FreeCAD Forum

SteveJT77 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:10 pm ... was wondering if it will enable us to produce flat patterns that can be printed off and laid out on sheet metal to use as a template for fabrication purposes?

That's what half of SheetMetal workbench is about.The animated gif is linked from Shaise's git account:

I was wondering since the first time I saw the SheetMetal WB why it is not included in the main code and delivered as standard workbench. There is no serious commercial design package without that kind of functionality. Is there any reason for it?

Also there is already a good page on the Sheet Metail workbench on the wiki (https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/SheetMe ... h#Overview). As users can not edit the GitHub Readme.md pages, this is the best place to add any information on that workbench. Almost all information I saw in this thread deserves to be included into that Wiki page. Also the great animated GIF @chrisb posted.

catman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 1:52 pm I was wondering since the first time I saw the SheetMetal WB why it is not included in the main code and delivered as standard workbench. There is no serious commercial design package without that kind of functionality. Is there any reason for it?

No special reason involved. Active developer(s) interested in progressing this area further. That is usually a good start.

catman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 1:52 pm I was wondering since the first time I saw the SheetMetal WB why it is not included in the main code and delivered as standard workbench. There is no serious commercial design package without that kind of functionality. Is there any reason for it?

I think it's more ideal not to include it in core, that way it frees up the core-devs to do more core-related code review.
What is missing is a way to advertise to the user that this External Workbench exists.

Kunda1 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:45 pm What is missing is a way to advertise to the user that this External Workbench exists.

The FreeCAD's Start Page has a tab with Available Addons links and Workbenches documentation. Maybe there is room for a list of Community Selection Addons or Favorites Addons recommended by FreeCAD community.

Kunda1 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:45 pm I think it's more ideal not to include it in core, that way it frees up the core-devs to do more core-related code review.
What is missing is a way to advertise to the user that this External Workbench exists.

Well that makes perfect sense, especially since i take from the vairous posts here that the core developer team is rather small. Probably would make sense when the sheet metail devs would be allowed to work on the trunc. Thanks for the info.

PS:
It just surprising to see things like the Robot workbench being part of the standard which is rather exotric compared to a general mechanical CAD function set as sheet metal.

bitacovir wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 3:44 am

Kunda1 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:45 pm What is missing is a way to advertise to the user that this External Workbench exists.

The FreeCAD's Start Page has a tab with Available Addons links and Workbenches documentation. Maybe there is room for a list of Community Selection Addons or Favorites Addons recommended by FreeCAD community.

As mentioned in another post I would think it helps to include some external workbenches to the help pages.

catman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:48 pm It just surprising to see things like the Robot workbench being part of the standard which is rather exotric compared to a general mechanical CAD function set as sheet metal.

This is a carry over from previous versions. There is an effort to disentangle non-essential Workbenches from FreeCAD core. It's not a simple task. Also even if it does make sense to give more people trunk access, FC is a pretty sophisticated piece of software. Right now @wmayer is really the person that has the biggest picture of the source code and therefore the 'gatekeeper', if you will.

Kunda1 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:52 pm

catman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:48 pm It just surprising to see things like the Robot workbench being part of the standard which is rather exotric compared to a general mechanical CAD function set as sheet metal.

This is a carry over from previous versions. There is an effort to disentangle non-essential Workbenches from FreeCAD core. It's not a simple task. Also even if it does make sense to give more people trunk access, FC is a pretty sophisticated piece of software. Right now @wmayer is really the person that has the biggest picture of the source code and therefore the 'gatekeeper', if you will.

OK, makes sense. Would that mean the long term target strategy is to provide a slim "Base" installer and let the user add all (individual) required stuff with the Addon installer?

catman wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:26 pm OK, makes sense. Would that mean the long term target strategy is to provide a slim "Base" installer and let the user add all (individual) required stuff with the Addon installer?

That's how I understand it. Especially with all the dependencies that are required for each workbench and others that are currently being developed. There are plans to make the addon manager very robust.
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-addons/issues