This workbench allows the user to interact with CADBase (upload and download parts) via the FreeCAD interface.
CADBase is a platform for publishing and sharing information about 3D components, drawings and manufacturers.
Important Note: To use the workbench, you must have an account on the CADBase Platform.
The workbench is designed to use components (parts) from CADBase in the FreeCAD interface.
Component modifications contain sets of files for various CAD systems. This workbench will work with data from the FreeCAD set, without downloading documentation and data from other file sets.
Files uploaded to file sets are versioned, allowing you to restore earlier versions, get the old state they were in before the changes, review the changes, and find out who last changed something and caused the problem.
Favorite components are displayed at root level. After selecting and opening a component, a list of its modifications is displayed this Component level. These levels correspond to the location of folders in the directory that is specified in the Library path property. Files for FreeCAD will be downloaded through this add-on, files from kits for other programs will not be downloaded.
The data display can be divided into three levels, the first one is the root level (rl), this level displays all components from the local library, the second one is the component level (cl), it displays the list of modifications of the open component, and the third level displays the data of a set of files (fl). The folder for FreeCAD file set in local storage is created regardless of the presence of file set in the modification on CADBase platform, the file set will be created automatically when sending files.
-Library path # set in add-on (rl) ├── Vertical Pump (@lookme) # component folder (cl) │ ├── N1 # modification folder │ │ ├── FreeCAD # FreeCAD fileset (fl) │ │ │ ├── modification # technical data file │ │ │ ├── vertical Pump.FCStd # file of the FreeCAD fileset │ │ │ └── ... # files of the FreeCAD fileset │ │ └── ... # filesets for the modification (fl) │ ├── ... # modifications of the component │ └── component # technical data file ├── ... # local library components (rl) ├── cadbase_file_2018.log # stores logs and responses (optional) └── cadbase_file_2018 # technical data file
CADBaseLibrary is available through the FreeCAD Addon Manager:
It is called CADBaseLibrary in the Addon Repository.
In menu Tools select Addon Manager, select the Workbenches tab find CADBaseLibrary in the list and click Install.
Important Note: CADBaseLibrary needs FreeCAD v0.19 or above. CADBaseLibrary is not compatible with FreeCAD v0.18 and before.
It is also possible to install this workspace manually into FreeCAD's local Mod directory. This can be useful for testing local modifications to the workspace, or to remove an old stale version of the workspace.
In this case, download the Github cadbaselibrary-freecad-master.zip archive from github.com/mnnxp/cadbaselibrary-freecad (see Links for more) to a temporary directory, and extract the Zip archive. Delete (or move) the CadbaseLibrary directory from the local FreeCAD Mod directory, if it exists. Then copy all items in the cadbaselibrary-freecad folder to the CadbaseLibrary folder in the directory containing all FreeCAD addon workspaces:
- for Windows:
C:\Users\******\AppData\Roaming\FreeCAD\Mod - for MacOS:
~/Library/Preferences/FreeCAD/Mod/ - for Linux, FreeCAD version v0.19 :
~/.FreeCAD/Mod - for Linux, FreeCAD version v0.20 :
~/.local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/
Below is a method for those who like to install manually, but in a shorter way:
# Example for the Linux platform and FreeCAD versions above v0.20
git clone https://gitlab.com/cadbase/cadbaselibrary-freecad.git \
~/.local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/CadbaseLibrary/Please Note: You can see the current mod folder path through the Python console in FreeCAD. The method is described in the additional section.
To use this workbench to update files already in the CADBase storage, Blake3 must be installed.
# Install on Unix/macOS
python3 -m pip install "blake3"
# Install on Windows
py -m pip install "blake3"Please Note: The workbench will work without this Blake3 library, the only difference is that the files in the CADBase storage (cloud) that have already been uploaded will not be replaced.
After it is installed and restart FreeCAD, the workbench will be available in the workbench drop-down list.
Select the CADBase Library workbench from the workbench drop-down list.
On first run, the workbench will ask you for the location of your library. The CADBase cloud storage will be synchronized with this location, and technical files for the workbench will be created there.
This location can be changed in the workbench settings in the field Library path.
In the CADBase library window, on the Options tab, click the Settings button.
When the CADBase library configuration window opens, you need to set a username and password in order to access CADBase.
To obtain a token for an existing account or create a new account to access CADBase, you must provide a username and password. After entering these data to receive the token need pressing the OK button.
Please wait until you receive the token. This data will be saved and available after restarting FreeCAD.
Important Note: If the access token has expired, you need to repeat the steps above.
Add target components to bookmarks (favorites) on the CADBase site.
In FreeCAD will only display components that the user has bookmarked on CADBase, as well as those that have been previously downloaded.
Clicking Update components only updates the list of components from bookmarks active user, without downloading component modifications and files.
Double-clicking on a components folder to get a list of modifications for component.
Getting files of a fileset for FreeCAD occurs after double-clicking on a modification folder.
The Create component button is used to create a new component on the CADBase platform. Сlicking on the button opens a modal window in which ability create a new component (part, project, etc.) with a given name.
Select the modification from which you want to upload files.
Click the Upload files button for upload local files of select modification folder to CADBase storage (cloud).
Information about the upload process will be displayed in the log.
After uploading the files, a message will be displayed in the log with information about the number of successfully uploaded files.
In FreeCAD, you can find your user modules folder by typing or pasting App.getUserAppDataDir()+"Mod" and the user macros folder by typing App.getUserMacroDir() in the Python console (found under View->Panels menu).
Please don't use cadbase_file_2018 and cadbase_file_2018.log as file or folder names in the CADBase library folder. These files store server responses and logs, if you use these filenames for your data, you may lose them.
If you need to save logs to a file (for example, for debugging, study, or other purposes), you need to create a cadbase_file_2018.log file in the local library folder.
In the component folders, a component file is created with the technical data about the component.
In the modification folders, a modification file is created with the technical data about the component modification.
To avoid losing local data when downloading from CADBase storage (from the cloud), files already in local storage are skipped.
Before uploading files to CADBase storage (to the cloud), the workbench checks for existing files in the cloud and excludes files from the upload list if their local and cloud hashes match. A hash is calculated using the Blake3 library.
This check is skipped and previously uploaded files (already in the cloud) are not updated unless the Blake3 library is installed.
Workbench development happens in this repository (GitLab).
Mirrors on GitHub and Codeberg.
Videos about the workbench (on YouTube)
v1.0.1 2023-06-05 * More functionality:
- Possibility to create an account (on CADBase platform) via workbench;
- Possibility to create a component (on CADBase platform) via workbench;
- Saving login and password for quick retrieval of a new token.
v1.0.0 2023-04-07 * Support for working with one local library from different programs. Changes:
- In modifications, separate folders are created for FreeCAD file sets;
- Changed the folder naming for components, it now looks like "Component Name (@user-owner)";
- Authentication moved to a separate window;
- Corrected typos in the log and comments.
v0.3.0 2023-09-21 * Changed type add-on from macro to workbench. Other changes:
- Fixed window name display;
- Disabled deletion of old versions of files;
- Added interface translation;
- Reversed log this release notes.
v0.2.0 2023-02-02 * Added the ability to upload files to the CADBase storage. Added comparing local and cloud-stored files using Blake3 hash.
v0.1.3 2022-11-13 * Bugs fixed. Added check to skip a file if it already exists in local storage.
v0.1.2 2022-11-11 * Changed URLs for Wiki and Web, code split into files, updated interface: added descriptions for settings
v0.1.1 2022-10-15 * bugs fixed and code optimization
v0.1.0 2022-06-13 * first release