MODULE 06 / DIGITAL WORKSHOP
Install & explore CAD
Install FreeCAD, choose comfortable navigation, create a simple solid and learn the tree and properties. Make your first dependable save-and-reopen workflow.
By the end, you can…
- Install the appropriate FreeCAD build for your computer.
- Navigate, select, hide and inspect an object.
- Distinguish a native document, an object, a face and a camera view.
Meet the robot
Physical robot
Measure lengths, mass, joint axes, mounting offsets and materials. Record uncertainty.
CAD is a model with structure
Computer-aided design stores more than a picture. A solid model represents boundaries enclosing volume; a parametric model also stores instructions and dimensions that generate those boundaries. If you change a useful parameter, the software rebuilds dependent geometry. A screenshot shows one view of a model but cannot carry this editable structure.
FreeCAD organizes a document as a tree of objects and features. Selecting an item exposes its properties. An object may contain a shape, while a face is one surface of that shape and an edge is a boundary between surfaces. Accidental face selection is a common reason a command behaves differently from a tutorial.
The interface has a few important places
Find the 3D view, model tree, property editor, task panel and workbench selector. The tree helps you choose the intended object even when parts overlap. The property editor distinguishes data such as length and placement from view settings such as visibility and display color. The task panel presents options for the operation you are currently performing.
A workbench gathers tools for a kind of task. Part is useful for primitive solids, inspection and solid operations; Part Design organizes the sequence of features that creates a component; Sketcher handles constrained 2D geometry. Switching workbenches changes available commands without turning the same document into an unrelated file.
Camera motion does not change geometry
Orbit changes where you look from. Pan shifts the view across the screen. Zoom changes framing. Object placement changes where the actual object sits in its coordinate system. Learn to tell them apart before you measure anything: rotating the camera should not change the object’s length or placement values.
Choose a navigation style that matches your mouse or trackpad. FreeCAD supports several; the right-click navigation menu or preferences exposes the choices. Use the navigation cube and named standard views while learning. There is no value in memorizing gestures for a navigation style you are not actually using.
Save the editable source
FreeCAD’s native FCStd document preserves your document structure and new feature history. Exporting to STEP provides exchange geometry; STL provides a triangle surface. The export is a derivative for a purpose, so keep the native document too. File names should explain the part and revision rather than repeatedly becoming final-final2.
For now, make practice geometry independent of BDX-R. Your first successful action is closing the program, reopening your document and finding the same editable dimension. That establishes a reliable tool workflow before the large robot assembly adds selection and performance challenges.
WORDS YOU NOW KNOW
- Solid
- A geometric representation enclosing a volume.
- Parameter
- An input such as a dimension that drives a model operation.
- Feature
- A modeling operation, such as adding or removing material.
- Placement
- An object’s translation and orientation relative to its reference frame.
YOUR CALL
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Primary references for this module. Use the version and hardware revision named in the lesson.
Official FreeCAD downloadsFreeCAD getting startedOfficial archived mirror; use installed help for changed menus.FreeCAD Part workbench