And anyway: Std_Part-Tool or Asm4_newPart-Tool - differences and application?

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Batucada
Posts: 213
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:03 am

And anyway: Std_Part-Tool or Asm4_newPart-Tool - differences and application?

Post by Batucada »

I hope that I can generate enough understanding with my questions to be able to use the answers and the knowledge thus gathered to create meaningful texts that make it easier for uninformed newcomers like me to get to grips with FreeCAD.

Actually, I had hoped to be able to reach my goal more quickly by getting started with Assembly 4. With the exercises I have done so far, I am able to construct parts that can be used, for example, as transition pieces in exhaust systems. I started the application classically with a body and then a sketch. In other exercises I have created some other parts, all according to the procedure described before.

Now I want to use these parts in my exercises in Assembly 4 and stumble over the Part Container. In the videos I have watched on this topic again and again, this Part Container is used in different ways, which is already confusing. At first, I was happy to try my own exercises with the Part Container, without knowing what purpose the Part Container is supposed to fulfil.

Fortunately, there is still this FreeCAD Wiki. But this remark, found in the description of the Part Design Workbench,
Structure tools

These tools are in fact not part of the PartDesign Workbench. They belong to the Std Base system. They were developed in v0.17 with the intention that they would be useful to organize a model, and create assemblies; as such, they are very useful when working with bodies created with this workbench.
does not really improve my understanding of the tools. The next sentence
(Std Part.svg) Part: adds a new Part container in the active document and makes it active.
is a short nice explanation that can be accepted, but it lacks a deeper explanation. Two lines continue
(PartDesign Body.svg) Create body: creates a Body object in the active document and makes it active.
Ok, the use of body is familiar to me by now.

The hope for further explanations by a wiki for the Assembly 4 Workbench is unfortunately not fulfilled. So I have the impression that some tools are competing with each other:

Std_Part <--> Asm4_newPart

as well as

PartDesign_Body <--> Asm4_newBody

With the Asm4_newBody-tool, I have not been able to get a result so far. When using Std_Part-tool or Asm4_newPart-tool, I have not been able to find any differences either. But worse, so far my previous exercises have managed without using Std_Part-tool or Asm4_newPart-tool. What is the point of these tools?
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mfro
Posts: 663
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:15 am

Re: And anyway: Std_Part-Tool or Asm4_newPart-Tool - differences and application?

Post by mfro »

Batucada wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:10 am With the Asm4_newBody-tool, I have not been able to get a result so far. When using Std_Part-tool or Asm4_newPart-tool, I have not been able to find any differences either. But worse, so far my previous exercises have managed without using Std_Part-tool or Asm4_newPart-tool. What is the point of these tools?
You won't find much difference between Asm4_newBody and Asm4_newPart and their PartDesign counterparts as there aren't much.

They are there as a convenience to save you switching between the PartDesign and Assembly 4 workbenches. They also save you to create a LCS inside
(which will be required later for assembly anyway), otherwise the generated objects are identical. Everything you learned about Parts and Bodies so far is fully applicable to these objects as well.
Cheers,
Markus
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adrianinsaval
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Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:15 pm

Re: And anyway: Std_Part-Tool or Asm4_newPart-Tool - differences and application?

Post by adrianinsaval »

A Part Container can help you organize assemblies and it is indeed used as the assembly container in asm4, the tools ins asm4 are just wrappers around the original commands, they create the same type of objects but add LCS that are needed for asm4. If you are working with a single body in your document using a Part container makes no sense, it is only useful when multiple bodies or other objects are involved so you can group them all together within the same coordinate system, as the wiki says Part containers are not specific of Part Design workbench, they can be used to hold any object from any workbench.
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