Manuale: Panoramica su tutti gli ambienti di lavoro
- Introduzione
- Scoprire FreeCAD
- Lavorare con FreeCAD
- Script Python
- La Comunità
Uno delle maggiori difficoltà per i nuovi utenti di FreeCAD, è quella di sapere in quale ambiente di lavoro trovare uno strumento specifico. La tabella qui sotto è una panoramica dei più importanti ambienti e dei loro strumenti. Per un elenco più completo fare riferimento alla pagina della documentazione di FreeCAD per ciascun ambiente.
Quattro ambienti sono inoltre progettati per lavorare in coppia, e uno di loro è completamente incluso nell'altro: Architettura contiene tutti gli strumenti di Draft, e PartDesign tutti gli strumenti di Sketcher. Tuttavia, per chiarezza, quì sono separati.
Parte
L'ambiente Parte fornisce gli strumenti di base per lavorare con le parti solide: primitive, come il cubo e la sfera, e operazioni geometriche semplici e operazioni booleane. Essendo il punto di ancoraggio principale con OpenCasCade, l'ambiente Parte fornisce le fondamenta del sistema di geometria di FreeCAD, e quasi tutti gli altri ambienti producono della geometria basata su Part.
Tool | Descrizione | Tool | Descrizione |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Disegna un cubo | Cono | Disegna un cono |
Cilindro | Disegna un cilindro | Sfera | Disegna una sfera |
Toro | Disegna un toro (anello) | Crea primitive | Crea varie altre primitive geometriche parametriche |
Genera una forma | Crea forme più complesse da primitive | Unione | Fonde (unisce) due oggetti |
Intersezione | Estrae la parte comune (intersezione) di due oggetti | Taglio | Taglia (sottrae) un oggetto da un altro |
JonConnect | Collega gli interni di oggetti con pareti (es. tubazioni) | JoinEmbed | Incorpora un oggetto con pareti in un altro oggetto analogo |
Join Cutout | Crea un ritaglio nella parete di un oggetto per un altro oggetto analogo | Estrudi | Estrude le facce piane di un oggetto |
Raccorda | Raccordo (arrotonda) i bordi di un oggetto | Rivoluziona | Crea un solido ruotando un altro oggetto (non solido) attorno ad un asse |
Sezione | Crea una sezione intersecando un oggetto con un altro | Sezioni | Crea più sezioni trasversali lungo un oggetto |
Smussa | Smussa i bordi di un oggetto | Specchia | Specchia l'oggetto selezionato in un determinato piano di specchio |
Crea superficie rigata | Crea una superficie rigata tra le curve selezionate | Sweep | Spazza uno o più profili lungo un percorso |
Loft | Congiunge due profili | Offset | Crea una copia in scala dell'oggetto originale |
Spessore | Assegna uno spessore alle facce di una forma |
Draft
L'ambiente Draft fornisce gli strumenti per fare disegni di base CAD 2D: linee, cerchi, ecc ... e una serie di utili strumenti generici come spostare, ruotare o scalare. Esso fornisce inoltre diversi aiuti di disegno, come la griglia e l'aggancio. Esso è pensato principalmente per disegnare le linee guida per gli oggetti di Arch, ma serve anche come "coltellino svizzero" di FreeCAD.
Tool | Description | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Line | Draws a line segment between 2 points | Wire | Draws a line made of multiple line segments (polyline) |
Circle | Draws a circle from center and radius | Arc | Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle |
Ellipse | Draws an ellipse from two corner points | Polygon | Draws a regular polygon from a center and a radius |
Rectangle | Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points | Text | Draws a multi-line text annotation |
Dimension | Draws a dimension annotation | BSpline | Draws a B-Spline from a series of points |
Point | Inserts a single point | Shapestring | The ShapeString tool inserts a compound shape representing a text string at a given point in the current document |
Facebinder | Creates a new object from selected faces on existing objects | Bezier Curve | Draws a Bezier curve from a series of points |
Move | Moves or copies objects from one location to another | Rotate | Rotates objects by a certain angle around a point |
Offset | Offsets an object to a certain distance | Trimex | Trims, extends or extrudes an object |
Upgrade | Turns or joins objects into a higher-level object | Downgrade | Turns or separtes objects into lower-level objects |
Scale | Scales objects in relation to a point | Shape 2D View | Creates a 2D object which is a flattened view of another object |
Draft to Sketch | Converts a Draft object to a Sketch and vice-versa | Array | Creates a polar or rectangular array from an object |
Path Array | Creates an array from an object by placing copies along a path | Clone | Creates linked copies of objects |
Mirror | Mirrors objects across a line |
Sketcher
The Sketcher Workbench contains tools to build and edit complex 2D objects, called sketches. The geometry inside these sketches can be precisely positioned and relationed by the use of constraints. They are meant primarily to be the building blocks of PartDesign geometry, but are useful everywhere in FreeCAD.
