FreeCAD Forum

Introduction
Depending on your background and your need, what a Assembly is and should do will vary quite a bit. FreeCAD have not yet an official assembly but for many users the Body and Part containers introduced in 0.17 is enough. For more advanced assemblies there are several workbenches available that in different ways implement a assembly feature. What works best for you and your project is highly dependent on what you are trying to achive.

FreeCAD 0.17
in FreeCAD 0.17 the "body" and "part" containers was introduced, this enables you to group and position your models manually with either absolute or relative positioning to other models.

Tutorials:
Documentation:
Forum threads:


"Official assembly"
initially on the roadmap for the 0.15 release but delayed, development was halted many years ago as the developer left the project.

Tutorials:
Documentation:
Forum threads:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3979

Assembly2
User “Hamish” created a workbench allowing using constraints on solids.
Since User “Hamish” has announced stop providing support for his workbench and is not fully compatible with FreeCAD 0.17 and above?

Tutorials:
Documentation:
Forum threads:

A2plus
An effort initiated by kbwbe, based on assembly2. A2Plus is under active development, implements assembly solver and constraints in python on top of mainline FreeCAD 0.17, 0.18

Tutorials:
https://youtu.be/mnkecA9S7kc
Documentation:
https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/A2plus_Workbench
https://github.com/kbwbe/A2plus
Forum threads:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=29207

Assembly3
Assembly workbench based on realthunders heavily modified version of FreeCAD, implements support for SolveSpace solver and python solver.
Realthunders branch of freecad solves/improves the situation of several known issues such as:

• Link implementation
  Topological Naming
  Improved Step import with partial loading and more.

The branch is pending review for merge after 0.18 is released.

UPDATE
It is now available for testing as part of the Linux AppImage and DMG in the current development version pre_0.19 from:
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases/

That means the Asm3 functions can be tested without the special build from realthunder.

Tutorials:
https://youtu.be/UYHIX1IEfTE
Documentation:
https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/wiki
Forum threads:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=25712

Assembly4
Another assembly workbench based on realthunders branch of FreeCAD, but focused on manually locking models to LCS, not based on a solver.

Tutorials:
https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_As ... TORIAL1.md
Documentation:
https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_Assembly4
Forum threads:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=34806
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=32843
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=34585

The text above will be improved over time, contributions are welcome. post or pm me with your text suggestion and i will update the text. Moderators, feel free to modify this post.

Thank you. This will serve as a useful link to the many inquiries that we get and will get regarding the current assembly situation. Well done.

Would it be possible to format it for better readibility? Bolded headers for each assembly Workbench...for example

lol. found my old account while looking at the old assembly threads,
For reference, maidenone=fosselius, ^_^
maiden is probably mine as well.
Its the result of changing mail, bad memory and laziness.

maiden wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:08 am I actually have the same problem with Solidworks on win7, its a pain.

probably one of my first posts from 2011..

The Youtube video of the assembly3 tutorial is private

What's the current state of Assembly workbenches now? Last edit was march.

I read somewhere that the Realthunder branch would/might be merged after the 0.18 release. Did that happen yet?

The underlying structures are merged, but assembly is not available yet in 0.19.

Bayesian wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2019 7:30 am What's the current state of Assembly workbenches now? Last edit was march.

I read somewhere that the Realthunder branch would/might be merged after the 0.18 release. Did that happen yet?

Assembly 4 is now available through the addon manager for 0.19 and realthunder said he will make assembly 3 installable soon, it won't have the toponaming improvements yet.

fosselius wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2019 8:07 am Assembly4
Another assembly workbench based on realthunders branch of FreeCAD, but focused on manually locking models to LCS, not based on a solver.
Tutorials:
Documentation:

...post or pm me with your text suggestion and i will update the text.

Tutorial: https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_As ... TORIAL1.md

Documentation: https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_Assembly4

thanks. updated post

That link for the Assembly4 tutorial is 404 now, as things seem to have been moved around.

The updated (working) link is: https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_As ... TORIAL1.md