Release notes 0.15

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

Spark Plug Plane by r-frank

General

 * Import/Export now has an own section in the Edit > Preferences section
 * support of units in serveral sections now enabled
 * Customized keyboard shortcuts now accept up to 4 keys
 * Created new Lib Pack for Windows version
 * VR Occulus Rift Support
 * Support of custom global toolbars

Search box in Selection view
The selection window allow users to search inside the selected objects. Moreover you have now possibilities to select only one entity, unselect an entity, zoom fit on an entity and go to the entity in the tree view.



Part Module Workbench

 * New Feature: Parabola & ArcOfParabola
 * New Feature: Hyperbola & ArcOfHyperbola

Part Design & Sketcher Workbench

 * Added more regular polygons to sketcher
 * Edit Sketch datum constraints from data Property view
 * Sketcher new feature: Element widget (geometry is listed, like constraints are)
 * Sketcher new feature: Selects the elements associated with the selected constraint(s)
 * Sketcher new feature: Select Conflict and Redundant Constraints
 * Sketcher feature enhancement: Symmetry constraint perpendicular to axis of symmetry
 * Sketcher enhancement: Merge sketches
 * Sketcher enhancement: Ellipse support

Spreadsheet Workbench
The Spreadsheet Workbench has been completely recoded. FreeCAD now possesses a state-of-the-art, robust, feature-rich spreadsheet editor. A couple of functionalities found in the previous version of this workbench have been removed, such as the property controllers, but this is a complex issue requiring more time to design properly. At the present time, however, the new spreadsheet already offer far better possibilities to gather data from your model.



Allow sticky fonts in ShapeString
For the nostalgic of old CAD software, sticky fonts (in which letters are made of simple lines, not filled shapes) can now be used with the ShapeString tool.



Minor improvements

 * Lines can now be defined by their length and angle in the current working plane
 * Relative extension lines for dimensions
 * Support for sketcher ellipses
 * Array objects can now be fused

Export drawing pages to DXF


The system used to export Drawing pages to DXF until now used a very complicated hack to convert the SVG code to FreeCAD object then back to DXF with the Draft exporters. Now, the export is done internally inside the Drawing module, which gives much faster and reliable results. DXF export now uses a template system similar to SVG sheets. If your Drawing page uses a certain SVG template, and a DXF template with the same name is found at the same location, it is used to generate the DXF file.

In the DXF file, the different views are placed as scaled blocks. This allows to quickly restore the 1:1 scale.

Minor improvements

 * It is now possible to reuse projection settings from an existing view when creating new draft views.

Updated IFC importer/exporter
FreeCAD's IFC importer has received a lot of work and testing, and a massive upgrade. The old, python-based importer, has been disabled (it is still usable from the python console, though), and FreeCAD now uses exclusively and intensively the newest, bleeding-edge version 5 (read more about it) of IfcOpenShell that is now available on all main platforms (be sure to download the version that matches the python version used by your FreeCAD installation). We now benefit from a much faster and reliable import and export, a much simpler and cleaner code (read: easier to extend), and already a few additional goodies, such as better support for curve-based objects and IFC properties.

New feature: Cut object with plane
This new functionality makes it possible to cut an object according to a plan defines by the face of another object. It is possible to cut the object behind or in front of the plan chooses.



New roof tool
The Roof tool was completely remade and now makes it possible to define slopes different for each sides from roof, moreover it is possible to define a thickness of roof, the length of the overflow.



Panels
A new Panel object has been added to the Arch Workbench. It allows to create all kinds of panel-like objects, and will be specially useful for panel constructions such as the wikihouse or popup house projects.



Furniture
The new Arch Equipment object is designed to add all kinds of non-structural standalone objects to your architectural projects, such as lighting appliances, sanitary equipments or furniture.

Minor enhancements

 * The Basepoint of Arch Frame object can now be set to a specific vertex of the profile.

External modules
There has also been some very interesting work on two new workbenches, that are not yet integrated into the FreeCAD source code, but, since they are programmed in python, they are easy to install on an existing FreeCAD 0.15 installation:


 * The Assembly 2 workbench provides tools to create multi-part assemblies, and is a very good alternative for the official Assembly workbench which is still under development.
 * The Drawing dimensioning workbench adds dimensioning and annotation tools to the Drawing workbench.