page for them, or providing a link to their documentation
  • Bolts
  • Cfd
  • EaglePCB_2_FreeCAD
  • Gears
  • FreeCAD-CuraEngine
  • Animation
  • Lattice2
  • Exploded Animation
  • Fasteners
  • GeoData
  • Nurbs
  • Persistent toolbars
  • Retr3D
  • Timber