This is by far the best tutorial for FreeCAD 1 I've seen so far. Thank you for this. I've been ripping my hair out from frustration watching other tutorials.
I can only second this statement! I had expected that learning FreeCAD will be a hard ride, in every case for folks who have no experience in machining and CAD software. But the UI and the basic concepts are so different from everything I knew so far, that it is a really steep learning curve. This is the tutorial I'll use for the next days, maybe weeks. I'm glad I found this one!
I am a retired designer who used Pro E and Wildfire since 1990. I recently purchased a 3d printer and downloaded Freecad to do my modeling, and it had me scratching my head. Your video really cleared things up. I believe it's easier for a complete beginner in 3d modeling to learn new modeling software than someone like me using the same software for 30 years.
I'm a beginner at CAD. This is hands down the best tutorial I've seen so far for any CAD platform and from everything I've seen, FreeCAD is one of the least forgiving CAD software which makes this even more impressive.
This a the best tutorial for FreeCAD. I will request you to continue with similar video explaining each of the features, tools that can be used. Also apart from Parts Design, you can make tutorials for Sheet Metals also. Also make tutorial on Assembly of Parts. Thank you.
Wow this guy and his channel is so underrated I Love you after searching for a nice cad programm for 3d printing i searched free Cad and Bam not only a good free CAD programm, no! the video also has the best tutorial for this programm also, man you saved my day thanks im subscribed now and i hope you do not give up making videos. i hope i can learn much with /from you.
Thank you for committing yourself to do such a splendid thing for the open source community. Your ongoing efforts to publish these exquisite tutorials is very much appreciated Sir! - Ottawa, Canada.
Thank you very much. Ive tried to learn freecad many times before and really hated it. Your pacing and different types of objects made it really easy. Best freecad tutorial out there for quick and fast grasping.
Thank you so much for these tutorials. I use Blender and I will soon buy a 3d printer, so a nice cad software will hugely help me in designing lots a useful stuff
I'm a FreeCAD beginner and have been sampling various TH-cam channels on this topic. Each has its good points, but yours is perhaps the most methodical and thorough. Kudos. Sometimes (especially at the beginning), I wish that you'd slow down (I'm 73). I swear that you were talking really fast the first time that I watched! I intend to pause the video and practice each concept to absorb the info. I have 1.0 installed on my Linux Mint laptop, so, as a beginner, would you suggest that I watch your completed series based on earlier versions, or just start here with 1.0? Are your 1.0 videos even intended to be watched sequentially?
This seems like a really good tutorial, you explain things very well, thank you. :) My question: My instance doesn't show the "Dimensions" icon at all, or any of those red ones in the row on the right hand side of the refresh icon... I have Sketcher workbench active and everything else looks the same as your screen (apart from me seeing "Under constrained: 4DoF(s)"). Any ideas what I am doing wrong? 😕
When you explain "Constrain Symmetric" tool you should've mentioned that order of selection of points do matter! That the point to which the tool should be applied need to be selected last!
I'm following step by step. At 13:19 when I create the line a yellow warning at the bottom pops up that says "Autoconstraints cause redundancy". I've started over 3 times and I'm doing exactly what you are doing. Any ideas?