Tool | Description | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Point | Draws a point | Line | Draws a line segment from 2 points |
Arc | Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle | Arc 3 points | Draws an arc segment from two endpoints and another point on the circumference |
Circle | Draws a circle from center and radius | Circle 3 points | Draws a circle from three points on the circumference |
Ellipse | Draws an ellipse by center point, major radius point and minor radius point | Ellipse 3 points | Draws an ellipse by major diameter (2 points) and minor radius point |
Arc of ellipse | Draws an arc of ellipse by center point, major radius point, starting point and ending point | Polyline | Draws a line made of multiple line segments. Several drawing modes available |
Rectangle | Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points | Triangle | Draws a regular triangle inscribed in a construction geometry circle |
Square | Draws a regular square inscribed in a construction geometry circle | Pentagon | Draws a regular pentagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle |
Hexagon | Draws a regular hexagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle | Heptagon | Draws a regular heptagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle |
Octagon | Draws a regular octagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle | Slot | Draws an oval by selecting the center of one semicircle and an endpoint of the other semicircle |
Fillet | Makes a fillet between two lines joined at one point | Trimming | Trims a line, circle or arc with respect to a clicked point |
External geometry | Creates an edge linked to external geometry | Construction mode | Toggles an element to/from construction mode. A construction object will not be used in a 3D geometry operation and is only visible while editing the Sketch that contains it |
Point on point | Affixes a point onto (coincident with) one or more other points. | Point on object | Affixes a point onto another object such as a line, arc, or axis. |
Vertical | Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true vertical orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint. | Horizontal | Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true horizontal orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint. |
Parallel | Constrains two or more lines parallel to one another. | Perpendicular | Constrains two lines perpendicular to one another, or constrains a line perpendicular to an arc endpoint. |
Tangent | Creates a tangent constraint between two selected entities, or a co-linear constraint between two line segments. | Equal length | Constrains two selected entities equal to one another. If used on circles or arcs their radii will be set equal. |
Symmetric | Constrains two points symmetrically about a line, or constrains the first two selected points symmetrically about a third selected point. | Lock | Constrains the selected item by setting vertical and horizontal distances relative to the origin, thereby locking the location of that item |
Horizontal distance | Fixes the horizontal distance between two points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin. | Vertical distance | Fixes the vertical distance between 2 points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin. |
Length | Defines the distance of a selected line by constraining its length, or defines the distance between two points by constraining the distance between them. | Radius | Defines the radius of a selected arc or circle by constraining the radius. |
Internal anglr | Defines the internal angle between two selected lines. | Snell's law | Constrains two lines to obey a refraction law to simulate the light going through an interface |
Internal alignment | Aligns selected elements to selected shape (e.g. a line to become major axis of an ellipse) | Map sketch | Maps a sketch to the previously selected face of a solid |
Merge | Merge two or more sketches | Mirror | Mirrors selected elements of a sketch |
Part Design
The Part Design Workbench contains advanced tools to build solid parts. It also contains all the tools from the sketcher. Since it can only produces solid shapes (the rule number one of Part Design), it is the main workbench to use when designing pieces (parts) to be manufactured or 3D-printed, as you will always obtain a printable object.
