Description

The main goal for this workbench is to make simpler the furniture designing process in FreeCAD.

• Furniture from scratch & redesign: YouTube playlist

• Cut-list, BOM, dimensions: YouTube playlist

• Joinery examples: YouTube playlist

• Parametrization solutions: YouTube playlist

• Workbench features & development: YouTube playlist

• Woodworking workbench YouTube channel: all videos

• Woodworking workbench documentation: Woodworking/Docs

Release notes

New significant changes since the last release 0.22 stable:

• magicStart tool to create furniture

Installation in Xubuntu

Step 0. Install correct FreeCAD version:

• Download and install: FreeCAD 0.21.2

Step 1. Download Woodworking workbench:

• Stable certified versions download at: Woodworking/releases

• For cutting edge features download: the master branch or run command:

    git clone https://github.com/dprojects/Woodworking.git
  

Step 2. Get FreeCAD Mod folder localization:

• From FreeCAD python console run command:

    FreeCAD.ConfigDump()["UserAppData"]
  

• If there is no Mod folder, create it.

Step 3. Install Woodworking workbench:

• Go to FreeCAD Mod folder, for example, in Xubuntu operating system:

    cd  ~/.local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/
  

• Unpack woodworking workbench, if needed, and copy Woodworking folder to Mod folder. This should be:

    ~/.local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/Woodworking/
  

Note:

• You can update this workbench later via debuginfo tool.
• To get better stability make sure your current Woodworking workbench version has always the same prefix version number as the FreeCAD version. You can also verify this via debuginfo tool.

Installation in other operating systems

• Download and unpack Woodworking repository.
• Copy the folder Woodworking to the FreeCAD Mod folder.

Note: I don't have Windows or macOS, so I am not able to test and certify this workbench for those systems. However, if you use FreeCAD AppImage there is a good chance this will be working correctly.

Extras

This woodworking workbench is delivered with several useful extras:

• Fully parametric examples - this folder inside woodworking workbench contains sample furniture projects. All of the furniture examples are parametric. So, you can quickly adopt it to your current project, without designing e.g. bookcase from scratch. You can also add decoration, if needed, or even merge with other projects.
• Fixture examples - this is new approach to 3D modeling. For example you can replace any Cylinder with realistic looking detailed screw. This is very powerful feature and gives a lot of flexibility and simplifies the process of making model detailed.
• Texture samples - sample textures for woodworking projects purposes.

API for developers

The Woodworking workbench also has an API for developers. This library contains functions that solve the Topology Naming Problem. You can also leaglly create your own tools and extend the workbench in your private repository in accordance with the MIT license:

• View library API documentation: MagicPanelsAPI.md
• View library code: MagicPanels.py
• Download & install library: raw version

Note:

• If you have Woodworking workbench installed you don't have to install the MagicPanels library manaually. Also you can view the library directly from Woodworking workbench via: scanObjects tool.
• For programming I use simple Krusader with F4 KWrite editor. I have set tabulators as indent: Settings -> Configure Editor -> Editing -> Indentation -> Tabulators -> Tab width: 4 characters.

Translations

Translations are available at github.com/dprojects/Woodworking-translations repository and are created only for Woodworking workbench releases. This approach allows the translator community to work without time pressure and independently of the development of the main branch, because the code of stable releases will not be changed.

Woodworking workbench release 0.21

To install translation for Woodworking workbench release 0.21 you have to download all .qm files from 0.21 translations branch, if there such any, and move them to translations folder inside Woodworking workbench folder. You can also create your own translations.

Woodworking workbench release 0.22 and above

You can use translations update tool available under drop down menu Woodworking -> Download and update all translations. This tool will automatically download all available .qm files into translations folder for you Woodworking workbench release.

Support FreeCAD 1.0 and later

Currently there are no plans to support FreeCAD 1.0 and later.

The main reason for that is that FreeCAD 1.0 no longer allow for direct Sketch move, the FreeCAD team consider direct Sketch moving as bug, so they fixed this "bug"...

Using FreeCAD 1.0 with Woodworking workbench for example you can't use magicMove to move Sketch or Pad. Also you can't move holes after drilling or center holes or Pads. So this "fix" impact many advanced features at Woodworking workbench.

However all these feature works fine with FreeCAD 0.21.2 and personally I don't see any reason to use FreeCAD 1.0. Also I am happy with FreeCAD 0.21.2 and I don't see any reason to chase all the FreeCAD team changes and "fixes" and adjust Woodworking workbench code only to have new FreeCAD number...

The Woodworking workbench now has its own release versioning system, the 0.22 release has been published, and will be developed regardless of FreeCAD politics.

License

MIT for all Woodworking workbench content.

Contact

• For questions, comments, feature requests, improvements, please open issue at: issue tracker
• Also we can discuss at: FreeCAD forum thread