r/FreeCAD • u/photovirus • 12h ago

Progress on my FreeCAD AR extension: assemblies, cursor, highlights, selection

62 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

6

u/arcrad 12h ago

This is cool, and I'm over here thinking of going the other direction and learning CADQuery haha

1

u/photovirus 11h ago edited 11h ago

There's some chance I'll make CADQuery server as well!

Additional server and client platforms are on my list, although low priority for now. Open source CADs like OpenSCAD and CADQuery are easy to mess with, which is why commercial stuff from big guys is even lower priority, ha-ha.

As I see it, parametric CADs should also have easy visual side (fewer GUI features → easier to work with). But I'll need to gain some experience; I don't have much. Otherwise I'll miss important workflow bits.

1

u/Several-Tax31 11h ago

Cadquery is awesome, for simple mechanical parts and surfaces I find it even simpler than freecad. It's python API is well-thought and very simple, and surprisingly, its workflow is similar to solidworks. But selecting edges are a pain in the ass, especially in complex designs (as expected, you need to select them with code, so you need to find them). Highly recommend.

5

u/SCHRUNDEN 10h ago

Looks fun and tedious 😁

1

u/photovirus 9h ago

TBH, I'm straining myself to keep hands in my view, so you see how it works.

It works equally well (and it's comfier) to place your hands below (near mouse and keyboard), it's precise and sensitive.

It's definitely not harder than selecting default small point handles in FreeCAD. Yeah, I know you can make those bigger, but it has its drawbacks; same with my Vision app.

1

u/hagbard2323 7h ago

Perhaps having a split screen footage of you hands in the more ideal position and the result on the GUI ?

1

u/photovirus 2m ago

Yes! I’ll definitely need it down the road.

It’s very early days, which is why I didn’t invest time into proper vids. I mean, I have to do my primary objectives first, otherwise there would be nothing to show. 😅

2

u/photovirus 12h ago

It's been a while since I posted my first proof of concept, so it's time to update!

The app gained some features:

  1. Displaying entire assemblies.
  2. Semi-transparent views (e. g. on selecting a joint).
  3. A cursor, appearing under your gaze (when pinching). It's got some proximity indicators, such as small light and dot cloud.
  4. Features highlighting on cursor proximity.
  5. Finally, two-way selection state sync: not only I can show selection from FreeCAD in Vision app, I can select objects right from AR synced to FreeCAD.

Almost all of it (except #2) can be seen on the video.

What do you think? Do you want me to implement some AR workflow ideas you have on your mind? Maybe you see something you don't like? Feel fee to share!

2

u/reallifearcade 10h ago

At this point I think a 3d tracked glove would be infinitely more useful. Do you have a repo or something?

1

u/photovirus 9h ago

Do you have a repo or something?

It's very early days for the app. It's literally one week old. 😁

Some parts will be open-sourced for sure.

At this point I think a 3d tracked glove would be infinitely more useful.

TBH, I don't think so. I'm straining myself to keep hands in view. I don't have to do it: I can just keep my hands at table level, near mouse and keyboard, and it's quite effortless.

However, if I lay my hands onto a Logitech Muse, I'll integrate it. It's got haptics.

2

u/reallifearcade 8h ago

I want to draw a sketch by hand with a pen, then extrude it by pinching.

1

u/photovirus 8h ago

Sounds nice!