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Ambrose and I have a long history of derailing the electronics thread in completely different directions. Thx for making this. I am experimenting with FreeCAD and SolidWorks so I can turn abstract concepts electrical signals? into mass and energy.
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Mar 23, 2021 16:00
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Hey bros thx for the wisdom. Got the 3d printer and learned basics of solidworks. Making electronics enclosure prototypes. Had trouble at first with extruder getting stuck (I think the filament was getting pinned in the z-axis screw), and then it not sticking. (I think the nozzle was too high). Of note: FreeCad, Solidworks, and Fusion360 all appear to have the same basic workflow, but Solidworks seems the friendliest and most intuitive. (Other than its 3d perspective and rotations). It's been a while since I used Fusion, but I remember the history and cloud-only bits being a pain, and in FreeCad I still haven't figured out how to join up different parts, and clicking the edge or corner you want is an exercise in frustration. In SW you just click it and it picks the right thing. It's possible that Solidworks' step-by-step built-in tutorial made a big impact in the subjective usability.
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Mar 30, 2021 23:17
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Thanks for the tip. I'll keep this on my scope if interested in switching off KiCad later. (Looks like pricing is $100 - $1k USD, tiered by pin and layer limits. $400 for 4-layer.) For some context, I'm only fluent in KiCad. It's janky in places, but is easy to learn, and gets the job done. I'm in the minority here: I strongly prefer its separate footprints and symbols. Although the system it uses to manage them needs work; ie things might break when switching computer or upgrading. What do you prefer about diptrace over KiCad in particular? Edit: KiCad's schematic system is fine for making PCBs, but is hosed for making organized schematics to share, unless I'm missing something. You can't split up your schematic without destroying it and its associated footprints and traces! Dominoes fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Apr 3, 2021 |
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Apr 3, 2021 18:25
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Hey dudes. Does anyone know how to make a cutout inside an extrusion in SolidWorks? In this case, I have a hole, and would like to make a cutout within the hole fit an o-ring. Ie, make the yellow part below a round-edged cutout for this seal:  I've attempted using all the plausible-sounding tools, but can't get it to accept the interior as a valid surface to do the extrusion. edit: Realized the correct term is "O-ring". Google is showing useful things now. "Grooves" tool that may be hidden by default? Stuck at this step: Click Grooves (Toolbox toolbar) or Toolbox > Grooves .. Have tried looking through the Tools menu, and right clicking the features area (Where there's Fillet, Lofted Cut etc), and seeing if there's a hidden Grooves tool, but no luck. Edit again: It's an official add-on that you can download through one of the menus. Then View -> Toolbars -> Toolbox, and it appears as one of 5 buttons on the right. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 15:46
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Oh nice. I remember making Half-life levels there was something like that, where you'd cut out one object with another. I think I got it working. To the surprise of no one, SW is a much easier experience than FreeCad.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:09
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Revolved Cut wouldn't let me select the surface. edit: I think I misunderstood - doing the with the groove. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 16:30
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Awesome, that makes sense, and explains why I wasn't able to use that tool earlier. I love how this is so flexible.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:35
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Thank y'all for the detailed step-by-step instructions. Those sound like broadly-applicable patterns that will come in handy elsewhere - especially the concept of reference geometry. I think those patterns are more consistent with the overall UI than the Groove/O-ring tool, which are more geared towards specific-part-selection.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:57
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I think that's what I ended up with from the Groove tool. It was a list of specific o-ring standard widths under various standards.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:16
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Current and former military get the $20 deal too. Probably other groups as well. (Students?)
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Apr 5, 2021 20:38
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What appealed to me here about the manual approach(s) would be that they're a more general teaching tool, ie would help me do things beyond this use. And I'm not sure how to use the O-ring tool to just put in a width and offset in mm, and it's not clear what unit the tool shows. And once it's placed, I don't think you can change the O-Ring model without deleting and re-adding the tool... Unlike everything else in the software I've seen. That said, the O-ring tool was very easy to use once I figured out how to add it. A consistent problem with the docs (built-in tutorials, and on SW website) is it'll ask you to click buttons that aren't there, and won't show you how to get them. The tutorials sometimes let you click the button in the tutorial, at which point one will appear from the void in your toolbar... but this doesn't show you where it came from, or why it was missing.
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Apr 5, 2021 21:25
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Another SW question - individual solid parts should be separate Parts, and joined in Assemblies, right? I'm trying to use the snap hook and groove tools, but am unable to select the matching part; the tutorials I've found are ambiguous on this topic, and might imply you're supposed to have the same parts open in the same window (?). How do you approach this? Thank you. Ie This official tutorial, this step: Select a face to which you mate the bottom of the hook.. It won't let me select the other part when the dialog is open, and exiting the dialog resets the process, or turns it to a 3D sketch. Edit: After some clicking around, I think the solution is click `Insert` -> `part`. It then moves whatever other part is open into the view. Not sure what other consequences this has etc for "control" of that part, or how to align to (Still can't make the hook due to "not intersecting"); it's ignoring how the parts are mated in the Assembly.) Dominoes fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Apr 7, 2021 22:00
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Thanks homie. Perhaps it's better (for initially-3d-printed-parts) to design the hook manually, or perhaps ditch the assembly concept, and save the mutli-body-part as separate STL files when printing. Edit: Got the feature working using the multi-body part approach, but am a bit unclear how to proceed with overall design here and elsewhere. Maybe multi-body parts for the enclosure, in an assembly with the PCB, buttons, etc. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Apr 7, 2021 23:42
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I appreciate the wisdom! Going to keep the assembly, minus the enclosure top, which is now part of the enclosure bottom. Should I just delete the enclosure-top part file? Seems like there's no good way to sync things otherwise.