I keep doing something that causes the loss of all the sketcher tool icons, I lose the coordinate system and the grid, and I can't get back to the working environment. I think I pressed esc, but it could have been something else. Now, I can't continue to follow along with the video. I've restarted, 3 times. [see the fix below for how to get out of trouble] I get to the place of setting the 7 mm dimension and I get the message "Datum for the constraint with index 12 is invalid (shows I've tried 6 times) (and it doesn't show the 7mm dimension, and it remains orange, doesn't turn green -- it never gets fully defined). I tried many times and can't get past this point. [I had doubled an instruction which I needed to delete from the list]. If you double selections of elements, you can get an error and the sketch won't complete properly. I tried again and came back to the point where I use the pad. I get the message "Cannot use selected object. Selected object must belong to the active body" I'm trying to figure out how to make it the active body. It turns out you can't select the object, it has to be already linked to the geometry. But I was able to get the pad to work, but not a sketch on the face of the pad. No sketch, no coordinate system. Start from scratch again :( [I had an element defined twice causing trouble, I deleted it from the list]. Also, on a Mac at this point, I was NOT able to chamfer or filet a surface selection. It appears to be broken. (1/8/2025) I finished all the examples until the end. Finally! Some things I learned: on a Mac, as usual, "command" replaces "control." On a 4k screen, the dot intersections are very small, sometimes I couldn't tell if I actually clicked the dot (it turns green when clicked) sometimes I had to zoom. The examples go very quick and you need to notice if the selection is a center draw on a sketch or a basic draw. I don't use Safari to do these kinds of tutorials because you can't switch back to a full screen video. I use Opera or Brave browsers. You can save each example and it will be added to the list of models in your project. After saving you can start a new part by clicking on "Start" at the bottom of the screen and then selecting Parametric Part to start a new part, just add a sketch to define the part. If you get stuck you can undo to back out. You can also double-click any element in the design to edit it. You can go back and forth. It takes practice to understand the methodology of the program, but once you get it, things flow more easily. One confusion was the ability to select two points without having to hold down the command or shift key. It just allows it. But not in all circumstances, for some discontinuous selections you need to press the "control" (PC) or "command" (Mac) key to create multiple selections. Also, he uses the grid on all examples. You can turn it on and off by clicking on the grid icon. All in all, this single tutorial actually gave me basic skills, no other tutorial even came close. He is a master teacher. Yay! and THANK YOU... Note: I needed to edit this comment multiple times, so it reads a little awkward. I had to restart or backup and redo instructions many times, maybe 20 times to get through all the examples, but I learned a lot. It's worth it to meticulously go through this tutorial, you will get rewarded with a good basic understanding of FreeCAD.
As an actual beginner to the software using this video to understand where to start, I have 2 issues. The first is at 36:10 as I continue to get a too many constraints error as soon as I constrain that second point to the X-Axis. I also get too many constraints errors when trying to parallel some of the lines. I really cannot figure out the problem. I followed every step as quickly as I could keep up, which leads to the second issue.The second issue is these tutorials are run through so quickly there really isn’t time for the novice to keep up. The last few lessons were like a speed run so any time we run into anything unexpected we have to pause and reverse several times.
Overconstrained sketches are an frequent issue. Very often elements are constrained already, for example they got an horizontal or vertical constraint automatically when drawing the line. If you than apply another constraint (e.g. coincidence or symmetrical) the sketch turns orange and you get an error. You can press CTRL-Z to cancel the last command and try to contrain differently. Regarding your second problem: Why don't you stop the video while you're trying to do it yourself? Instructional videos are always too fast for beginners to do the exercises themselves at the same time.
@@jurgenr3240 I did indicate in my post that I had to pause and reverse several times. I really don't see an issue with slowing it down just a bit, but you do you. I'll keep looking for something more my pace.
Use a browser (not Safari) that lets you watch videos full screen, then pause and switch back and forth with command/control-Tab. Safari won't let you return and keep full screen (at least not on a Mac). Sometimes you may only watch for 3 seconds and do the instruction before returning to the video. You could NEVER do a tutorial like this in real time. Fortunately, you don't need to.
I tried and tried but freecad 1.0.0 does not behave like in your tutorials, I get loads of error messages about unclosed wires???? I feel like giving up on it.
I feel same before watching his tutorial. It is a parametric tool, so, you have to constraints the line. It can be dummy data, otherwise it always shows error, because it offers very limited degree of freedom.
3D operations can only performed with closed geometries, otherwise you get the wire not closed error. So make sure that in your sketch all the joints are really connected. Sometimes it is difficult to see. Zooming in can help and/or you can try moving a line to see if it is connected at both ends. If you identified the open joint, CTRL-select the two points and click on the coincidence button.
need help, at 20 minutes you draw a sketch on to the pad (the first 3d object). The sketch is supposed to be constrained by the previous sketch, I can't get mine too do that. the edges dont highlight. What am I doing wrong?
@@MachinedInWood You missed the point: FreeCAD is starting to be REALLY good / useful now after the 1.0 release. There is no chance in hell the competition is going to let this slide. If FreeCAD ONLY promises to NOT MAKE IT SUBSCRIPTION based, I'm willing to pay good money for it. I know I can donate, but they should charge for the product to make it easier to pay good salaries for the people working with the codebase.
