FreeCAD for Beginners pt.6 - Extruded Text
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
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In this video I teach you how to create 3D text in FreeCAD. 3D text is often useful for 3D printing projects or even CNC machine carvings. I also demonstrate how we can use parametric modelling to efficiently position and center our text.
#FreeCAD #CAD #3dmodelling
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-Gareth
hello i im stuck right after I extrude the text from 1mm i click the space bar to hide the extrude but I leave the text visible when I go to click create a pocket with the shape string highlighted both are in the parts section it tells me cannot use that the selected objects must belong to active body consider using shape binder to reference external geometry in the body i rewatched that part a lot of times and i am doing exactly as you did but keep coming up with that error I've searched how to use the shape binder tool pretty hard to understand but i did get to click create cross reference but not sure what i had highlighted because i got an error so i clicked the shape string and now it wont get me the option to create a cross-reference have you or anyone encountered this
You have convinced me not to use FreeCad. What a stuff around to get one word printed.
You don't have to do the measuring, in the formula editor for the x/y position set them to "-.Shape.BoundBox.XLength / 2" and "-.Shape.BoundBox.YLength / 2" respectively. This will position the text centered around the origin.
Additionally in the constraints for the box, you can set the constraints to "20 + SignText.Shape.BoundBox.XLength" for the width (where 20 is some padding, can make that parameterized as well. and ".YLength" for the height.
You do have to trigger some recalculations to get it to work, but it allows for a completely parameterized sign where even changing the text, font or font size will work correctly.
Hi, excelent this video and the comments. I changed the text, the boundbox changes as expected, but the formula "-.Shape.BoundBox.XLength / 2" doesn´t actualize. What can I do? THANK YOU
@@Tres-D a bit late, 5 months after, but you have to right-click the shapestring in the model view and select "Recompute Object"
thank you!!!
ok so I've been messing around with Freecad for a while. Puzzling bad tutorials without any workflow, I've watched your 6 parts and I'm amazed how uneffecient I was working.
Please continue your series, I will watch em all with my onenote next to me printscreening your every move.
Handsdown best Freecad tutorials out there.
much appreciated, thanks for watching👊🏻
I haven't even started with free cad, and have been binge watching your tutorials. Please keep em coming. I'm excited to get started learning, and am damn happy to have come across your videos. Keep up the good work!
@@thepoorboychannel Binge watching doesn't help me. To get through the basics of this program , sure... but oh my, this program is a HUGE learning curve(for me at least) and I learn by DOING. There is no way I could just binge-watch ANY tutorial series on this program and get shit done. After hundreds of hours watching/doing..i FINALLY made a somewhat complex part and 3D printed it... then i took a break for a few days(much needed)... now I'm ready to dive back in... give yourself TIME! FreeCAD will reward you immensely and piss you off just as much as you go along. Trust me! BUT DON'T GIVE UP! Good luck!
@@thefeet Nice one on the progress! I'm just begging with it and loving these tutorials.
Select the body, ctrl+ select the string, click shapebinder to create a shapebinder nested under the body. Select the new shapebinder object and click create pocket. Works for freecad version 0.21.0.
Thanks, these steps were helpful, for anyone else having this issue, make sure to hide the shapestring after these steps (creating pocket on shapebinder) to be able to see the pocket created underneath. ☕✨
pro tip (from a complete CAD newbie). When doing your spreadsheet params. Skip the measurement at first. Do all the aliases one by one...then when your done, presuming there all mm then select all the param cells, right click and apply the measurement for them all on mass in one go.
I find this method of data entry a little laborious and am itching to dig into the code one day to make it smoother. Anything like this to make it less mandraulic the better. As I love the equations and parametric modeling technique.
FreeCAD = frustration... BUT... I'll keep at it! There's so many ppl trying to teach FreeCAD in their own way here but each teacher is helping! THE BEST part about FreeCAD is the amazing people such as yourself willing to try to drive home the basics of parametric modeling as we newbies struggle with the basics and the User Interface(& the bugs there!). You make it look so easy... it's NOT! Perseverance and determination win in the end with this beast of a FREE program! TYVM! (The biggest part newbies struggle with is the TREE)... still wrapping my head around the damned tree and how things work together over there on the left... I know. It may be simple to you but holy hell! I have had to scrap whole projects and start over because I screwed SOMETHING UP IN THE DAMNED TREE...
