What this book covers

Getting and installing FreeCAD (Must know), will walk through the basics of getting FreeCAD working on your computer. Latest and greatest, or stable and easy? Mac, Windows, or Linux? We'll show you your options and talk about the trade-offs.

Understanding the FreeCAD interface (Must know), provides a broad look at FreeCAD's organization. This recipe will walk you through the user interface and get you comfortable customizing it for your own use.

CSG modeling in the Part workbench (Must know), shows you how to start with simple shapes and combine them to build complex objects. CSG modeling is one of several important techniques that FreeCAD makes possible, and an indispensable part of your modeling tool kit.

Recording and editing a macro (Should know), makes life easier by recording and playing back a sequence of frequently used commands. Create your own custom commands or automate a routine task.

Modeling a simple part with the Draft workbench (Must know), introduces another modeling technique available in FreeCAD. Many designs, even complex 3D objects, start out as 2D drawings. The Draft workbench provides tools for working with circles, arcs, lines, and other 2D elements.

Rotating and extruding to create parts (Should know), will show how 2D drawings can be turned into 3D models. Rotation and extrusion are two more tools that every FreeCAD user should know.

Creating 3D solids with Python (Become an expert), shows how to use Python to create custom 3D objects. Python is another powerful tool in your FreeCAD toolbox.

Creating a custom dialog to automate a task (Become an expert), will show you how to make your Python scripts easier to use by making a custom user interface. You can create a nice looking dialog box.

Modeling with constraints (Must know), covers one of the most powerful techniques available to the FreeCAD user. Need to change one aspect of your model without breaking the rest? Designing with constraints means building flexibility into the design. Now your designs can be easily adjusted with predictable results.

Using external constraints (Should know), will go beyond simple sketches by using some of the advanced sketching tools in FreeCAD. You can model additional features on the faces of existing objects and attach sketches to existing objects.

Adding or modifying constraints with Python (Become an expert), brings the power of Python to bear on constraint based modeling. You can dig deeper into the inner workings of sketch constraints with the Python scripting.

Creating a drawing of a part (Should know), teaches you to present your 3D design to the 2D world by creating a drawing that's ready for printing.

Exporting DXF files for other applications (Should know), will show you how to export your design to other applications using industry standard DXF files. The time will come when you need to do something with your project outside of FreeCAD and exporting is invaluable.

Importing data (Should know), will give you information on how to interact with designs made in other applications.