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I am trying to create a mechanism with moving parts, and would like to see how it works (whether it even works) before printing it.

For example, there's a servo with a bracket, and I would like to see how far can the bracket move before colliding with other objects.

enter image description here

Unfortunately I cannot find any information on how to set pivot points and rotate objects around these points in FreeCAD. Is this even possible?

0scar
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Art
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  • If the user manual doesn't mention it, it's probably not a feature available in FreeCAD. You may have to consider some more powerful (not free) tool. – Carl Witthoft Oct 09 '18 at 15:28
  • Fusian 360 is free for most use cases and includes moving joints as well as animations of those joints. – towe Jul 10 '19 at 09:40

2 Answers2

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freeCad has a draft rotate function in DRAFT workbench:

  1. Select an object;
  2. Press the Draft Rotate button, then;
  3. Click to set the rotating point and rotate.

You will get used to that after a few trails.

There is a step by step guide on freeCad site.

There is also a short demo of the function here.

Greenonline
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profesor79
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    Because... links die, but content typed in here will be archived and searchable. – Davo Oct 10 '18 at 11:27
  • I suppose that's as far as I can get with FreeCAD... Not as comfortable as in Blender, but kinda solves the task : – Art Oct 10 '18 at 15:52
  • The link says that three different clicks are required (center point, reference point and rotation point - 5 steps in all). Whilst you do give the main overview, I think that (maybe in this case), a full reproduction of the five steps could be more useful :-) Admittedly, the video may be harder to explain in text (but it probably is [doable](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/6798/how-do-you-calibrate-a-delta-robot-3d-printer/6800#6800)) – Greenonline Oct 11 '18 at 18:14
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I would also like to take a look at the A2plus Workbench (Freecad Addon). There you can define constraints which can help with this problem. As far as I know, parts cannot be moved with the mouse pointer, but angle parameters can be entered.

https://freecadweb.org/wiki/A2plus_Workbench

metty
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