He does not start from the beginning. And he moves fast and my download does not match what he is clicking. This should start with what everyone downloads, not his setup.
This is by far the best tutorial for FreeCAD 1 I've seen so far. Thank you for this. I've been ripping my hair out from frustration watching other tutorials.
I can only second this statement! I had expected that learning FreeCAD will be a hard ride, in every case for folks who have no experience in machining and CAD software. But the UI and the basic concepts are so different from everything I knew so far, that it is a really steep learning curve. This is the tutorial I'll use for the next days, maybe weeks. I'm glad I found this one!
Finally, a FreeCAD tutorial that starts at the very beginning using v1.0. Great job!
You have a gift for teaching others how to understand foreign technical concepts. Thanks, I'll be buying you a coffee once I finish this tutorial.
Köszönjük!
Thank you!
Thanks!
Thank you!
I am a retired designer who used Pro E and Wildfire since 1990. I recently purchased a 3d printer and downloaded Freecad to do my modeling, and it had me scratching my head. Your video really cleared things up. I believe it's easier for a complete beginner in 3d modeling to learn new modeling software than someone like me using the same software for 30 years.
Nnfortunately, in my country, south korea have no such a good tutorail like this. Thank you to teach it by costing one subscribtion!
I'm a beginner at CAD. This is hands down the best tutorial I've seen so far for any CAD platform and from everything I've seen, FreeCAD is one of the least forgiving CAD software which makes this even more impressive.
Without a doubt, the best tutorial on FreeCad 1.0 that I’ve seen. Thanks! 1:00:26
This a the best tutorial for FreeCAD. I will request you to continue with similar video explaining each of the features, tools that can be used. Also apart from Parts Design, you can make tutorials for Sheet Metals also. Also make tutorial on Assembly of Parts. Thank you.
Wow this guy and his channel is so underrated
I Love you after searching for a nice cad programm for 3d printing i searched free Cad and Bam not only a good free CAD programm, no! the video also has the best tutorial for this programm also, man you saved my day thanks im subscribed now and i hope you do not give up making videos. i hope i can learn much with /from you.
I can't thank you enough, I have been struggling with trying to learn Freecad, and the tutorial you put together here has helped so much!
Thank you. No BS, pure knowledge.
This is the most I have ever learned in 1 hour video. Amazing, thank you
Yes like everyone is saying, this is by far one of the best beginner tutorials. Thank you!
Thank you for committing yourself to do such a splendid thing for the open source community. Your ongoing efforts to publish these exquisite tutorials is very much appreciated Sir! - Ottawa, Canada.
Thank you very much. Ive tried to learn freecad many times before and really hated it. Your pacing and different types of objects made it really easy. Best freecad tutorial out there for quick and fast grasping.
Holy smokes this was a great video and will be recommending it to everyone whos wants to do parametric modeling.
Your clear and concise presentation is a breath of fresh air, very much appreciated, Jim :)
You are God sent! I applaud your fabulous video. I hope you reach 100k subscribers soon!
thanks so much. a great course. keep it up. Im hooked
Best FreeCAD tutorial ever. Thank you
Thank you so much for these tutorials. I use Blender and I will soon buy a 3d printer, so a nice cad software will hugely help me in designing lots a useful stuff
Thank you very much! Your a great teacher. Thorough, with good pacing.
Thank you! I'm moving from AutoDesk Inventor and I was a bit confused about FreeCAD 1.0 operations and icons :) Waiting for more!
Excellent tutorial. Simple, useful, to the point. Thanks, great work !
This guide is absolutely fantastic!
I appreciated the clarity and completeness of the topics covered: thank you very much!
Thank you so much, I really needed a straight to the point tutorial
Just got through watching this and following along. Very good guide to learn the basics, thanks!
Great tutorial! Thank you!
Thank you so much... this one is outstanding...
Thank you for this excellent tutorial. You are gifted.
This video is SO well done! Thank you.
Great tutorial ! Je ne connaissais pas Freecad. I think I will change Turbocad for Freecad in the futur. thanks !
Great tutorial! felt very easy to follow through.
I'm a FreeCAD beginner and have been sampling various TH-cam channels on this topic. Each has its good points, but yours is perhaps the most methodical and thorough. Kudos.
