Assembly3 Workbench: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:09, 2 May 2020

Other languages:

Introduction

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

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.

top

Testing

The Assembly3 Workbench is under development and is not yet available (April 2020) through the Addon Manager, but it is expected that this will happen at some point.

You can test it in two ways:

A special fork of FreeCAD made by realthunder; see FreeCAD_assembly3 releases. This fork is based on a particular commit of the master branch of FreeCAD, but it also has additional features currently not present in the master branch. Due to this fork being based on a particular development snapshot, it does not have the latest features merged daily to the master branch.
The development AppImage; this is based on the current master branch, and includes the dependencies needed for working with Assembly3 such as the SolveSpace solver.

Since the AppImage only works for Linux, for Windows users at the moment the only option to test Assembly3 is the first option (realthunder's fork).

top

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

User documentation

Getting started
Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
Workbenches: Std Base, Arch, Assembly, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Points, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Start, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework, Web

Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 <!--T:14-->
-The Assembly3 workbench is under development and not yet available via FreeCAD's [[Std AddonMgr|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.
+The [[Assembly3_Workbench|Assembly3 Workbench]] is under development and is not yet available (April 2020) through the [[Std_AddonMgr|Addon Manager]], but it is expected that this will happen at some point.
-<!--T:15-->
-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.
-<!--T:16-->
-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 [https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=25712 Assembly thread] in the forum.
 <!--T:17-->
+You can test it in two ways:
-For '''download''' there are two options
-* A special branch of FreeCAD with all local modifications for Assembly3, for download see [https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases 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.
+* A special fork of FreeCAD made by realthunder; see [https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases FreeCAD_assembly3 releases]. This fork is based on a particular commit of the master branch of FreeCAD, but it also has additional features currently not present in the master branch. Due to this fork being based on a particular development snapshot, it does not have the latest features merged daily to the master branch.
+* The development [[AppImage|AppImage]]; this is based on the current master branch, and includes the dependencies needed for working with Assembly3 such as the SolveSpace solver.
-* 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 [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases/tag/0.19_pre 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.
 <!--T:18-->
+Since the AppImage only works for Linux, for Windows users at the moment the only option to test Assembly3 is the first option (realthunder's fork).
-''Note<br>
-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 [[Std AddonMgr|Addon Manager]].''
 <!--T:19-->