Tool | Description | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Pad | Extrudes a solid object from a selected sketch | Creates a pocket from a selected sketch. The sketch must be mapped to an existing solid object's face | |
Revolution | Creates a solid by revolving a sketch around an axis | Groove | Creates a groove by revolving a sketch around an axis |
Fillet | Fillets (rounds) edges of an object | Chamfer | Chamfers edges of an object |
Draft | Applies angular draft to faces of an object | Mirrored | Mirrors features on a plane or face |
Linear pattern | Creates a linear pattern of features | Polar pattern | Creates a polar pattern of features |
Scaled | Scales features to a different size | Multitransform | Allows creating a pattern with any combination of the other transformations |
Shaft wizard | Generates a shaft from a table of values and allows to analyze forces and moments | Involute gear wizard | Allows you to create several types of gears |
Arch
The Arch Workbench contains tools to work with BIM projects (civil engineering and architecture). It also contains all the tools from the Draft workbench. The main use of the Arch Workbench is to create BIM objects or give BIM attributes to objects built with other workbenches, in order to export them to IFC.
Tool | Description | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Wall | Creates a wall from scratch or using a selected object as a base | Structure | Creates a structural element from scratch or using a selected object as a base |
Rebar | Creates a reinforcement bar in a selected structural element | Floor | Creates a floor including selected objects |
Building | Creates a building including selected objects | Site | Creates a site including selected objects |
Window | Creates a window using a selected object as a base | Section plane | Adds a section plane object to the document |
Axis | Adds an axes system to the document | Roof | Creates a sloped roof from a selected face |
Space | Creates a space object in the document | Stairs | Creates a stairs object in the document |
Panel | Creates a panel object from a selected 2D object | Frame | Creates a frame object from a selected layout |
Equipment | Creates an equipment or furniture object | Material | Attributes a material to selected objects |
Schedule | Creates different types of schedules | Cut plane | Cut an object according to a plan |
Add | Adds objects to a component | Remove | Subtracts or removes objects from a component |
Survey | Enters or leaves surveying mode |
Drawing
The Drawing Workbench handles the creation and manipulation of 2D drawing sheets, used for displaying views of your 3D work in 2D. These sheets can then be exported to 2D applications in SVG or DXF formats, to a PDF file or printed.
Tool | Description | Tool | Description |
---|---|---|---|
New sheet | Creates a new drawing sheet | View | Inserts a view of the selected object in the active drawing sheet |
Annotation | Adds an annotation to the current drawing sheet | Clip | Adds a clip group to the current drawing sheet |
Open browser | Opens a preview of the current sheet in the browser | Ortho views | Automatically creates orthographic views of an object on the current drawing sheet |
Symbol | Adds the contents of a SVG file as a symbol on the current drawing sheet | Draft view | Inserts a special Draft view of the selected object in the current drawing sheet |
Save | Saves the current sheet as a SVG file |
Other built-in workbenches
Although the above summarizes the most important tools of FreeCAD, many more workbenches are available, among them:
- The Mesh Workbench allows to work with polygon meshes. Although meshes are not the preferred type of geometry to work with in FreeCAD, because of their lack of precision and support for curves, meshes still have a lot of uses, and are fully supported in FreeCAD. The Mesh Workbench also offers a number of Part-to-Mesh and Mesh-to-Part tools.
- The Raytracing Workbench offers tools to interface with external renderers such as povray or luxrender. Right from inside FreeCAD, this workbench allows you to produce high-quality renderings from your models.
- The Spreadsheet Workbench permits the creation and manipulation of spreadsheet data, that can be extracted from FreeCAD models. Spreadsheet cells can also be referenced in many areas of FreeCAD, allowing to use them as master data structures.
- The FEM Workbench deals with Finite Elements Analysis, and permits the performing of pre- and post-processing FEM calculations and to display the results graphically.
External workbenches
A number of other very useful workbenches produced by FreeCAD community members also exist. Although they are not included in a standard FreeCAD installation,they are easy to install as plug-ins. They are all referenced in the FreeCAD-addons repository. Among the most developed are:
- The Drawing Dimensioning Workbench offers many new tools to work directly on Drawing Sheets and allow you to add dimensions, annotations and other technical symbols with great control over their aspect.
- The Fasteners Workbench offers a wide range of ready-to-insert fasteners objects like screws, bolts, rods, washers and nuts. Many options and settings are available.
- The Assembly2 Workbench offers a series of tools to mount and work with assemblies.
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