Sometimes (especially at the beginning), I wish that you'd slow down (I'm 73). I swear that you were talking really fast the first time that I watched! I intend to pause the video and practice each concept to absorb the info.
I have 1.0 installed on my Linux Mint laptop, so, as a beginner, would you suggest that I watch your completed series based on earlier versions, or just start here with 1.0? Are your 1.0 videos even intended to be watched sequentially?
Start with this video and then you can watch the others in any order.
Thanks for fulfilling my request. ❤ happy New year and best wishes from india
Thank you this has been very helpful.
Great video, thank you!
Amazing video!
I already works with fusion 360 but want to have free alternatives including Linux version. Thanks for your tutorial, FreeCad 1 looks promising!
I really wish you had timestamped this video.. would make it a lot easier to follow
Great video. How do I construct a 20mm W by 27mm L cylinder? Thanks
Absolutely nuts that this software is open source. Is easier to understand than many paid CAD softwares
The plane selection in the beginning does not look like that for me + the drawings only have corners and the lines are dotted and in the wrong place.
This seems like a really good tutorial, you explain things very well, thank you. :)
My question:
My instance doesn't show the "Dimensions" icon at all, or any of those red ones in the row on the right hand side of the refresh icon... I have Sketcher workbench active and everything else looks the same as your screen (apart from me seeing "Under constrained: 4DoF(s)"). Any ideas what I am doing wrong? 😕
When you explain "Constrain Symmetric" tool you should've mentioned that order of selection of points do matter! That the point to which the tool should be applied need to be selected last!
Please provide toolbar/ tool wise introduction classes as well.
It would be good to know your setup, so we don't have to struggle if things go pearshape
I have FreeCAD 1.0.0 running on my iMac Sonoma 14.7....How can I get that nice cursor and the yellow selection circle like you show?
i have design a solid and how do i print it out with specifications?
Please slow down with your explanations, not all of us are young anymore
Very nice tutorial.
But I have a question.
Have you found a solution to apply a permanent texture?
Thanks.
I'm following step by step. At 13:19 when I create the line a yellow warning at the bottom pops up that says "Autoconstraints cause redundancy". I've started over 3 times and I'm doing exactly what you are doing. Any ideas?
I keep doing something that causes the loss of all the sketcher tool icons, I lose the coordinate system and the grid, and I can't get back to the working environment. I think I pressed esc, but it could have been something else. Now, I can't continue to follow along with the video. I've restarted, 3 times. [see the fix below for how to get out of trouble] I get to the place of setting the 7 mm dimension and I get the message "Datum for the constraint with index 12 is invalid (shows I've tried 6 times) (and it doesn't show the 7mm dimension, and it remains orange, doesn't turn green -- it never gets fully defined). I tried many times and can't get past this point. [I had doubled an instruction which I needed to delete from the list]. If you double selections of elements, you can get an error and the sketch won't complete properly.
I tried again and came back to the point where I use the pad. I get the message "Cannot use selected object. Selected object must belong to the active body"
I'm trying to figure out how to make it the active body. It turns out you can't select the object, it has to be already linked to the geometry. But I was able to get the pad to work, but not a sketch on the face of the pad. No sketch, no coordinate system. Start from scratch again :( [I had an element defined twice causing trouble, I deleted it from the list]. Also, on a Mac at this point, I was NOT able to chamfer or filet a surface selection. It appears to be broken. (1/8/2025)
I finished all the examples until the end. Finally! Some things I learned: on a Mac, as usual, "command" replaces "control." On a 4k screen, the dot intersections are very small, sometimes I couldn't tell if I actually clicked the dot (it turns green when clicked) sometimes I had to zoom. The examples go very quick and you need to notice if the selection is a center draw on a sketch or a basic draw. I don't use Safari to do these kinds of tutorials because you can't switch back to a full screen video. I use Opera or Brave browsers.
You can save each example and it will be added to the list of models in your project. After saving you can start a new part by clicking on "Start" at the bottom of the screen and then selecting Parametric Part to start a new part, just add a sketch to define the part. If you get stuck you can undo to back out. You can also double-click any element in the design to edit it. You can go back and forth.