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Apr 7, 2021 23:59
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I appreciate it. It looks like there's single-direction change propagation; ie you still need the old part file, and edits there affect the new thing. But joint parts like latches must be done on the multi-body parent, and don't propagate to the child; just like you said.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:13
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I fired up Fusion again to see how it compares to SolidWorks now that I'm more comfortable with CAD. It won't run until I download a new version. The options are "Download new version", and "quit". Harmless on its own, but contributes, along with the cloud-saving, that this is a SAAS.
Dominoes fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Apr 14, 2021 |
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Apr 14, 2021 02:38
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It's a California / Hacker News term for a webapp, often in the form of a ponzi scheme - startups make these things for other startups, ad infinitum. If you're really successful, a FAANG buys your SAAS, and do it again, but this time you're rich.
Dominoes fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Apr 14, 2021 |
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Apr 14, 2021 23:46
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Got the SW O-ring revolved cut working like you said. Much nicer! The groove tool doesn't move with your geometry, as least by default (non-parametric?), and it's easier to reason about the dimensions if you're not in industry this way. Ie make the revolved circle a fixed radius, and distance from the center, instead of picking an ISO or ANSI number. e: SolidWorks is really polished. It's clear they spent a lot of time going back-and-forth with users (internal or external) over the years to make the UI intuitive. I hope FreeCad get there eventually, but so many OSS projects get bogged down in clumsy PR processes etc. For example (Maybe I'm projecting too much from my own software projects) - User wants to be able to easily set a dimension based on something in a different sketch. They call SW dev and explain. Dev changes some code, pushes patch, and it's done. OSS: person makes issue or PR. Devs take 3 weeks to get to it. Question why you'd want this, nitpick code style and mention alternative approaches, then vanish again. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 14:47
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Great explanation. For some context, I've built and maintain what could be called a SAAS; a scheduling/training/manning web app for fighters, used by a handful of USAF sqs. Bro-level SAAS? There's a continuum between web page and SAAS, where someone's geocities page is the former, a Silicon Valey (SV) startup that sells to other SV startups is in the latter, and other websites can be categorized in a way that's useful to your purpose. While a desktop software, Fusion 360 behaves in some ways that are associated with SAAS sites. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 19:13
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His Divine Shadow posted:One thing I like about Fusion 360 is when I try and rotate the view it, it just works, like intuitively. When I rotate something in solidworks or solid edge for that matter, the model just seems to also rotate in multiple random directions plus the one I intended and I can't make heads or tails of it and it's so incredibly frustrating. Agree on SW rotations being awk. Even FreeCad's is more intuitive for me.
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Apr 20, 2021 19:15
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I'd prefer you pick a center point, and have 6 axis of unconstrained rotations. There are a few ways you could mech that with a mouse, eg mouse buttons 2+3 and a modifier key to choose axis.
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Apr 20, 2021 19:53
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Cory Parsnipson posted:I've also had the unfortunate experience of stumbling across their forums and hooo boy is it a poo poo show.... Had a skim. Looks like a few people in particular are responsible for much of the venom.
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Apr 21, 2021 13:13
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Do you have any CAD software files, or just the STL?
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May 9, 2021 14:42
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Solidworks
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May 26, 2021 01:06
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Follow-up: So far, it looks like my concerns about solidworks for making cuts in flat surfaces are valid. Has anyone used SW CAM in this context before? Ie it's trying to obliterate everything not part of the model.
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Jun 7, 2021 23:44
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Thank you - that's very encouraging! I'll continue going through the tutorials. And I agree on the tabs. Maybe some sort of breakaway or perforation. Or maybe make sure it finishes the perimeter cut as the very last step per model? Ideally will be able to set this up in a grid. edit: Tricks with tape sound like a nice shortcut - hadn't considered that.
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Jun 8, 2021 00:23
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Switched to boss - it worked! It seems like the surface area of options for CAM is narrow, once you figure out how to get to everything. I'm learning this by experimenting, then referencing materials etc. Seemed daunting this morning; manageable now.
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Jun 8, 2021 00:27
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biracial bear for uncut posted:The 3d surfacing tools in SWCAM/CAMWorks really aren't the best thing to use if you want "just machine this shape, don't cut *everything*. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jun 13, 2021 |
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Jun 13, 2021 15:02
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sharkytm posted:If they gently caress this up, I can see an opening for Fusion. I expected Dassault to strike a major blow, but this is weak.
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Aug 8, 2021 21:20
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amen brother
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Aug 9, 2021 02:32
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If you're a student or current/former mil, there's a $20/year program.
Dominoes fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Aug 18, 2021 |
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Aug 18, 2021 20:36
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 00:13 |
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Does FreeCAD do modelling and stuff too? For some reason I thought it was 2d only.
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Sep 17, 2021 19:15
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