Workarounds

From FreeCAD Documentation
Revision as of 10:13, 10 March 2022 by NewJoker (talk | contribs) (added links to other wiki pages)

Introduction

The goal of this article is to list the most important currently missing features in FreeCAD and provide workarounds for them. It can be helpful for new users who can't find a particular functionality in FreeCAD.

Missing features in the Sketcher

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Auto snapping to objects (midpoints, center points, quadrants, extensions, intersections)
  • manually applying constraints and using construction lines
  • drawing in Draft Workbench where snapping to objects is available, then converting with Draft2Sketch tool
2 Chamfer tool
  • making chamfers on part level (after extrusion)
  • adding fillet, turning it to construction geometry and then connecting the points with line to create a chamfer
3 Circular pattern
  • creating circular patterns on part level (after extrusion)
4 Offset tool
5 Rotate tool
  • no known workaround
6 Scale tool
7 Adaptive dimension constraint
8 Inputting coordinates and dimensions on go (when drawing an object)
  • dimensioning afterwards
9 Tangency to B-spline edge
  • no known workaround
10 Checking geometric and mass properties of the sketch (area, center of mass, second moments of area and so on)
  • no known workaround
11 Possibility to use the results of the External Geometry tool directly for operations on the sketch
  • outlining the geometry created by this tool
12 Projecting multiple edges at once with the External Geometry tool when a face is selected
  • projecting edges individually
13 3D sketches
  • Draft Workbench but 3D drafts can’t be converted to sketches (however, they can be used for spatial frame analyses done internally or externally and for sweep paths)
14 Projection of cut edges when making a sketch on a plane cutting through the model
  • no known workaround
15 View section tool showing filled cuts (not hollow ones) - directly related to the Clipping plane tool issue
  • no known workaround

Missing features in the Part and Part Design workbenches

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Checking geometric and mass properties of the model
2 Clipping plane that doesn't make the model look like it's hollow
  • changing lighting in part’s view settings to one side (very rough equivalent, problem with multicolored parts)
  • Persistent section cut tool - deselect all planes before pressing Close, doesn’t work for intersecting parts in assemblies
3 Creation of an axis on the intersection of 2 planes and a plane midway between two faces/points, possibly more variants for datum creation
  • more manual datum creation
4 Automated midsurface extraction (for thin-walled parts)
5 Projecting (mapping/wrapping) sketches on non-planar (e.g. cylindrical) faces
6 Support for multiple solids within a body
  • creating a separate body for each solid
7 Selecting which part of the sketch to pad
  • no known workarounds
8 Fillets and chamfers that can consume adjacent faces/edges
  • making fillets with a slightly smaller radius (e.g. 6.4999 instead of 6.5 mm)
9 Parametric curves
10 Cosmetic threads
  • modeling true threads, for holes those can be generated automatically using Hole tool
11 Partitions (splitting surfaces and volumes with sketches and datum planes while keeping the number of parts unchanged)
12 Guide rails for Additive Pipe and Additive Loft or their equivalents in the Part Workbench
13 Twist for Additive Pipe or Part Sweep
14 Bending existing parts
  • no known workaround
15 Pattern along a curve
16 Cut scope - cut tools affecting only selected part of the model
  • different order of operations and using boolean cut on extruded bodies
17 Merging adjacent faces
  • no known workaround
18 Hole tool using points from sketches
  • drawing circles for the Hole tool
19 Datum points from coordinates
  • basing datum points on existing geometry

Missing features in the TechDraw workbench

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Advanced section views (half, broken out, offset and aligned sections)
  • using the Slice apart tool to physically cut the model and creating its view
2 Surface quality annotations
  • importing symbols created in external software (e.g. Inkscape) and saved to svg format
3 Auto diameter dimension on side views
  • manual addition of the diameter symbol
4 Sketching in drawings
  • cosmetic line tools, limited
5 Shaded views in drawings
  • no known workaround

Missing features in the FEM workbench

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Beams with arbitrary cross-section
  • no known workaround
2 Pressure load on shells, distributed load on beams
  • force load
3 Support for multiple meshes and thus possibility to define contact between touching (not separated) faces
  • no known workaround
4 Applying torque to any surface
  • Transform constraint (only for circular faces)
5 Defining rigid bodies and virtual elements
  • no known workaround
6 Advanced material models (hyperelasticity, creep and so on)
  • no known workaround
7 Composite shells
  • no known workaround
8 Simple creation of node and element sets
  • no known workaround
9 CalculiX keyword editor
  • no known workaround

General missing features

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Official assembly module
  • three different addon assembly modules
2 Improved appearance/rendering of 3D models
  • no known workaround
3 Status bar instructions (“Now pick this …”) for many tools that would benefit from having them (e.g. Sketcher constraints)
  • no known workaround
4 Consistent selection order - some tools require the user to pick the geometric entity first while others allow selection after enabling the tool
  • no known workaround
5 More GUI customization options - pie menus, different icon styles and themes and so on
  • various customization packages created by community
6 Selection filter (picking only faces, edges, points and so on)
  • manual selection of proper geometric entities
7 Assembly module with an option to constrain parts to the origin and to datums
  • no known workaround
8 Transform tool with an option to move and rotate with respect to edges and global coordinates
  • Manipulator add-on workbench
9 More texturing options
  • no known workaround