Thanks Gareth. Being a newbie, your video helped a lot. After 2 days of trying finally managed to do it.
This is how you can take the length of a shape string in formula (im using version 0.19):
"Subscribe.Shape.BoundBox.XLength" or if you are in the same object, you can omit the "Subscribe part" so ".Shape.BoundBox.XLength".
In total you can use:
.Shape.BoundBox.XLength
.Shape.BoundBox.YLength
.Shape.BoundBox.XMin
.Shape.BoundBox.YMin
.Shape.BoundBox.XMax
.Shape.BoundBox.YMax
The variable names are self explanatory.
From messing around, I figured out how to get actual size for text. For the ShapeString click the view tab and set bounding box = true then the actual length & height for the string is displayed. If there is a way to set the bounding box sizes as a parameter, then strings can automatically be positioned.
Good job👍🏻 it'd be great if we could use that bounding box value!
@@thehardwareguy The trick is to set the x formula to `(parameters.length - ShapeString.Shape.BoundBox.XLength)/2`; make the obvious substitutions for the Y values. I found that by playing around a bit in the python console.
Thank you for making the videos of FreeCad available for people who watch TH-cam. I am new to CAD/CAM and CNC as well. I am trying to learn all that I can so that I can use my CNC machine for hobbywork. I enjoyed your video and feel that it was very helpful for what I would like to do.
I really like your parameter-centric technique. To me that's where the power of these tools are and so many just skip it.
Thanks a lot, the best tuturial for FreeCAD.
this guy is the best, i never really undestand the meaning of parametric until i started following him.thanks alot man.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have been interested in engineering and 3d modeling for a very long time and wanted to familiarize myself with parametric modeling and your videos have helped me so much! I really enjoy how you explained features in a noob friendly way, I'm dropping a sub!
Great. I had secretly hoped embossing text would be a matter of writing the text in a spreadsheet and clicking some buttons, but this will work for me
Love your beginner series and have recommended to others in a beginner group. I too have struggled to find a good tutorial on text, THANK YOU! Your index/timeline for most of your videos is also extremely helpful as I have keep a document where I make additional notes to myself for later reference.
Would love a tutorial on creating joints or making assemblies for multiple parts to connect together. Working on something that will need to be printed in multiple pieces due to length, not sure interlocking will be enough so may need to glue but don't want an extremely obvious seam on the visible exterior.
This series is just what I needed to get started with FreeCAD! I can't tell you how many times that I stop, start, and go back 20 seconds to replay something and compare results (your video on one screen, and FreeCAD running on the other). The rate at which you introduce new concepts works well. Thank you! My only delta so far is that being in the U.S. (and of a certain age) I have always used imperial units, and FreeCAD apparently requires a particular method of entry (=2.0in for instance). I think I need to upgrade my brain to the SI system... Anyway, many thanks for this series!
Very good stuff! I'm finally at a level sufficient to embody details shown here. Thank you! ( A special thanks for saying 'zed' )
Awesome video. Unlocked several new tools I never new existed. Thank you
There aren't many books, so it's a helpful video.
I'm making buttons for an Altoids tin game controller. These tutorials are very helpful!
Hi I am a noob using Cad and really like your video's.
In this tutorial on minute 14.09 you create a hole for the text. You get this message box to create a cross reference.I don't see that (I'm on 0.19). Instead I get a message telling me "cannot use selected object. Selected object must belong to active body. Consider using a ShapeBinder to reference external geometry in a body."
Any idea's how to do that?
Hi, I have followed this series of videos for beginners with great attention and enthusiasm because thanks to you I have started to know the wonderful freecad in a clear and straigth way !
I have seen in other channels a very powerful freecad function called Boolean Operations.
