FreeCAD/C3/Working-with-Imported-STEP-Files/English

Title of the script : Working with Imported STEP Files in FreeCAD

Author: Jakub Michalski and Chitra Balaji

Keywords : FreeCAD, 3D drawing, Import, Defeaturing, pocket, Video tutorial.

Visual Cue	Narration
Slide 1 Title Slide	Welcome to the Spoken Tutorial on Working with Imported STEP Files in FreeCAD.
Slide 2 Learning Objectives	In this tutorial, we will learn to: Import a STEP file in FreeCAD Understand why File Import is preferred over Open option. Use the Defeaturing tool to remove unwanted features. Create a sketch and make a Pocket in the model.
Slide 3 System Requirements To record this tutorial, I am using: Windows 11 FreeCAD version 1.0.0	To record this tutorial, I am using the following setup.
Slide 4 Prerequisites	To follow this tutorial, learners should know the basics of FreeCAD interface.
Slide 5 Code Files The following code files are required to practice this tutorial. Pin.step Hole.step Example.step Sample.step These files are provided in the Code Files link of this tutorial page.	The following code files are required to practice this tutorial. These files are provided in the Code Files link of this tutorial page.
Right click on the Freecad app image, Select Run.	Let’s open the FreeCAD interface.
Click on the New(+) icon.	Let us open a new file.
Narration Click on the File menu and select the Open menu option. Select a step file. Click open.	We can open the STEP file using either Open or Import options. Lets open a step file.
STEP Import Options dialog box opens. Tick the Enable STEP compound merge and Import invisible objects. Then click OK in the dialog box.	After clicking the Open button, the STEP dialog box opens. Check the check boxes for: Enable STEP compound merge and Import invisible objects. Let us leave the other check boxes as default. Click the OK button in the dialog box to proceed.
Click on the File menu and select the Open menu option. Select a step file. Click open. Show the tabs in the bottom. Switch to first tab.	Let's open another step file. Open option loads the file in a new tab.
Narration Narration Click on the File menu and select the Import menu option. Select a step file. Click open. Click the imported part and select the move tool. Enter the value and click enter.	The Import option is preferred when you want to combine several files together. Let’s import a step file. We can see that the step file is imported in the already existing model. We can also move the models.
Go to File and click New.	Let us open a new file.
Go to File menu and Select Import menu option. Point to the Import file dialog box. Select the Example.step file from the Code files folder. Click on the Open button at the bottom right corner.	Now let’s import a step file and edit the model. Let’s go to File and select Import. Import File dialog box opens. Select the Example.step file. Click the Open button in the dialog box.
STEP Import Options dialog box opens. Click OK in the dialog box.	While importing, the STEP dialog box opens. Click OK.
Model tree shows imported part. Cursor on the model. Narration Narration	The imported part now appears in the 3D view and in the Model tree. A STEP file is a standard 3D model format. It allows to import designs from other CAD software and edit them in FreeCAD. We can edit this imported step file in different workbenches.
Switch to Part workbench.	Let's switch to the Part workbench.
Select the top face of the projected box Select the defeaturing tool. Move the cursor and highlight it.	Let’s now remove a part or face in the given model. Select the top face and side face of the projected box. Select the Defeaturing tool. You can see that the selected part is removed now.
Show the new copy of the object that appears in the model tree. Move the cursor to show the original object. Highlight the booleans operations.	A new copy of the part is created after removing the selected features. Note that the original object is still seen in the tree. The part operations like Booleans can also be applied to STEP files directly.
Switch to Part Design workbench	Now let us create a pocket in the model. For this we will switch to the Part Design workbench.
Select defeatured part. Click Create body tool on the toolbar. Move the cursor to show the base feature in model tree.	Select the defeatured object. Then click Create Body tool. The defeatured object becomes the BaseFeature of the Body.
Select the create a datum plane tool. Select the top face. Click OK. In the reference pop up, select the Make independent copy and click OK.	Select the create a datum plane tool. A new datum plane is created to draw on the top face. Select the top face and click OK.
Select Create Sketch tool.	Click Create Sketch tool.
Narration Select the circle tool in sketcher Close the sketch	In Sketcher, let us draw the pocket profile. Select the circle tool and draw a circle on the top face.Close the sketch.
Highlight the Pocket tool in sketch	Select the sketch and the Pocket tool.
Enter the depth as 10mm	Enter the depth as 10 mm. Then click OK.
3D view showing pocket cut into the defeatured part	The pocket is now created in the defeatured part.
Go to File → Save As Enter the file name as Edited example and click OK.	To save the file, go to File and click Save. Enter the file name as Edited example and click Save.
Slide 5 Summary In this tutorial we learnt to Import a STEP file in FreeCAD Understand why File Import is preferred over Open option. Use the Defeaturing tool to remove unwanted features. Create a sketch and make a pocket in the model.	With this, we come to the end of this tutorial. Let us summarize.
Slide 6 Assignment Import a Sample.step file into FreeCAD. Defeature it by removing both the rectangle protrusions. Add a Body and BaseFeature. Create a circular sketch on a face and pocket it by 10 mm.	As an assignment, please do the following. Here is the output of the assignment.
Slide 7 Thank You	Thank you for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Ketkinaina, Madhurig