Release notes 017

FreeCAD 0.17 was released on XX.XX.XXXX, get it from Download. This is a summary of the most interesting changes. The complete list of changes can be found in the Mantis changelog. Older versions at: 0.16 - 0.15 - 0.14 - 0.13 - 0.12 - 0.11

Garden Railway Coach O&K (by FreeCAD-User "Garden Railway Coach O&K", see Users Showcase)

General

 * Yorik van Havre wrote "The FreeCAD Manual" as an introductory book on how to use FreeCAD.
 * During Google’s Summer of Code 2016 student Mandeep Singh wrote an enhanced version of a loader/installer for the different aditional workbenches and macros for FreeCAD. This Plugin Manager still needs some programming work until it can be released (or integrated into FreeCAD).

Part Workbench
OpenCascade geometry kernel was updated from 6.8.0 to 7.0.0.
 * New feature: Boolean Fragments, Slice and XOR.
 * Thanks to them, composite solids (compsolids) can now be created in FreeCAD. They are of great use in FEM.
 * Connect performance and reliability were improved, and the tool was made more versatile.
 * New feature: 2D Offset, to offset planar wires.
 * Enhancement: Part Extrude tool supports parametric Normal direction, direction controlled by linked edge, reversing, 2nd length, 2nd taper angle, and symmetric. Also, Make Solid checkbox is now checked automatically if you open dialog and the selected object is a closed wire (e.g., a sketch).
 * Enhancement: Part Revolve tool now supports parametric link to revolution axis.
 * Part Primitives can now be attached to other geometry (use Part->Attachment in menu, after creating the primitive).

Part Design & Sketcher Workbench

 * With version 0.17 a new workflow within the part design workbench would be introduced, known as part design next. With new features also a new philosophy of creating parts with the part design workbench is introduced. This work should make programming an assembly module much easier.

Spreadsheet Workbench

 * An Excel-file importer was added.

Drawing Workbench

 * A new workbench for creating technical drawings called TechDraw was put into a state to be released. For some time both workbenches will be present in the FreeCAD-master but in the long run TechDraw is to replace the original drawing workbench

Arch Workbench

 * Enhancement: Arch schedule tool completely rewritten.
 * Enhancement: New tool set (piping tools) in arch workbench to design plumbing systems.