Workarounds

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Revision as of 19:25, 12 June 2022 by Roy 043 (talk | contribs) (typo)

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)
2 Chamfer tool
3 Circular pattern
4 Offset tool
5 Rotate tool
  • to rotate the whole sketch: change its Placement property
  • to rotate a selection inside the active sketch:
    1. remove constraints that prevent the rotation, e.g. with Sketcher RemoveAxesAlignment
    2. optionally add constraints between the objects to be rotated
    3. apply an appropriate Sketcher ConstrainAngle constraint or drag a vertex of one of the objects
6 Scale tool
7 Adaptive dimension constraint
8 Inputting coordinates and dimensions on the go (when drawing an object)
  • dimensioning afterwards
9 Tangency to B-spline edge
  • tangency applied to endpoints instead of edges
10 Checking geometric and mass properties of the sketch (area, center of mass, second moments of area and so on)
11 Possibility to use the results of the External Geometry tool directly for operations on the sketch
  • manually 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
14 Projection of cut edges when making a sketch on a plane cutting through an object
  • create a Link from the object, and slice that object to get actual cut edges.
15 View section tool showing filled cuts
  • if the sketch is plane-parallel to one of the main planes of the global coordinate system: use Part SectionCut

Missing features in the Part and Part Design workbenches

No. Missing feature Workarounds
1 Checking geometric and mass properties of the model
2 Displaying center of mass of the model (part or assembly)
3 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
4 Creation of an axis on the intersection of 2 planes and a plane midway between two faces/points, possibly more variants for datum creation
5 Automated midsurface extraction (for thin-walled parts)
6 Projecting (mapping/wrapping) sketches on non-planar (e.g. cylindrical) faces
7 Support for multiple solids within a body
  • creating a separate body for each solid
8 Selecting which part of the sketch to pad
9 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)
10 Variable radius for the PartDesign Fillet tool
11 Parametric curves
12 Cosmetic threads
  • adding cosmetic threads on the TechDraw page
  • modeling true threads, for holes those can be generated automatically using Hole tool
13 Partitions (splitting surfaces and volumes with sketches and datum planes while keeping the number of parts unchanged)
14 Guide rails for Additive Pipe and Additive Loft or their equivalents in the Part Workbench
15 Twist for Additive Pipe or Part Sweep
16 Bending existing parts
17 Pattern along a curve
18 Cut scope - cut tools affecting only selected part of the model
19 Merging adjacent faces
  • for faces of a PartDesign Body: change the Refine property of the last Feature to true.
  • for co-planar faces: use Draft Upgrade twice to get a Draft Wire, Draft Downgrade the wire to get a face.
20 Hole tool using points from sketches
  • drawing circles for the Hole tool
21 Datum points from coordinates
22 A tool for automatic creation of ribs
  • creating ribs manually

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 then creating its view
2 Surface quality annotations
3 Auto diameter dimension on side views
  • manual addition of the diameter symbol
4 Sketching in drawings
5 Shaded views in drawings
  • no known workaround
6 Ordinate dimensions
  • no known workaround
7 Broken (interrupted) views
  • creating broken views manually:
    1. sketch two wavy or zig-zag lines close to the ends of a long part and extrude them towards the model creating surfaces for the cut
    2. use the Part Slice tool to cut the model with these surfaces
    3. hide the middle piece and move one of the remaining pieces towards the other
    4. create a view of these objects
    5. if needed, make the lines of the cut dashed (using the TechDraw DecorateLine tool)
    6. if lines of the cut have to be extended, create a view of the sketch used in the first step and align it with the cut
    7. to obtain a proper value of the length of the cut part, you can either change the dimension value manually (after enabling the Arbitrary Text option) or link it to the distance between the end vertices of the original part
8 Excluding ribs from hatching
  • in some cases it might be sufficient to use the first workaround mentioned here and manually create a section with a custom cutting line

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
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
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 workbench
  • three different add-on assembly workbenches
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 the community
6 Selection filter (picking only faces, edges, points and so on)
  • manual selection of proper geometric entities
  • Wireframe mode to facilitate edge selection
7 Assembly workbench 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
9 More texturing options
  • no known workaround
10 View normal to a face
11 Highlighting only individual PartDesign feature of the model when the corresponding operation in the Tree view is selected
  • no known workaround
12 Selecting individual PartDesign feature in the Tree view upon clicking on the corresponding face
  • no known workaround
13 Freeform modeling
  • no known workaround
14 Assembly component generators and calculators for: bolted and riveted connections, shafts, splines, keys, cams, gears (spur, bevel, worm), bearings, springs, belts and chains, pins, o-rings