Building 1977 Classic Motorcycle Odometer Case in FreeCAD Part Design from Photos. Overview Tutorial

In this video I help a forum poster to build a classic motor cycle odometer case in FreeCAD using the part design workbench for the modelling and the part wb for the geometry checks. We have a series of photos and dimensions to start with and the aim is to use FreeCAD to put something together that can be refined if needs be and to give an overview of the techniques used, problems encounters and how to check and fix errors in the model. We learn how to use the loft and draft for specific feature in the design along with boolean operations to bring together multibody modelling. I left all the errors in which I encountered and how I resolved them including something that after all these years of using CAD I have never encountered which was a discovery for myself.
I hope this video is of use not just to the original posted (which I have released this to first of all as a private video then will make public) but to anyone taking on a project. I will include in more retrospective videos of my larger builds. Please note this is far from perfect, not everything is locked down and there are few parts that I would take a slightly different approach. Maybe adding additional profiles into the loft to soften certain features, breaking the model up into more bodies allowing the model to be more flexible for changes, running some fillets around certain features to soften transitions, even tackling the model from the side so we can make use of revolves and lofts.
#FreeCAD #3DPrinting, #Motorcycle
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[@VorpalForceField]

Is good to see the pursuit of "why" ... most of the time people just accept not knowing why things break, just to be bitten by it again later ... knowing "why" matters ... TY for sharing .. Cheers :)

[@MangoJellySolutions]

I totally agree, if I didn't find that out I wouldn't sleep at night lol. Thank you and glad you enjoyed.

[@andrewbuckau5792]

I'm relatively new to 3d modeling, and these tutorials are invaluable: Thank you. I know there's usually more than one way to accomplish a task, but seeing someone's workflow/thought process is a great help.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great that your enjoying them. If you relatively new learning freecad CAD thinking I think you would enjoy. It explains braking down your model into its primitive parts and profile choices.

[@goowatch]

Thanks for contributing to FreeCAD learning with your projects

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thanks, lot more to come 😊👍

[@stewartpalmer2456]

Thank you so very much. I've only been using FreeCAD for a year or so, very part time. I've learned the Part Work Bench and do primitive shape subtraction and addition. This is the first video which has actually made parametric modeling make sense. I feel I can move forward with Sketcher.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

So pleased that you have found this useful. I didn't know if it was worth sharing this project but I am pleased that I did. For the future I will share more. Glad it's given you the confidence to progress and thank you for the kind feedback.

[@stewartpalmer2456]

@@MangoJellySolutions Good teachers need recognition. Thank you again

[@brunof1734]

Awesome design, this shows that engineers can use FreeCAD (and Linux) without the need to pay (or pirate) commercial software that has telemetry and constantly sends user data back to their servers. I just want to ask you to put in the description of the videos the FreeCAD version you are using (under help). This would be great for future reference. Thank you for the amount of great knowledge you share, thus helping an entire generation of hobbyists, professionals and engineers.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great comment thank you. I did enjoy working on this project with the information I had. Freecad is well up to the task for professional engineers and I can't wait to push it even further in the near future. Thanks for your support and kind words. Yes sorry, keep on forgetting about showing the version. This is on 0.19

[@TheSillybits]

On mac Little Snitch will block all those spies :)

[@HakkiOgrt]

Thank you for share. :)

[@MangoJellySolutions]

My pleasure, I will be sharing more of these as I do them.

[@HakkiOgrt]

@@MangoJellySolutions We are waiting.

[@TheSillybits]

I think your contributions to this free cad software are awesome, I really begin to get hooked on it. Are you (planning on) doing tutorials on the actual 3D printing too?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Thank you for your kind comments. Yes I am looking to expand the channel to do 3d printing once I can afford one. I have so many projects that I want to physically output including mechanical pieces.

[@TheSillybits]

@@MangoJellySolutions awesome, I hope you get the funds together soon. Any Idea yet what brand & model you’d aim for?

[@TheSillybits]

@@MangoJellySolutions I also wondered, for what motorbike that pedometer housing is meant for?

[@MangoJellySolutions]

@@TheSillybits I have yet researched the 3D printed but I want something that is open source so have the flexibility of using any software and be able to mod it myself 😁

[@MangoJellySolutions]

@@TheSillybits just found out back on Facebook where the request come from. Its a 1972 Zundapp

[@prime326]

Hi, thanks for the video. I've been using FreeCAD for over a year now, but I find a lot of new things in your videos. Have you tried using the Draft Scale workbench to create 2 sketches? Regarding the error when using Loft , here is what is written on the FreeCAD website "If the sketch has inner geometry, i.e. the loft is supposed to have holes, then the order in which the sketch geometry is created, should be the same for all sections: Either start all sections with the inner geometry or start them all with the outer. Otherwise an invalid loft can be created where inner and outer walls cross." I apologize for my English, I wrote through a translator.

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Great to see your finding new things. The draft scale and part 2d offset are great until you come to bspline where it can be quite hit and miss when you start trying to use the draft tool convert to sketch. That's where sometimes it will start to fall over.
Yes I read up after I finished the video and found the same information. I come from other CAD packages and I have been trained to create models in a certain sequence so in all my times with Freecad I have never encountered this problem until now. Which as you can tell really threw me. I can't belive its taken me this long to experience the problem lol

[@prime326]

@@MangoJellySolutions I was doing an experiment like in your video. I drew a sketch with 2 circles, 1-an outer circle, 2- an inner circle, also on the second sketch. Everything turned out fine, but if I swap the circles in one of the sketches (I make the inner circle outer), then everything breaks. I think somewhere in the code he assigns ordinal numbers to circles and makes a Loft based on these ordinal numbers. Try an experiment. Make a sketch 1 in this sequence, first the inner diameter, then the outer, then make a second sketch in the same sequence and everything will work out. But if in the second sketch you draw the outer diameter first, and then the inner one, then the Loft faces will intersect. I have freecad version 0.19.2.
And I'm also interested in your opinion, I drew a bearing and did animation in assembly4, I can send you a file for analysis and as an idea for a video. Just checked this bug in version 019.3. In this version, the same error is obtained

[@yakdaymar6659]

Wow thank 😀😀😀😀

[@MangoJellySolutions]

Your Welcome 😊