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FreeCAD / FreeCAD-addons

A convenient gathering of useful and well-developed FreeCAD plugins made by the community.
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README: Create a section on how to create a Workbench #104

Open luzpaz opened 6 years ago

luzpaz commented 6 years ago

Relevant links:

luzpaz commented 5 years ago

CC @looooo

looooo commented 5 years ago

@luzpaz the starter-workbench is not really related to FreeCAD-addons. I guess it should be possible to also integrate pip-installable modules in the addon-manager but I did not had the time to think about this. Something to think about in the next year.

luzpaz commented 5 years ago

It's not related ? Isn't it a template for a workbench ? Addons are workbenches, modules, and macros... seems related to me.

looooo commented 5 years ago

yes it's a template for a work-bench / module. But I don't want to mix this with the old way of creating workbenches, as this will lead to misunderstandings. Currently both ways are supported, but I guess we should think about how to make both ways more compatible as the old-style workbenches won't go away. Also most users that trying to code something for freecad have not enough python background to understand why new way of creating workbenches is better. But yes, I will try to work on documentation if time allows.

pierrard commented 5 years ago

Many thanks Lorenz (Loooo) and other contributors for all you do for the community !! I am slowly building a DIY router, 5 axis milling, and will very much appreciate the use of FreeCAD for the CAD and CAM once my hardware is ready (slow down by the cost of the parts now). MANY THANKS!

luzpaz commented 5 years ago

@looooo I see, thanks for explaining that. I didn't understand there was a 'better' preference. IMHO, we could create documentation for this pre-0.18 so any of the users that 'come in to the fold' of FreeCAD can make a more educated decision.

looooo commented 5 years ago

@pierrard I am only doing what I need / like to work at. There are others like @luzpaz who try to move FreeCAD in the right direction. Best to thank the whole community, which include a lot of smart people fighting for a great project ; ).

@luzpaz yes you are right. I always underestimate the impact of docs : ).

luzpaz commented 5 years ago

@joelgraff perhaps you could weigh in on workbench creation as well at some point ? (i know your todo list is yuuuuge but nonetheless, please consider thanks!!!)

joelgraff commented 5 years ago

@luzpaz - Thanks for mentioning this. Currently, I've forked the starter kit and am, a little bit at a time, trying to build out a general layout that is maintainable and scalable for small to mid-sized Python workbenches. Specifically, I feel a workbench's functions are best divided across individual "Tasks" and code needs to be organized to reflect that.

For example:

Of course, there are exceptions (like a command that simply executes an external program, or just opens a file), but for more complex tasks, I really think that sort of structure should be encouraged / enforced where possible.

Without a clear structure in place to mange the various workbench command / task use cases, we cannot write clear, useful developer documentation. I realize it's no good trying to enforce absolute standards, but the goal is to provide a clean and well organized picture of how everything fits together rather than leave new devs to their own devices to hack together something that works, but may become unmaintainable as the workbench scope scales.

luzpaz commented 5 years ago

@joelgraff
I resonate with everything you wrote and I'm very glad this discussion is progressing. Especially:

Without a clear structure in place to mange the various workbench command / task use cases, we cannot write clear, useful developer documentation. I realize it's no good trying to enforce absolute standards, but the goal is to provide a clean and well organized picture of how everything fits together rather than leave new devs to their own devices to hack together something that works, but may become unmaintainable as the workbench scope scales.

I think I'll pin this issue so it's of priority.

luzpaz commented 3 years ago

yikes, got to get around to doing this.

joelgraff commented 3 years ago

I had a framework of my own cobbled together, but I think I lost track of it, too. Joel Graff, P.E.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelcgraff

On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 5:41 AM luzpaz notifications@github.com wrote:

yikes, got to get around to doing this.

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lukh commented 5 days ago

Hello there, I wrote my first workbench for FreeCAD (pure python) and found it quite hard to get access to "good doc" (ie, up to date, following standard python rules, etc) The default template give informations, but not how to create a task for instance, The wiki is... (sorry :s ) complicated to get to, too many pages, in different sections, (maybe the scripting page are okay, but I couldn't find infos like; where to put the code snippet, I had to figure it out with some existing WB, (but not specifically up-to-date... or Draft Workbench, that uses a lot of shared / polymorphism code, so hard to follow when you want understand how a WB works...

I want to help, I can help @joelgraff on the template, or on the wiki; I would probably need validation that the code I wrote is good enough for that

(BTW: learning FreeCAD for one year or so, love it, works like a charm :) ),

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