Because of its importance, I would infinitely appreciate it if you could show them to us in a future video.
I think, with no doubt, you are a *Great Teacher* to all of us and I want to thank you very much for that.
Thanks in advance and greetings from Santiago de Chile, South America. This is John.
Thanks for this video! Very informative and useful.
Thank you! very informative tutorial!
Cheers friend, fantastic video learn heaps of new ideas and designs of it, thanks
very good example. thanks.
Great set of FreeCAD tutorials. They have been very helpful getting me started. One thing that would probably help people is a tutorial on building a complex object. How to refer to sketch on a base part so that you can use constraints without the need to know the exact coordinates. Also, it seems that sketches can only contain 1 face. This caused me a lot of trouble until I realized that it is a limitation (at least on a Mac). You can extrude multiple faces in the Part workbench, but then only the bounding edges extrude, not the faces. Finally, you can't have unconnected bodies. It seems you must add bodies so that there is a single part. Parts and Bodies are also very unclear. And, finally, does your part tree get messed up? On my Mac it certainly gets out of order and then odd things happen. Boolean operations are one thing that seems to cause this.
The little luggage tag icon in the spreadsheet toolbar lets you alias your cells directly without going through properties, select the right tab, enter the name.
Never could figure out text extrudes etc . This video certainly demystifies it but someone with the smarts should really implement text in part design and save us all from this abyss 🤣. Clunky is better than nothing I guess. Thanks very much for your work on this and other FreeCad concepts. I'm relatively new to it after divorcing myself from Fusion 360 for all the right reasons 👍
Completely agree! I'd love to see those changes made
I dont even need to watch the first few seconds before i give it a thumbs up. i know it will be great
Thanks a bunch for this tutorial.
thanks for letting me know about the enter issue, i will be tabbing everthing lol
great one ! I enjoy how simple it was to achieve that ;)
Thanks for a really clear explanation of this software and how to use it. I've been using Autosketch for 2D drawings for the last 20 years and was struggling to understand how Freecad worked. The constraints feature is new to me as Autosketch doesn't appear to use it, at least not in such an obvious way. Instead it uses snapping to points such as the end point of a line or the drawing grid. I'm looking forward to being able to do my own 3D designs now that I have a grasp of Freecad.
Been using Designspark Mechanical to create text logos for stamps used by kids in playdough which relied on being able to import step files into DSM. DSM have removed that import and export ability in the free version of DSM so this is exactly what I am looking for - many thanks for the solution to my problem. Great series by the way.
Köszönjük!
As I involuntary downgrade from my beloved AD Inventor, I see how helpless and frustrated I would be without your efforts. My mouse and keyboard is greatful for being spared my hissyfits too.
Thank you very many. I hope there is a lot more to come :)
Thank you so much for another video in this series! It's really helping n00bs like me get acclimated so quickly!
Thank you so much. I learned basic cad through your Freecad tutorials and designed myself a basic project in a couple of days. I had been struggling for years to grasp CAD. THANK YOU! I am a Linux (Ubuntu & Mint) user, so I am pretty much limited to Freecad since Autodesk does not port Fusion 360 to Linux. If you have a different suggestion for CAD under Linux, I'm all ears, but Freecad is sufficing for the here and now. I design for 3D printing mostly and am interested in generating threaded holes. I do use inserts but sometimes they don't come in the threads I need. Thanks for your great content.
Subed, nice job of explaining everything calmly. Thank you.
Awesome, thank you!
I'm really interested in creating a worm gear and spur. I hope you will follow through on this video.
Please make tutorial how to create a threted pad. Or nut with screw. Believe it will be helpfull for a great amount of tinkers ;) Thank you very much for your effort. Personaly I find your teaching approach as the best FreeCad explanation on YT. No noisy music; focused on topic; nice ,calm voice. Excellent!
Thank you so much
I got frustrated with Fusion 360 and recently uninstalled it. It's just way too complicated for the amount of time that I have to devote to learning it. Tutorials like this FreeCAD for Beginners series would have been awesome. That being said, I have installed FreeCAD and am really enjoying this beginner's series. Thanks for making these.
