Week 2/6 - Intro to Freecad

3D printing class

Tim's video:

Kyle's step-by-step:

1. Open Freecad. Upon opening, Freecad will put you in the ‘Start' workspace
2. Switch to the ‘Spreadsheet’ workspace, and create a new spreadsheet
3. Create a variable with the alias ‘CubeSize’ with dimensions of 20mm
4. Switch to the ‘Part Design’ workspace. Create a new body.
5. Create a new sketch, along the XY plane
6. Within that sketch, draw a rectangle around the origin point. 
7. Select 2 corners diagonal to each other, then the origin point. Then select the ‘symmetry’ constraint.
8. Select a vertical, and horizontal line from the rectangle, and use the 'equal' constraint to make them the same length.
9. Select the rectangle's top edge, and use the ‘constrain horizontal distance’ constraint.
10. Instead of inputting a value, select the ‘Formula Editor’ button (small blue circle) and input [Spreadsheet.CubeSize] to pull our dimensions from our spreadsheet.
11. Press the escape key, or click ‘Close’ in the sketch tasks window to return to the ‘part design’ workspace.
12. With the sketch selected, click the ‘Pad’ button. Input your spreadsheet variable into the length box, and click the ‘Symmetric to plane’ checkbox.
13. To input the X, Y, Z text, switch to the ‘Draft’ workbench. 
14. Here, use the ‘Shape from text’ tool. For now, don't worry about where it's placed. Enter [X] into the ‘String’ box, [7mm] into the ‘Height’ box (this may change depending on your font), and click the […] in ‘Font file’ to select your font.
15. Once that is done, click ‘OK’ to finish your ShapeString.
16. With your ShapeString selected, in the 'Properties' window, click the […] for ‘Map mode’, to change its placement.
17. Click on the front face of your cube. This will change the ‘Attachment mode’ to ‘Plane face’.
18. Use the attachment offset to reposition your text roughly in the center of the cube. Then click ‘OK’ to set its placement.
19. Repeat steps 14 to 18 to set the text for each side. (Be careful that each letter ends up on the correct face!)
20. Switch back to the ‘Part Design’ workspace.
21. In the ‘Model’ window drag your 3 ShapeStrings into your part.
22. Select one ShapeString, and click on the ‘Pocket’ tool. Input [1mm] into the ‘Length’ box.
23. Repeat step 22 for the other 2 ShapeStrings.
24. Select your part in the 'Model' window, then click ‘File → Export…’ and select ‘.stl Mesh’ as the file type, and click ‘Save’.
25. Celebrate!!