Book Image

FreeCAD

By : Brad Collette, Daniel Falck
Book Image

FreeCAD

By: Brad Collette, Daniel Falck

Overview of this book

FreeCAD is a general purpose platform for CAD development. It can be extended to use different workbenches to solve different problems. Targeted squarely at the engineering community, FreeCAD is an open source design application built to be extended. Python, the powerful scripting language, is woven deeply into FreeCAD's DNA and gives users unprecedented power to automate and invent. "FreeCAD [How-to]" is a lean, fast tour of FreeCAD's major workbenches and design philosophy. The reader will get a hands-on introduction to several modeling techniques and learn how Python makes macro automation and design possible. FreeCAD allows users to design in a variety of ways; from drawing 2D designs as lines and circles to combining primitive solids into complex 3D shapes. Objects can even be created or modified by code you write in Python. FreeCAD even allows power users to extend the application itself with new dialogs, panels, and scripts. This book will not only show you how to get started using FreeCAD in a traditional GUI mode, but will teach you how to harness its powerful scripting language for more power.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

About the Authors

Brad Collette once designed software for a big company but doesn't like to remember that. These days, he is an entrepreneur, hobbyist, jack-of-all-trades, and a gentleman farmer. He is engaged in a multi-year project to raise two hacker sons. He has contributed to numerous open source projects and is an organizing member of Columbia Gadget Works, central Missouri's finest hackerspace.

Daniel Falck has always been interested in how things work. As a boy, he learned to play the guitar and decided to learn how to build guitars. This later progressed into learning how to make the tools that help build guitars. He still exhibits this sort of behavior today, as he tries to learn how to build open source CADCAM software that helps him build other tools of the trade, as well as guitar parts.

In the past, he has worked for Gibson Guitar Corporation as a tooling designer and prototype machine shop supervisor, where he learned CAD software. He currently does the same thing for Chris King Precision Components, running the prototype machine shop, designing tooling, gaging, fixtures, machine parts, and software.

Over the years, he has gained an appreciation for open source software and has been involved with several open source CADCAM projects. Linuxcnc was the inspiration that got him interested in Linux and open source. He has also participated in APTOS, the HeeksCNC project, and now FreeCAD.