FC Gears: Feedback thread

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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

Thanks for the reply loooo.
I guess you mean ".FreeCAD".
No, please look at the text I quoted above and the link it came from.

The equivalent system directory is "<system_freecad>/Mod"( which should be /usr/lib/freecad/Mod for ubuntu).
/usr/lib/freecad/ does not exist on this system since the build is run in situ, and not installed. From what I gather here, that is what most people do when building from source.

I do not have a package installed FreeCAD, I have master built in an out of tree location, not "installed", so I was expecting to put it with the other Mod code in freecad-build/Mod , that did not seem to be recognised.

if you download zip,unzip,and
just copy the whole outermost directory FCGear into /freecad/Mod
again that seems to be a typo, not sure what it was intended to be.

I will try putting it in /home/<user> to test, though that is not really what I wanted to do.
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sgrogan
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by sgrogan »

freman wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:02 pm I do not have a package installed FreeCAD, I have master built in an out of tree location, not "installed", so I was expecting to put it with the other Mod code in freecad-build/Mod , that did not seem to be recognised.
I just tried this on Win. I cloned the WB into my build/Mod directory and I get a sub-directory called freecad.gears, when re-starting FreeCAD a workbench called Gear shows up in my workbench selector. If your build directory is system wide and not in a user location maybe there is a sudo issue?
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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

Thanks for testing.
I did

Code: Select all

cd freecad19-master-build/Mod
wget https://github.com/looooo/FCGear/archive/master.tar.gz
tar -xzf master.tar.gz
It produced

Now when I start FreeCAD, I find Gears at the end of the WB drop-down list. ( Which I need to scroll down to find , since it is at the end ).

I'm wondering whether I simply missed it before, I was looking for it to be between FEM and Image in alphabetical order like the rest of that list.

Anyway , thanks for the help, if some with the necessary access rights could correct the typos in the instructions and correct the name of the directory produced, it may help others. It also maybe useful to point out that it will be at the end of the list, not in the expected order.

Thanks for the help. I'll have a play with this new WB later. Cool.
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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

Ah, I can now understand the problem blunt0 was having in the other thread.

It seems odd that there is no means to enter or even see the reference diameter, which is the basic reference dimension for a designing and placing a gear. It could be displayed as a property so that modulus and diam would then mutually affect each other. Enter one which is most convenient to use and the other updates automatically. It would also be very helpful for layout if the ref diam circle was show ( dotted ? ) on the gear and the rack.

A cool feature for the WB would be if you could select two gear items and have an option to align the reference surfaces, maybe in Tasks tab or context menu and an icon next to link.

Anyway this looks very good , I'm glad the other thread brought its existence to my attention.
Last edited by freman on Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
chrisb
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by chrisb »

freman wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:28 pm It also maybe useful to point out that it will be at the end of the list, not in the expected order.
That depends, of course, heavily on your expectations :) . I find it quite naturally to have the core workbenches first, followed by the addons.
Nevertheless it's documented in Std AddonMgr. Please verify, if it is understandable.
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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

I agree it's fair enough to have non-std ones appended. There is a certain logic to that. But, when presented with an alpha sorted list, it is fairly obvious to expect G for follow F. I'm not saying it is wrong , but it may be unexpected, particularly if it ends up out of view because the list is too short. (Again , why doesn't the list extend to show them, there's plenty of space. )
Nevertheless it's documented in Std AddonMgr.
If this was already available in the addon manager , why isn't that mentioned in the FCgear wiki under "install" ?
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by chrisb »

freman wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:08 pm (Again , why doesn't the list extend to show them, there's plenty of space. )
That seems to be system dependent, so perhaps out of FreeCAD's reach. I see all workbenches at once on the Mac.
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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

OK, we all know Mac's are perfect ;)
Qt was historically linked to KDE, a windows look and feel desktop. I use a different DM on Linux so there may be small differences in rendition. It is worth being aware of the fact that some systems will tend to hide a new entry out of sight. This can confuse a novice user ( like me ).
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by sgrogan »

freman wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:08 pm his was already available in the addon manager , why isn't that mentioned in the FCgear wiki under "install" ?
FreeCAD moves fast and the docs don't keep up.
freman wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:08 pm But, when presented with an alpha sorted list, it is fairly obvious to expect G for follow F. I'm not saying it is wrong , but it may be unexpected, particularly if it ends up out of view because the list is too short. (Again , why doesn't the list extend to show them, there's plenty of space. )
The amount of add-ons is huge, Tools> Addons manager will give you a huge list.
Tools> Customize..., workbenches tab, you can order the WB's. Not what you expected, but a work-around.
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freman
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Re: FC Gears: Feedback thread

Post by freman »

FreeCAD moves fast and the docs don't keep up.
Indeed, my initial comment on all this was that someone may like to update and fix the errors on the FCgear install instructions. Both on the Wiki page and the git readme.
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