FreeCAD for Makers
As a periodic user of FreeCAD I was happy to see Jo Hinchliffe had written FreeCAD for Makers as he’s done some excellent tutorials. I felt I could learn something new from the book and improve my FreeCAD usage. I initially thought that the book had sold out in minutes but then discovered that it exists as a free download only, so appears in the shop with no physical copy.
The style of the book is very similar to HackSpace magazine with quick tips and quotes scattered around the text. I quizzed Jo on this and he confirm that the book is compiled from the articles he wrote for HackSpace.
CAD is a difficult topic to cover in book form as it is very visual. But Jo handles this well with many screenshots and a few photos of finished projects.
The book explains how to use the different groups of tools (workbenches) via worked examples to create parts of increasing complexity. The projects are themselves quite useful parts that a maker might want to create or print.
In my typical use of FreeCAD I stay with the Part Design Workbench as that is what I’m familiar with. But that’s only a small part of the application. There are a great number of workbenches in FreeCad, some I’ve never tried such as the curves and mesh workbenches. So I’m looking forward to reading about those. There are also some community contributed workbenches and I was not surprised to see that Jo had tried out the rockets bench.
I’ve enjoyed reading the book so far and have expanded my FreeCAD skills. I would recommend it for both beginners and intermediate users. As I’m not a magazine subscriber there was new material for me here but regular readers would also benefit from having all of the articles in one place as a handy reference guide or as a study guide.
About the Author
Jo has been a writer for HackSpace Magazine for since edition 12 where he wrote about one of his favourite topics, Rockets. Jo also presented at TEDx Hollyhead on the topic of Purposeful Play where he also talked about DIY Space projects. You can read about his projects on the Concretedog blog, at HackSpace Magazine and on twitter @concreted0g
Posted in: CAD
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
