Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

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wilmath
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Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by wilmath »

I have a small netbook laptop and would like to connect an external hard drive to it and install Freecad on the external hard drive.
Will that work?
The netbook is an asus and has a celeron n4020 processor and 4gb of ram. The hard is small, cannot be replaced and is only 56 gb. The operating system is windows 10. There is only 14 GB free space left.
The external hard drive has about 800 gb of free space.

Will Freecad work on this setup and can I specify the external hard drive during the download?
I won't be using Freecad for any intense cad stuff I will be using it for mostly construction and mostly 2d.

Thanks for the help!
Rick
Syres
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by Syres »

wilmath wrote: Sun Aug 14, 2022 3:29 pm There is only 14 GB free space left.
I install on a G: drive so that's not an issue but you're probably not aware that the Temp and Tmp variables which by default point to the C: drive are used for all sorts of 'dross' and aren't automatically cleaned up on closing FreeCAD so you've been warned.
wilmath
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by wilmath »

So is there a way to do this?
Can I tweak the transfer of files?
Thanks for your help
chrisb
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by chrisb »

wilmath wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:01 am So is there a way to do this?
Can I tweak the transfer of files?
You can use a batch file where you set these variables before calling FreeCAD. But it isn't really much volume created there. I'm not on Windows and thus cannot test, but I guess that the system's temp directories are cleared on reboot.

There is something else to consider: If you want to have everything on the hard drive, e.g. to use it at a different computer, then you can set the environment variable FREECAD_USER_HOME to point to your harddrive. See this topic. You may have to start reading from the end, because things have changed since the topic had started.
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rmn_hr
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by rmn_hr »

wilmath wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 6:01 am So is there a way to do this?
Can I tweak the transfer of files?
Thanks for your help
The way I use FreeCAD is always without 'installation' - I download the weekly builds and unzip this package to a folder - actually named FreeCAD_021-30058. This folder contains the bin, data, Ext, lib, ... -folders of this FreeCAD-version.
In this location the batch-file must be stored, setting FREECAD_USER_HOME and starting FreeCAD.exe.

Looks like this:
set CURRENTDIR=%cd%
set FREECAD_USER_HOME=%CURRENTDIR%
PAUSE
start bin\FreeCAD.exe -u user.cfg -s system.cfg --write-log


user.cfg stores the information and setups you choose for your FreeCAD-preferences( Edit - Preferences).

Every time a new version is released, I unzip it to a new folder, copy batchfile, user.cfg, system.cfg and start the newest FreeCAD but keeping the (stable) last build with its setup. (actually I've latest three builds available)
The designdata I store in different folders also. The location where you save a file is asked by default on frist 'save as...'

This should work with an external drive also
My workflow: create single components in PartDesign and arrange them with Zolko's Assembly4
(https://github.com/Zolko-123/FreeCAD_Assembly4 )

FreeCAD works pretty well and stable for me !! :)
Hymn of Praise valid again since FreeCAD 0.22.35449
Syres
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by Syres »

@chrisb the temp files are never cleared, it's always been the user's responsibility to do this by their own schedule. The OP needs to use the 'portable' install and extract it directly to the external drive, I personally wouldn't be as concerned with the cfg files and Addons being on C: as the user can decide do they really need a specific add-on before downloading.
chrisb
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by chrisb »

rmn_hr wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:39 am start bin\FreeCAD.exe -u user.cfg -s system.cfg --write-log
I recommend the --write-log if and only if you are expecting problems, especially crashes of the application. (I haven't seen them for months.)
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chrisb
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Re: Can I install Freecad on an external hard drive?

Post by chrisb »

Syres wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:42 am @chrisb the temp files are never cleared, it's always been the user's responsibility to do this by their own schedule.
Thanks for the info.
The OP needs to use the 'portable' install and extract it directly to the external drive, I personally wouldn't be as concerned with the cfg files and Addons being on C: as the user can decide do they really need a specific add-on before downloading.
Agreed. The use case here is not the standalone system, but a relief on the internal harddisc space.
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