DynFreeCAD

Dynamo nodes for the FreeCAD API

Early, work in progress, PRs are welcomed!

Requirements

• Dynamo 2.8+. Download from dynamobuilds.com

  • Select one of DynamoCoreRuntimes. Download, extract, you will find DynamoSandbox.exe inside

• FreeCAD built with python 3.8:

  • Recommended: Daily 0.19 Conda build: Release 0.19_pre · FreeCAD/FreeCAD · GitHub (Python 3.8.6)

  • If daily builds are down: Release FreeCAD Win Conda PY3.8 · sgrogan/FreeCAD · GitHub The 'site_packages1' version works better. (Python 3.8.1)

  • You can build yourself a different verision, follow FreeCAD's doumentation

Installation

• Clone this repo

• Open DynamoSandbox.exe

• Settings ➡ Manage Node and Package Paths... ➡ Add a new folder with ➕, select the Dyf subfolder from where you cloned ➡ Accept changes

• (Dynamo package manager soon!)

FreeCAD API in Dynamo

Dynamo 2.7 added support for CPython 3.7, so FreeCAD can be called inside dynamo. Everything should work inside Python nodes, I want to add more common FreeCAD commands as nodes, so graphical programming can get a boost in FreeCAD.

Unfortunately due to a bug in Dynamo 2.7, these nodes are only usable in 2.8 with Python 3.8.

Compatibility matrix

Table updated: 2020-11-13

Dynamo	Stable Dynamo	cPython in Dynamo	FreeCAD API	DynFreeCAD	Revit
2.6	✔	❌	❌	❌	2021.1
2.7	✔	3.7.3	✔	❌	❌
2.8	✔	3.8.3	✔	✔	❌
2.9	✔	3.8.3	✔	✔	❌
2.10	❌	3.8.3	✔	✔	❌

Usage and tips

⚠️As DynFreeCAD is under developement, it's possible that some screenshots and documentation are outdated⚠️

Detailed documentation is in the wiki.

See Examples folder for some Dynamo documents.

Load the FreeCAD API

There is a bug in Dynamo, so you cannot load FreeCAD libs on latter nodes, unless they were loaded in a first python node. So before using DynFreeCAD, you have to load libraries:

• Open ApiLoader.dyn from Examples\ApiLoaders folder.

  • If you want to use Arch and Draft nodes open ApiLoaderArch.dyn instead. They require other dependencies, see Arch and Draft Setup in the wiki

• Click Run

• If no errors given, just close this graph. Do not close Dynamo, only close the graph!

• You can now start working with the FreeCAD api, create new graphs, or open other examples.

You have to do this every time you want to use the FreeCAD api in Dynamo. I hope sometimes this will be fixed, or at least I find a better workaround.

Using with the FreeCAD Gui visible

Soon...

Currently it's not possible. Run the graph, save the file, than open it in FreeCAD.

Open or create a new document

Always start with these nodes. Add the path to the bin folder of FreeCAD.

Manage documents

Use the ouput of the OpenDocument or CreateDocument nodes output if you just work on one document. The bottom nodes just showing how these nodes are connectable.

Manage properties

Python script

You can use the FreeCAD API in a Python Script this way:

See UseTheApi.dyn in Examples folder.

Troubleshooting

If you have some problems, open an issue!

You can also ask questions on the related project's forums:

• Dynamo Forum
• FreeCAD Forum
• OSArch Community

Alternativ graphical programing interfaces for FreeCAD

• GitHub - microelly2/NodeEditor: Node editor for FreeCAD with PyFLow

• GitHub - nortikin/sverchok: Sverchok Blender addin with FreeCAD support

License

MIT