Fix my workflow please - are we using bodies or parts?

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madcyborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2022 12:40 am

Fix my workflow please - are we using bodies or parts?

Post by madcyborg »

I have a freecad body that contains a bracket. I also have a body that is supposed to fit into the bracket. I need to create multiple other objects with the body that fits into the bracket attached to them. So, multiple real-life objects that will mount using a common bracket. I don't want to keep making the mount point that fits into the bracket over and over. I want to be able to reuse objects.

I have been scouring this forum trying to find what other people are doing, and the advice I see is, make everything one body or use boolean joins on multiple parts. When I use boolean union, it is fairly difficult to control placement. What is the intended workflow for what I'm trying to do above?
drmacro
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Posts: 8870
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: Fix my workflow please - are we using bodies or parts?

Post by drmacro »

madcyborg wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 6:35 pm I have a freecad body that contains a bracket. I also have a body that is supposed to fit into the bracket. I need to create multiple other objects with the body that fits into the bracket attached to them. So, multiple real-life objects that will mount using a common bracket. I don't want to keep making the mount point that fits into the bracket over and over. I want to be able to reuse objects.

I have been scouring this forum trying to find what other people are doing, and the advice I see is, make everything one body or use boolean joins on multiple parts. When I use boolean union, it is fairly difficult to control placement. What is the intended workflow for what I'm trying to do above?
Typical workflow is to use one Body per component. The use Shapebinders or Subshapebinders to transfer to access geometry/locations across/between Body's.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
madcyborg
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2022 12:40 am

Re: Fix my workflow please - are we using bodies or parts?

Post by madcyborg »

What do you mean by component? Does this mean that I would be using shapebinders to re-create objects? Or, is it possible to reuse objects?
drmacro
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Posts: 8870
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:35 pm

Re: Fix my workflow please - are we using bodies or parts?

Post by drmacro »

madcyborg wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:21 pm What do you mean by component? Does this mean that I would be using shapebinders to re-create objects? Or, is it possible to reuse objects?
I use "component" to describe a single solid. (Imagine: <left piece of a hinge> = component, a <right piece of hinge> = component, <hinge pin> = component, each is a separate Body. But, each could also be made in Part workbench. So, component refers to a "thing" that is an end product.

(I use the term component in discussions like this to avoid the eventual confusion with the term "part". And, since all entities of FreeCAD are, internally called objects (as in software objects), I also avoid the term object.)

You can reuse the, for example, a shapebinder from the left hinge to define the size of the hole in the right hinge. You can use a shapebinder from either to determine the diameter of the hinge pin.

You can reuse each body as many time as you wish by cloning the Body.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Spock: "...His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
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