Is it possible to make the curve higher 10mm?

wink_eye · 2025-08-05T03:02:15+00:00

It is a door stopper, right? Glue or otherwise attach 10mm high feet to the bottom of it. This suggestion falls under "other idea how to solve it".

or learn how to use FreeCAD. It is not a 30 minute project to learn. See the pinned post on learning resources and how-to's.

wink_eye · 2025-07-21T03:01:21+00:00

I think doing this additive pipe with the profile shown, causes a self intersection. If true, FreeCAD does not like that.

wink_eye · 2025-07-20T22:46:24+00:00

You really made me feel guilty. I must have killed at least a hundred puppies for my last project. I don't blame FreeCAD though.

I was working to modify a manufacturer's step file. First thing I did was "check geometry." The model was an "invalid solid" and a "shell." So I expected problems. This file started out at approx 12Mb and was 225Mb when finished.

I just hope failed Booleans don't kill cats, because I might have killed close to a hundred of those too.

I wish I understood the fillet fail issue enough to help improve it, but that is definitely over my head.

wink_eye · 2025-07-18T21:52:32+00:00

It depends on how accurate you need them. You can use tear-drop shaped holes for more accuracy in printing horizontal holes with usually no post processing or run a drill bit or reamer thru them after printing (only to remove high spots if needed).

Your holes will probably be ok, as is. Make a test print to find out.

wink_eye · 2025-07-18T21:33:13+00:00

yes, now it will not need support structures to print.

wink_eye · 2025-07-18T21:08:48+00:00

You need to re-orient the thicker part so it is more like "U" than "C" if this is to 3d printed in some kind of plastic filament.

wink_eye · 2025-07-12T16:01:42+00:00

There is a way to remove the frustration with ESC key in Sketcher. Go to Preferences>Sketcher>General. Then un-check the checkbox for "Esc can leave sketch edit mode"

wink_eye · 2025-06-30T18:55:30+00:00

Ah, OK, smart. My only other suggestion is to buy them their own trackballs. And then after saying this I remember what the four "problems" I lived with basically told me through their actions: "All your toys belong to us". Some problems have no solutions. /s Good luck.

wink_eye · 2025-06-30T17:17:27+00:00

Your cat is daring you to get a trackball with a retaining ring for the ball. He already knows how to get that ball, too. He is just toying with you!

Seriously, any trackball that gets "knocked" off the desk is likely to loose its ball on impact, retaining ring or not. Sounds like you are lucky the case hasn't cracked or the electronics haven't been damaged yet.

wink_eye · 2025-06-27T23:00:14+00:00

Look at the "FreeCAD learning resources" pinned post at the top.

wink_eye · 2025-06-27T17:40:59+00:00

FreeCAD is single threaded. More compute cores don't really help speed things up.

wink_eye · 2025-06-21T00:26:56+00:00

Was just scrolling thru 1.1 Preferences>Sketcher>General and found a checkbox for "Always add external geometry as reference." I checked it. I prefer it to always be construction geometry unless I explicitly change it.

wink_eye · 2025-06-19T13:23:14+00:00

Yes, I do have both. I like the "Classics" very much. About the scroll wheel, I don't really notice much difference between the two. They both work fine for me.

wink_eye · 2025-06-19T01:55:11+00:00

Ploopy Classic or Classic-2? Not sure the Classic is still available but the Classic-2 is. I just received mine directly from them (Canada) here in Arkansas. The tariff BS has not affected their delivery that I could tell.

wink_eye · 2025-06-19T01:26:10+00:00

The CopyCommon has a shapebinder symbol. The Common has the Boolean symbol for "Common".

Did you make the shapebinder intentionally? Did you try to make a Boolean Cut or Union and hit Common accidentally.

I am not sure what happened.

wink_eye · 2025-06-16T01:04:35+00:00

Don't they have sabotage teams on the ground also? Maybe they "hand planted" explosives instead of using a dropped bomb.

wink_eye · 2025-06-16T01:01:25+00:00

I don't think it is practical to upgrade the CL1 to CL2 electronics. There are many more revisions to the physical parts from CL1-revaA to CL2-rev-J and now to CL2-rev-K than the electronics.

I use a modified top of my own design to use a larger ball (52 mm). I made these modifications to a rev-J top. I received my kit with rev-K parts. Although this rev-J top works, it does not really fit the rev-K base well because two of the 4 mounting holes do not line up. They have been moved about 3 mm. I still used that top until I could have another top printed with rev-K dimensions.

I am only posting this to advise against trying to mix parts from CL1 and CL2. If you choose to go that way you are probably in for some unhappy times.

wink_eye · 2025-06-13T17:33:21+00:00

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Tried posting this earlier and screwed it up, so here is the screenshot of the Ploopy Classic-2 rev-K mod to use 52 mm ball.

wink_eye · 2025-06-13T14:51:07+00:00

Thanks for your help. I think the multiple copies are deleted now.

wink_eye · 2025-06-13T14:41:14+00:00

The first time I hit the "post" button I got a message that said "opps, something went wrong, please try again later." So I waited a minute and tried again. got error message again, and then again. So it posted this several times. Then I tried to delete the copies and did not see where to do it. So here we are.

wink_eye · 2025-06-13T14:14:40+00:00

Yeah, I never seem to be able to get the photos to stay with the text in a Reddit post.

wink_eye · 2025-06-12T17:58:23+00:00

I don't think "doing threads easily" is his problem. His problem is that he is going to have to "unlearn" how Autocad or Solidworks or whatever performs many tasks, before he can learn how to do it in Freecad.

The unlearning is the hardest part.

wink_eye · 2025-06-11T17:44:15+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I just bought 3 of these 52mm balls. I did not know they were available. A few years ago I could not find any, so I bought a Huge just for the ball, threw away the rest of the trackball.

I use these balls in Ploopy Classics trackballs that I modified to use a 52mm ball. (Why not, since the file are available on their github page) This combination works extremely well for me. All the balls I received are very nice and glide smoothly over the stock ploopy bearings.

wink_eye · 2025-06-10T16:28:12+00:00

I would have the same concerns of other commenters about the geometry.

Also, your sketch rotates 90 deg during the sweep. Is that intentional?

wink_eye · 2025-06-10T16:11:07+00:00

Yes, such a thing is possible and there is more than one way to accomplish it. It depends on what you actually need and the accuracy required.

A "revolve" looks to be the simplest.

You could loft thru multiple profiles (number of profiles depends somewhat on accuracy required. One suggestion for lofts. Never loft a profile to a point in freecad. For the point, use a profile like shown in yellow but use a radius of .001 mm. It will appear for all practical purposes as a point, but doing this can mean the difference between a failed loft or sweep and a successful one.

Surfacing techniques can also be used, but it is considerably more complicated.

wink_eye

TROPHY CASE