Great video. You've earned my sub. Please continue uploading more of these beneficial videos
Appreciate it, more to come!
Thanks mate!
Thanks for great tutorial ;) .
You're welcome!
Best FreeCAD videos I've seen so far. Doing parametric modeling via a spread sheet is definitely going into my workflow habbits (as new as they are). Is there a way to flip/reverse/ the text before extruding ?, i.e. like a negative image to make a'stamp/die.
Thank You!
That was incredibly generous of you Bill. Thank you so much, and happy new year!
This video is insane. And no, we didn't "create a sketch before"
Thanks!
thank you Huw! That is very generous of you. Glad I could help!
thanks
I am so thankful for your video tutorials. I'm new to 3D, only casually using old AutoCAD and PCB design software for hobby use (Amateur Radio), and that is only 2D. My screen looks different on my Windows PC (running the same version 0.18). It helps if I follow you exactly, instead of skipping create new body, ha ha... I haven't been able to figure out how to do the constraints yet. It takes me a while to follow you because My results are totally different, the icons are in different places (create new sketch is way on the Left). I'll figure this out eventually... (Edited).
Glad I've been able to help out! Yes sometimes the icons can be in different places based on which FreeCAD version / Operating System you are running. Hope you figured it out!
When using the constrain distance you don't need to select 2 point if the element is already horizontal/vertical constrained, just select the tool and point the segment you want constrain.
Yes this is true. However, from a teaching perspective clicking both points helps new users understand what they are measuring and what the tool actually does
For the purpose of creating a mesh for 3d printing, how do I make the extruded text and the block become one body so that it creates one mesh with all the features?
@thehardwareguy: @5:50 When you have selected the right font and clicked OK, the cursor is in the main work area and then X/Y coordinates change accordingly. It's something that they sure will fix, I'm sure, but in the meantime, I use a workaround. After clicking on the font you want, move the cursor to the left Comboview where the Shapestring parameters are, and instead of clicking OK, you press [Enter] (the [Open] button is still in focus)
Hello - thanks for the video!!! I would love to change the name by parametrics but that its still centred. Is there no script or so? I come from Rhino3d and want to learn FreeCad and bring my projects to it. Cant believe that there is no such function, or is there a way even with a plugin ?
Followed your vids 1 - 6 and can keep up with the flow!! but the extruded text worked up to a point until I tried to get a draft on the Text. I do a lot of metal casting and to help getting the model out of the mould text need a slight draft - is there a way of doing this in FreeCad
tutorial request: I might be a pillock, but I wanted to add a "finger scoop" to a part that normally sits flush on a bench and would be nice to have a curved oval scoop out. Allowing a finger to pull up on the part. I think I could do it with a subtractive oval but I dont really feel I have full control of the scoop shape. Nor can I figure out how to achieve it with a scetch.
So a vid on this would be really helpful. thanks! Great vids
I'm looking for this but along the top edge of a circle/ring, I suppose on the face of the ring could work too bit not my first choice.
At 14:06 I seem to be getting an error saying: "Can not use selected object. Selected object must belong to the active body" - using FreeCAD 0.19 and I believe I have followed your tutorial step by step with the same hierarchy as well, just wondering if you ever got experienced this error?
same :(
@@pedroperryresende5126 - Really not sure if this is a solution but I had another issue relating to stuff about the active body and I found out that the in the hierarchy the body that you're doing changes to must be "active" or it should visually appear bold. In order to achieve this all you have to do is double click on body, it should then appear bold.
Hope this helps!
@@jamesdibnah752 oh thank you :), gonna try it later
I hit the same issue in 0.19, the parts tree got messed up and the ShapeString wasn't under the body, but outside of it, drag it back into place (top left tree bit) and then select it again, then click the pocket tool and it works.
Hi do you know any easy way to chamfer/fillet extruded text?
I was wondering if you were going to do curved text and BAM! You're a mind reader. lol
is there any way to create a text that follows the arc of a circle, like you would see on a government department seal?
