ForemkaCAD
PLEN
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Introduction to Foremka

Your account, the settings, the interface and moving around the view, then a first part you change later from the timeline.

5:59 · English narration, subtitles in English and Polish · Watch on YouTube

Step by step

Exactly what the narrator says, chapter by chapter. Click the time next to a chapter to jump the video there.

0:00 Welcome

  1. Foremka is a CAD program that runs in your web browser. There is nothing to install: open the page and start modelling.
  2. In this video we create an account and sign in, go through the settings and the interface, and build a first simple part.

0:20 Creating an account

  1. Without an account you work as a guest. Click the avatar in the top right corner: the menu says Guest.
  2. A guest's projects are tied to this browser. To open them on any computer, create an account: click Sign in.
  3. You can sign in with an email and password, or with a Google account. We don't have an account yet, so click Sign up.
  4. Enter your email, an optional display name and a password of at least eight characters.
  5. Click Sign up. You are signed in straight away, and the avatar now shows your initials.

1:04 Signing in

  1. The same menu has Sign out. Let's sign out and sign back in with the email and password.
  2. Avatar, Sign in, email, password, and the Sign in button.

1:22 Settings

  1. The settings are in the same menu, under Settings.
  2. Language: the interface is in English or Polish, and it switches at once.
  3. Length unit: the unit for showing and entering dimensions. The model itself is always computed in millimetres.
  4. Multi-select key: Ctrl or Shift. Hold it and click to add more items to a selection.
  5. View rotation: around the vertical axis of the scene, or free.
  6. Offline work: Foremka keeps copies of your projects in the browser, so you can open them without a connection.
  7. Every change applies immediately. Click Close.
  8. Next to the avatar, this button switches the theme: light, system or dark.

2:14 The interface

  1. At the top is the application bar: new project, open, save, files, export and sharing, command search, undo and redo.
  2. Below it is the ribbon. Its tabs switch workspaces: Solid, Surface, Mesh, Form and Utilities.
  3. Tools are grouped by purpose. The three dots open the tools that did not fit on the ribbon.
  4. On the left is the browser: a tree of everything in the design, with the origin planes, bodies, sketches and construction geometry. The eye shows or hides an item.
  5. The menu button opens the projects panel with your saved projects. It is still empty.
  6. Press S to search for any command by name, and Enter to run it.

3:07 A first part

  1. Now a first part. Click Box: a 20 millimetre cube appears, and the dialog lets you change it.
  2. Make it a plate, 60 by 10 by 40 millimetres, and move its origin so it sits centred on the floor. Click OK.

3:30 Moving around the view

  1. Drag with the left mouse button to orbit around the part.
  2. Drag with the right button to pan, and turn the wheel to zoom towards the cursor.
  3. Click a face of the ViewCube for a standard view, and the house to go back to the home view.
  4. Fit, in the bar at the bottom, frames the whole model. Zoom out a little with the wheel.

4:01 A hole

  1. Next, a hole. Click the top face and then Sketch: the new sketch lies on that face.
  2. Choose Circle, click near the middle of the face, type 16 for the diameter and press Enter.
  3. Finish the sketch, go back to the home view, select the circle and click Extrude.
  4. Set Operation to Cut, Extent Type to All and Direction to Symmetric: the hole goes through the plate, however thick it gets. Click OK.

4:41 Rounding and material

  1. Fillet rounds edges. Click Fillet, then the four top edges of the plate, and set the radius to 3 millimetres.
  2. Appearance gives the part a material. It sits in the more menu of the Modify group. Click a material to apply it.
  3. Measure shows sizes, areas and volume. Click the top face.

5:10 Changing a step

  1. Every step is on the timeline at the bottom. Double-click the box to change it.
  2. Make the plate 15 millimetres thick. The hole and the fillets that come later are rebuilt automatically.

5:25 Saving

  1. Press Ctrl+S to save. Give the project a name and click Save.
  2. The project is now in your account. It shows up in the projects panel, and after signing in you can open it on any computer.
  3. Export saves the model as STEP, IGES, STL and other formats.
  4. That is the introduction. The next tutorial, Basic Part Design, covers sketches, constraints and features step by step.

More tutorials

7:12

Basic Part Design

The part from FreeCAD's Basic Part Design Tutorial, built feature by feature: sketches, extrusions, a mirror and projected edges.

3:14

A drinking glass, rendered in Blender

A profile revolved around an axis, a shell and fillets, then green glass and a photorealistic render straight from the editor.

8:34

Surface modeling a spoon

An outline, a side profile and cross sections, a patch over the bowl and a lofted handle, stitched and thickened into a solid.

8:30

Joints, standard parts and gears

Bearings from the parts library, a block sliding along a shaft between limits, two gears turning together and a rack that turns rotation into straight motion.