It takes practice to understand the methodology of the program, but once you get it, things flow more easily. One confusion was the ability to select two points without having to hold down the command or shift key. It just allows it. But not in all circumstances, for some discontinuous selections you need to press the "control" (PC) or "command" (Mac) key to create multiple selections. Also, he uses the grid on all examples. You can turn it on and off by clicking on the grid icon.
All in all, this single tutorial actually gave me basic skills, no other tutorial even came close. He is a master teacher. Yay! and THANK YOU...
Note: I needed to edit this comment multiple times, so it reads a little awkward. I had to restart or backup and redo instructions many times, maybe 20 times to get through all the examples, but I learned a lot. It's worth it to meticulously go through this tutorial, you will get rewarded with a good basic understanding of FreeCAD.
As an actual beginner to the software using this video to understand where to start, I have 2 issues. The first is at 36:10 as I continue to get a too many constraints error as soon as I constrain that second point to the X-Axis. I also get too many constraints errors when trying to parallel some of the lines. I really cannot figure out the problem. I followed every step as quickly as I could keep up, which leads to the second issue.The second issue is these tutorials are run through so quickly there really isn’t time for the novice to keep up. The last few lessons were like a speed run so any time we run into anything unexpected we have to pause and reverse several times.
Overconstrained sketches are an frequent issue. Very often elements are constrained already, for example they got an horizontal or vertical constraint automatically when drawing the line. If you than apply another constraint (e.g. coincidence or symmetrical) the sketch turns orange and you get an error. You can press CTRL-Z to cancel the last command and try to contrain differently.
Regarding your second problem: Why don't you stop the video while you're trying to do it yourself? Instructional videos are always too fast for beginners to do the exercises themselves at the same time.
@@jurgenr3240 I did indicate in my post that I had to pause and reverse several times. I really don't see an issue with slowing it down just a bit, but you do you. I'll keep looking for something more my pace.
Use a browser (not Safari) that lets you watch videos full screen, then pause and switch back and forth with command/control-Tab. Safari won't let you return and keep full screen (at least not on a Mac). Sometimes you may only watch for 3 seconds and do the instruction before returning to the video. You could NEVER do a tutorial like this in real time. Fortunately, you don't need to.
I tried and tried but freecad 1.0.0 does not behave like in your tutorials, I get loads of error messages about unclosed wires???? I feel like giving up on it.
I feel same before watching his tutorial. It is a parametric tool, so, you have to constraints the line. It can be dummy data, otherwise it always shows error, because it offers very limited degree of freedom.
3D operations can only performed with closed geometries, otherwise you get the wire not closed error. So make sure that in your sketch all the joints are really connected. Sometimes it is difficult to see. Zooming in can help and/or you can try moving a line to see if it is connected at both ends. If you identified the open joint, CTRL-select the two points and click on the coincidence button.
See my comment, I had so much trouble in the beginning understanding how this app works.
I get stuck at 20:02
For some reason the constraints do not highlight when I draw the rectangle.
At 13:31: My horisontal line is not in the middel of the box unless I deliberately place it there. Please help.
See my comment, I'm such a newbie at this I had so many things go wrong.
@@SriSarvasri I have now but I gave up on that part of the tutorial.
need help, at 20 minutes you draw a sketch on to the pad (the first 3d object). The sketch is supposed to be constrained by the previous sketch, I can't get mine too do that. the edges dont highlight. What am I doing wrong?
Nevermind, I figured it out just had to watch a few more seconds
how the hell do i get layout and colors like this i keep trying and nope, is it a stlye sheet that can be downloaded somewhere?
At 23:42 I get :"Cannot use selected object. Selected Object must belong to the active body." Huh?
Now it worked....... third or forth time around.......
How long before one of the commercial competitors buys either the codebase or the developers?
So far 20+ years…..
@@MachinedInWood You missed the point: FreeCAD is starting to be REALLY good / useful now after the 1.0 release. There is no chance in hell the competition is going to let this slide. If FreeCAD ONLY promises to NOT MAKE IT SUBSCRIPTION based, I'm willing to pay good money for it. I know I can donate, but they should charge for the product to make it easier to pay good salaries for the people working with the codebase.
It's open source. It's not for sale and can't be sold due to the license.
He does not start from the beginning. And he moves fast and my download does not match what he is clicking. This should start with what everyone downloads, not his setup.