Regular Cycles
FreeCAD Advanced Animation And Numerically Oriented Assemblies
So, you ran into some thing with the Assembly workbench in FreeCAD?
Maybe not even a problem -- maybe just some weird use case that isn't covered elsewhere. Happens in FOSS all the time. Doesn't mean the Assembly workbench is bad. Sometimes you just gotta roll your own.
Want to animate something per your definition?
YOU WILL NEED
- knowledge of how to install macros in the FreeCAD user directory
- knowledge of how to refer to those macros as a custom toolbar button that can be invoked by keyboard hotkey (the invoke hotkey can be of your choosing)
- the 4 macro files available below
- FreeCAD 1.1 is preferable, for the sake of easy illustrating the Origin Planes of a Part container - it looks massively better than FC 1.0
WHAT IS THE CORE?
This set of macros is something that either invokes, stops, or undoes a QtCore QTimer and creates some quality of life around doing so. Properties applied to an object can be used a single member animation or a delegation-and-receiver animation of multiple objects.
Performance is subject to the efficiency of recompute of your FreeCAD model. Because this can be slow, there is an option to dump screenshots into a directory for later assembly into a smooth frame rate for presentation.
EXAMPLES
Consider this 15 minute video illustrating 4 bar suspension attached to a steering column, multi plane concurrent motion, and coil springs:
HOW TO GET IT
4 example files and 4 macros available at GitHub, or on this site in either .ZIP or .TAR.GZ
Need support?
I have HAD IT with email. Call me. Number at top of page. The animator broadcasts a number. You can nest Part containers. Get as crazy as you want.