Current Assembly Status

Discussion about the development of the Assembly workbench.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
User avatar
fosselius
Posts: 381
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:03 am
Contact:

Current Assembly Status

Post by fosselius »

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.
Last edited by fosselius on Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:53 am, edited 29 times in total.
User avatar
Kunda1
Veteran
Posts: 13434
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:03 pm

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by Kunda1 »

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
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
User avatar
fosselius
Posts: 381
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:03 am
Contact:

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by fosselius »

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..
Eyon
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2019 4:07 pm

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by Eyon »

The Youtube video of the assembly3 tutorial is private
Bayesian
Posts: 90
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:49 pm

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by Bayesian »

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?
chrisb
Veteran
Posts: 53919
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by chrisb »

The underlying structures are merged, but assembly is not available yet in 0.19.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
User avatar
adrianinsaval
Veteran
Posts: 5541
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:15 pm

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by adrianinsaval »

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.
User avatar
ppemawm
Veteran
Posts: 1240
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 3:54 pm
Location: New York NY USA

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by ppemawm »

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
"It is a poor workman who blames his tools..." ;)
User avatar
fosselius
Posts: 381
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 10:03 am
Contact:

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by fosselius »

thanks. updated post
JustinClift
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:58 pm
Location: Australia

Re: Current Assembly Status

Post by JustinClift »

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
Post Reply