You can make the text automatically centered by figuring out the word dimensions based on text size. Make another parameter textsize=1. Change ShapeString - Draft - Size to new parameter. (textsize)
Measure the word dimensions: a=long, b=wide.
Now for ShapeString position
x=(.lenght - a * .textsize) / 2
y=(.width - b * .textsize) / 2
Now you can change the textsize parameter to desired size.
For different font you need to measure a and b again
Run freecad as admin when you first start if you want direct access to windows font directory.
@thehardwareguy: @5:00 No one mentioned it so far so I give my 20 cents; If you start FreeCAD as an admin (programs normally start in "normal user mode" even tho you are an admin), you can use the Windows font folder without copying. At least it worked for me using Windows 10 (Version 21H2 OS-version 19044.1645) and FreeCAD 0.20 Rev 27422
I've been bashing my head on the wall for a few days trying to get text on a surface. I'm using FreeCAD 0.20, I don't know if that makes a difference but I found that I couldn't hide the extruded text to leave only the ShapeString visible. I had to drag the ShapeString into the body, not the Extrude, to be able to use Pocket to cut the text into the pad. I could Extrude in Part workbench without dragging ShapeString but Pocket wouldn't work in Part Design, I got an error message saying I can't use the selected object because it doesn't belong to the active body. After finding that out (ShapeString dragging) I found I didn't have to use the Part workbench at all, I could Pad or Pocket in Part Design. One other difference I found (it is different for me) your use of the Tab key to update the screen didn't work for me, nor did Enter, I had to left click the mouse cursor in another field to see the screen update.
Your use of the Spreadsheet & the X Y formula placement is magic
Very easy video presentation, no BS, straight to the point & I have text I can place on a surface :) Thank you
Thanks for leaving this comment, you helped me. On Linux FreeCAD 0.19 I couldn't follow this tutorial verbatim, it would say it would cut a pocket but it wouldn't be visible, I too had to drag the ShapeString, not the Extrude, but annoyingly it wouldn't let me place it into the Body, it would the Part but not the Body, oddly it would let me drag it into the Pocket sub-section within the body, quite odd, then I could get the result I wanted.
In the formula for centring the text, couldn’t you reference the distance objects rather than typing in the numbers manually? Then the downstream steps would update parametrically if you resized the text.
I still use 0.18, so this is right on.
I do not know where I made a mistake but when I try to use the create the engraving with the text it does not show me the reference pop up window and gives an error asking me to use a shape binder. I really want to use FreeCad because Fusion 360 keeps giving errors (server based) and I want to switch. Also, I figured that we can create an offset for different sketches using copy function in FreeCad and then entering a difference in dimension using the same origin but when I go to pad it gives an error again (something like there is a not connected surface issue). How can we overcome these?
It's cathartic to watch someone else slog through a different, but still crap, workflow for this. I use "engraved" text to version my parts, but always forget to add it until after everything is nicely filleted and so on, so adding it is always a song and dance of not disrupting the brittle model object.
I generally use the map to face version of this workflow, which seems to work the same. I am very curious how to do curved text.
(A thing I just realized a week ago: you can use Windows > Tile to see the spreadsheet simultaneous with the workspace, so you can see the 37 parameter names. You might be more consistent than me and not need it, but its made a huge difference in my state of mind while arguing with FreeCAD about where a line is supposed to end up.)
Great tutorial as usual. My problem is I want to put this text on the BOTTOM of the part, and FreeCad makes the text mirror imaged, as it puts it right way only on the 'top'.
I could not find any way to fix this after spending at least an hour or more, including watching videos. Any suggestion here?
I ran into this exact same problem. I wasn't able to find a solution either. Text in FreeCAD is definitely clunky and unintuitive. 😕
😍🔥👍
Another superb tutorial that is easy to follow.
Is it possible that you can do a tutorial on curved text. Text that follows a arc's flat face?
Many thanks
- Fletch -
Thank you, yes I have a video on this! Check out FreeCAD Design Series Part 1. I show you how to design a mug with curved text!
