FreeCAD plugin (official thread)

[leoheck 0]

Cura log for reference

 

[leoheck 0]

I am having a hard time debugging this, I believe the operation is taking more time than Cura expects to run an external command. How can I increase this time?

[thopiekar 46]

Got 0.18.3 installed here and the plugin works fine with 4.4.0.

I made the little changes needed and sent it to Ultimaker for review. Let's see what they think about it.

[thopiekar 46]

@leoheck Nope, the log already gives the problem. While using the macro on the given file, we get an error code != 0, which means that an error occurred. Sadly the code is that anti-smart not to tell us what the error message from FreeCAD is (probably there is a reason, but I can't remember after a long time).

Normally, the process can take any amount of time.

[leoheck 0]

Can you test with 0.19?

[thopiekar 46]

0.19 is still under development it seems. I don't have the time at the moment to investigate into any other versions other than stable. Maybe someone else can find the time to investigate into it.

 

[leoheck 0]

I understand. I was doing that so much, I was not able to understand why Cura cant execute the external command. But I would really appreciate your feedback if you can run the plugin with a Freecad 0.19 file. Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe I was not able to set my computer propperly.

 

Well, if you have time, I made this cylinder with the Part Design Workbench  https://www.dropbox.com/s/p29x2xguxfymoe2/test_cura_freecad_0.19.FCStd?dl=0

[thopiekar 46]

Could someone of you be so kind and test the following package file?

CuraFreeCADPlugin-v7.0.0-2020-01-01T20_30_11Z.curapackage

 

For you to remember again how to install a plugin using such a curapackage file:

 

https://thopiekar.eu/cura/plugins/installation/#ManualInstall

 

Regards and happy new year!

- Thomas

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Ungültige Datei

Laden von /pfad/datei.fcstd fehlgeschlagen

[thopiekar 46]

Bist du so nett und schickst mir die log Datei zu? Bestenfalls auch die verwendete Datei, wenn möglich?

Würde gern das Problem reproduzieren 🙂

 

https://thopiekar.eu:46380/sharing/hUnBGGhu8

Das Passwort ist dein Username von hier.

 

Danke!

- Thomas

Edited January 2, 2020 by thopiekar

[leoheck 0]

Cool, I tested this new plugin it works well. However, when the model is not well formed, it fails like UbuntuBirdy said.

 

1. This is the malformed model

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bcjjjuqxbpbtndo/case_lid_not_working.FCStd?dl=0

 

2. But then, I fixed it, so the plugin was able to open it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5j6k7s0csjqnen/case_lid.FCStd?dl=0

 

Thank you Thopiekar!

 

 

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Dein Link sagt mir, dass der freigegebene Link nicht verfügbar ist. Aber egal, ich hab ja auch clouds zur Verfügung:

 

Cura Log und das FreeCAD Bauteil

[thopiekar 46]

Thank you for the upload. Looks like the call of FreeCAD died at the background.

I really need to make the plugin(s) more talkative at this point.

The log doesn't tell me anything here 😞

 

Which FreeCAD version is installed btw?

[leoheck 0]

Yeap, totally agree with that. The log is kinda dumb, I didn't want to say that before.

 

But this is a really good job.

I am using FreeCad 0.19 (daily builds)

 

Also, I would like to see in this plugin the ability to set the mesh resolution and to select the body inside the FreeCad file. These will be a great addition and it is not hard to implement. I actually was tring to implement it with your plugin. My biggest issue is that I don't know how to open a window to display these options to the user in  Cura. Is it possible?

 

 

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.4.
Build type: Release
Python version: 3.6.8
Qt version: 5.9.5
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: German/Switzerland (de_CH)

 

Cura 4.4.1

[cappy0815 0]

Hi guys,

 

I am just following this ...

Had probs with opening the freeCAD files as well.

 

Cappy

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Just wanted to ask where we are. I still have the same problem.

[thopiekar 46]

Hey!

 

After a longer time I got FreeCAD into my hands again and probably faced the same issue as you do!

If you are using Ubuntu* (likely affects Debian, too) there is a problem with the "headless mode" of FreeCAD.

The only way to make it work is to use the stable PPA of FreeCAD, which comes with the fix, which will make the plugin work again, too!

https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Install_on_Unix#Stable_PPA_through_the_graphical_interface

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Thanks for the info. I had troubles with this PPA in the past, so this is no solution for me. But i'll stay patiently...

[thopiekar 46]

Is there someone available for some testing? 🙂

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

of course!

[thopiekar 46]

I improved the export script to convert all volumetric and shaped objects. Wasn't happy with the results some time ago when I was working on something in FreeCAD, so I gave it another try. One thing that definitely needs improvement is that I can check the objects' visibility. This is not available within FreeCAD's headless mode, because people might have thought: "Why caring about visibility, if you have no UI and can't see anything anyways."

Well, good point, but stupid if I would like to convert all visible objects (because theoretically you could have made some invisible because something is temporarily not needed) into mesh(es).

 

Anyway, I could deliver a new package for this, but I think it won't be a big deal for you to replace the following FreeCAD macro:

 

https://git.thopiekar.eu/Cura/CAD/CuraFreeCADPlugin/-/blob/master-improving-macro-to-export-volumetric-and-shaped-objects/CuraFreeCADPlugin/macro/conversion.py

 

Good luck and if you need any kind of help, let me know!

Looking forward for your feedback 🙂

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/home/pascal/.FreeCAD/Macros/thopiekar.FCMacro", line 14, in <module>

import MeshPart

<class 'ImportError'>: libnglib.so: Kann die Shared-Object-Datei nicht öffnen: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

[thopiekar 46]

Nope, replace it with the script in the macro folder of the plugin.

You know where I mean?

 

Something like:

/home/<your user id>/.config/cura/4.8/plugins/CuraFreeCadPlugin/macro/

 

My plugin is running a macro from inside the plugin folder using "freecadcmd" btw. 🙂

Edited January 22, 2021 by thopiekar

[UbuntuBirdy 56]

Sorry, I misunderstood your advice. Ok, I replaced the conversion.py, but to be honest, I do not understand, what I should test now...