Assembly workbench for FreeCAD v0.16 with support for importing parts from external files. Please note that the Assembly 2 workbench is no longer maintained.

Intended work-flow:

• each part in the assembly is designed in its own FreeCAD file
• a separate assembly FreeCAD file is created
• parts are imported to this assembly file using the Assembly 2 workbench
• spacial constraints are then added to assemble the imported parts

Features

• circular edge constraint
• axial constraint
• plane constraint
• part importing
• updating of parts already imported

Limitations

• Poor constraint solver which may fail or take excessively long for complicated assemblies
• undo and other similar features not supported

To use this workbench clone this git repository under your FreeCAD MyScripts directory, and install the pyside and numpy python libraries. On a Linux Debian based system such as Ubuntu, installation can be done through BASH as follows

$ sudo apt-get install git python-numpy python-pyside
$ mkdir ~/.FreeCAD/Mod
$ cd ~/.FreeCAD/Mod
$ git clone https://github.com/hamish2014/FreeCAD_assembly2.git

FreeCAD you will now have a new workbench-entry called "Assembly 2". Once installed, use git to upgrade to the latest version through BASH as follows

$ cd ~/.FreeCAD/Mod/FreeCAD_assembly2
$ git pull
$ rm *.pyc

Alternatilvely, on an Ubuntu system the freecad-community PPA can be used:

1. Add ppa:freecad-community/ppa to your software sources (What are PPAs and how do I use them?)
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install freecad-extras-assembly2

• download the git repository as ZIP
• assuming FreeCAD is installed in "C:\PortableApps\FreeCAD 0_15", go to "C:\PortableApps\FreeCAD 0_15\Mod" within Windows Explorer
• create new directory named "assembly2"
• unzip downloaded repository in "C:\PortableApps\FreeCAD 0_15\Mod\assembly2"

FreeCAD will now have a new workbench-entry called "Assembly 2".

Pyside and Numpy are integrated in the FreeCAD 0.15 dev-Snapshots, so these Python packages do not need to be installed individually

To update to the latest version, delete the assembly2 folder and redownload the git repository.