Release notes 0.16

FreeCAD 0.16 was released on XXXXX, 2015. This is a summary of the most interesting changes. The complete list of changes can be found in the Mantis changelog. Older versions at: 0.15 - 0.14 - 0.13 - 0.12 - 0.11



Spark Plug Plane by r-frank

Highlights
Expression support has been introduced, which allows to define formula relationships between properties of objects. Expression support is a major leap forward for making better parametric models in FreeCAD. Expressions offer easy interface for making models controlled by spreadsheets.

Sketcher solver behavior has been majorly improved. Not only it became faster and more stable, it also doesn't hang anymore on unsolvable sketches. And automatic document recomputes triggered after each tiny tweak to the sketch can now be switched off, allowing smooth editing of sketches buried under deep dependencies.

FreeCAD now supports touchscreen 3D navigation. This makes it possible to use FreeCAD without a mouse on a convertible laptop with touchscreen and pen, away from a desk.

Major improvements were made to FEM workbench....

General

 * Gesture Navigation (with touchscreen support on Windows)
 * Workbench customization
 * Support for expressions/formulas

Part Workbench
New tools for joining walled objects (e.g., pipes): Connect, Embed and Cutout

Part Design & Sketcher Workbench

 * Sketcher New Feature: Toggle Mode for Reference/Driving constraints
 * Sketcher: New Feature: Continuous creation mode
 * Sketcher new Feature: Non-driving constraints (aka Driven constraints)
 * Sketcher: major speedup
 * Sketcher: advanced solver control
 * Sketcher & PartDesign: Support for expressions/formulas in constraints and properties

Spreadsheet Workbench

 * Added functions: round, trunc, ceil, and floor.

Drawing Workbench

 * Drawing: Added SVG pattern generation module

Arch Workbench

 * Arch: Added materials support
 * Arch: added more properties needed for green buildings: this is in preparatory work for gbXML export
 * Arch: Cut plane/Section view, featuring real-time cutting the view of everything.
 * Arch: Improvements to IFC importer for treating large IFC files

FEM Workbench

 * FEM: new constraint pressure
 * FEM: better material handling
 * FEM: new materials where added
 * FEM: add Support for loads and supports on edges to CalculiX file
 * FEM: Add preferences dialog
 * FEM: multiple constraints in one analysis
 * FEM: use shape functions for node load calculation of constraint force
 * FEM: drag & drop of analysis member
 * FEM: keyboard short cuts for commands
 * FEM: FreeCAD build-in editor including syntax highligting for CalculiX input files
 * FEM: ViewProvider for shell and beam FEM-Meshes
 * FEM: lots of new Python Methods for working with FEM-Meshes

There is a macro which uses gmsh for meshing. Very usefull for all not able to compile FreeCAD with netgen.

Additional Modules

 * Animation workbench
 * Exporter to Kerkythea (Macro)
 * Pie Menu