@@thehardwareguy I have watched that, and I learned a lot from it. Though what I'm try to do is text in a arc on a flat face
Maybe I am just dumb, but how do you do this on an imported STL since it isn't a draft?
Whenever I go to Cura to slice it. My block I put the letters on just show up blank. Even when I load the file into freecad it comes up blank. How do I get the letters to save and stay on there?
I am enjoying your step by step tutorial, but why do you have to populate the units too mm once the system has been set to use metric mm. Is there no way of saving that as a default to reduce the amount of editing required.
I want to make some text on my sketch for laser cuting. I dont want to do padding thing, no need for that, I just need simple 2D dxf file for laser cuting, can you explain how to do that?
when i try to create pocket it says i cannot use selected objevt, it doenst belong to the active body what am i doing wrong
The Pocket function does not work based on the instruction using 0.19-24276 on MacBook
I was looking for how to print a double sided letter on my inkjet brother printer & then found myself watching this , now I’ve just ordered an Ender cr-10 v3
LOLOL thats you falling head first into a rabbit hole now lololol
Would you be interested in doing a video. I am struggling making a box with holes in the bottom for draining. I want the holes to be square. When I do a Boolean Cut, it cuts the box and leaves the squares. I know I'm doing something wrong. I can make round holes, but I want square. I use 0.18
Is it possible to do something similar with a logo? If I wanted to put a logon in the rectangle instead of text.....
Absolutely! great to see you thinking of new ideas!
Nice, but when I slice and print 3D , no text appears... I assume one step is missing in the process... Thanks for sharing.
Getting the text to extrude is no problem but when I try to use the pocket function it say that the selected object must belong to the active body.. any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong?
I'm having the same issue. Hopefully somebody will respond soon
Same issue. I notice he is using v0.18 and I currently have v0.20... thinking that could be part of it?
Same here. You have to drag the object to the Body on the Combined View window, and then pocket or pad it. It solved the problem for me.
Man, this is really frustrating. I can't seem to make the string on top of the object, regardless of the point I click, I still stays on the bottom of the object.
Edit: Alright, I'm literally frustrated. I've been redoing the project for almost 2hrs now and I still can't make the ShapeString be on top of the object. It keeps appearing underneath it instaead.
there is a macro for circle and curve text
Neat Open screen Source
I give the 404 like :D
Is this some old version? Start with ... I don't even have that icon.
Love your videos! Btw the word "fillet" is pronounced 'fillay" ... not, 'fillette" ... (Like a fillet knife!)
When attempting to cut the text inside the box I get following error:
Cannot use selected object. Selected object must belong to the active body
---------------------------
Consider using a ShapeBinder or a BaseFeature to reference external geometry in a body.
check your part tree on the left, make sure it matches mine. When editing/making changes you need to ensure the body you are working on is active. You can make a body active (bold) by double clicking on it.
@@thehardwareguy thanks a lot, this is great content. Apparently the in latest version the Text shape string is not showing the Sketch icon in Model Window but a "S" indicating Shape string. Probably that is why it does not consider the object part of body.
---EDIT----
So finally made it work by making copy of ShapeString and dragging it inside the Body. Afterwards I was able to make the Pocket tool work
very nice but quite cumbersome the positioning of the text. I hope programmers will implement an easier way
I can't get the stupid text to actually register as being attached to the object. Cura always thinks it's floating just in front of it. I'm starting with an imported STL which I converted based on your video on how to import/edit STL files it's driving me nuts.
I know it’s been a while but did you ever figure this out? I followed his video and when I get to cura it doesn’t show anything. The block I put it on stays blank
@@loganplacer2395 I did figure it out eventually... Unfortunately, it's been too long. I don't remember how I got it.
Can you please zoom into the camera and keep microphone near you ? Or boost in post at least
This has been resolved in newer videos
Select draft and none of the menu buttons appear, this program in unbelievably crap.
I guess you get what you pay for.... oh wait its free.
Text is somewhat problematic
Your keyboard is reeeealy annoying
You're welcome!