Categories:


Archives:

Actually it is not so easy... FreeCAD is a very complex thing, and you need a good experience with it...

by Yorik on 15.11.2013

Commenting post 375: Actually it is not so easy... FreeCAD is a very complex thing, and you need a good experience with it (I mean, using it) before you can begin to code anything. And also, there is no very defined plan, so usually when someone comes and says "I want to code for FreeCAD! What can I do?" we tell him: cool down, begin to use it, get used to the way it works, its geometry engine, etc... then when you see something you would like to work on, do it. But most people don't like much to hear that, they want us to give them something to do, immediately.

Of course we hve a general plan, but developing CAD features is a very minutious, delicate and slow work... It's hard to find little tasks that people can code right away. But more and more people are beginning to use the arch module, recently an engineer helped me to add the rebar feature... And each improvement attracts more people to use FreeCAD (and the arch module) and therefore more chances to see people ready to dive into the code.

Honestly I already thought a lot about that, and I see no easy solution like "let's do a kickstarter and hire a programmer". What would we tell to that programmer, how could he easily and quickly understand the way architecture works, how could he solve problems that are still hard for us to define (see any discussion about BIM on the net to see how far we are from consensus).

I'm working on a third part of my python tutorial for architects, and that one is about FreeCAD. I hope that can trigger a bit of interest, since it will be the most interesting part for an architect, FreeCAD being parametric, etc. We'll see!

by Yorik on 15.11.2013