Rethinking the "Part Library"

[alex_55]

Maybe have a catalog license that is the default, and components can also provide their own.

I would be in favor of 'license tag set for each component, with a default, permissive license recommended to contributors'

I like the way the KiCAD team licenses their libraries: https://www.kicad.org/libraries/license/
(It's pretty much just CC-BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by ... /legalcode)

[chennes]

That is an interesting (and welcome) exception in the Kicad license: I’d been wondering what a “BY”-type license would mean when used in this manner.

[Roy_043]

I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but what about quality? The Library is a mixed bag at best. Many of the files in the Library are quite old and often use techniques that are not even allowed in the current FreeCAD version. Is the FreeCAD community even able to maintain this Library?

[chennes]

Is the FreeCAD community even able to maintain this Library?

As with any open source project, long-term maintenance is an issue. I'd be happy to see more aggressive curation of the parts that get included, and/or a "rating" system that would allow users to rate the quality of parts. However, it seems that people find the current parts library useful even in its present state, so I don't think we should just discard it.

[Roy_043]

Call me a pessimist:

In an ideal world when FreeCAD V0.20 is releases:
All new features will be properly checked. (NOT)
The Wiki documentation will be up to date. (NOT)
The Wiki Manual will be up to date. (NOT)
All tutorials will be checked and updated. (NOT)
The Example files will truly showcase the capabilities of FreeCAD. (NOT)
The Library files will be checked and updated. (NOT)

There is a Dutch saying: "een te grote broek aantrekken". Which translates to: "putting on pants that are too big for you". I think you can guess its meaning.

IMO it is time for a reality check.

[chennes]

That discussion is a little outside the scope of this topic: it's more suitable here -- https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=66407

[Kunda1]

We could find some dedicated volunteers that could curate it. Also it would be a good opportunity to leverage vejmarie's CloudCAD as a possible asset browser.

Also there may be some useful assets from opensourceecology:
https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki ... _v2_3D_CAD

Ref: https://github.com/opencomputeproject/C ... /issues/28

[cadcam]

"rating" system

I would vote for this to be included in any proposed system. Also? with the
ability for the 'rater' to add comments, suggestions, links to updated/alternative versions.

It might also be useful for the original submitted to set a rating trip level (or suggestion option)
that enables an email alert. And/or a single page display of ratings for submissions, selectable by all, area/function, individual submitter. Thus allowing an originator to more easily maintain their submissions and users choose from options or areas to contribute to.

BW

[hasecilu]

Hi all, about the big size problem of the library, with the new "Configuration table" feature in FreeCAD some chain files can be optimized into a "generator" file to use less space, about 1.9GB could be saved.
Check this PR: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-library/pull/369

[chennes]

The FPA is planning to fund development work aimed at creating a solution to the "giant part library" problem, so I want to bump this discussion back up to get some feedback on the solution parameters. My current rough draft of the project requirements, based on previous discussion in this topic, is:

• New external Python Addon called "FreeCAD Component Library" (or similar)
• No huge up-front library download
• Only download the components you need, but batching enabled (e.g. "all doors", "all fasteners", etc.)
• Get component info/thumbnail image before downloading
• FreeCAD user interface (see BOLTSFC for a possible example)
• Support private local/remote collections
• Support user-specified (possibly private) part repos
• Support component versioning
• Optional check for updated components
• Optional notice of new components added
• Individual (per-Component) licensing, with tool-assisted attribution (as needed)
• Easily interface to request addition to official library, from within Addon
• Most/all of current "Parts Library" must be migrated to the new "Component Library" (metadata created as necessary)
• Public API so other parts of FreeCAD can easily open dialog to grab parts
• Easy for non-developer to maintain actual parts libraries

There are also some requirements on the code itself:

• Well-documented code with good separation between "business logic" and user interface
• High degree of code coverage by unit tests
• Licensed under LGPL2.1
• On completion, code repository to be integrated into the repositories at https://github.org/FreeCAD