3D design thought through at every level.
The product's entire definition lives in one parametric FreeCAD assembly: the serrated-edge propeller, the shroud, the arc, the base — and the real electronics, modeled from the measurements of the Components step. A single digital mock-up is the reference, and every change propagates through it on its own.
Every later step flows from this pivotal one: simulation, drawings, 3D printing, assembly, renders and animation. Each calls for its own version of the model — manufacturing clearances on the printed parts, every single component for the renders even those with no mechanical role, simplified geometry with merged contacts so the solvers can mesh. All of them derive from the same source: when the assembly changes, the versions follow.
Learn more — click a sub-step
01The parametric assembly
Every part is modeled in FreeCAD and gathered in a single parametric tree: the propeller and its threaded hub, the shroud, the arc, the base and its cover — but also the real electronics from the Components step, imported as STEP and positioned to the millimeter: ESP32, potentiometer, switch, power jack, standard bearings.
Properly parameterized, an assembly is not a frozen drawing but a construction rule: the dimensions that matter are named once, and every part refers to them instead of copying them. Changing a propeller diameter or a shroud thickness then regenerates everything else, constraints included — seconds of recompute instead of a day of rework, with no dimension forgotten along the way. The tree still has to hold: features rely on stable references rather than on faces picked at random, to avoid the classic CAD pitfall — the file that blows up in errors as soon as you go back and change an early dimension. That is what makes iteration cheap, and what allowed the blade-shroud clearance — the critical parameter identified in the Research step — to be revisited as many times as needed.
02One model, four versions
Every later step calls for its own variant of the product. 3D printing wants separate parts, oriented, with manufacturing clearances applied — down to the shroud variant adapted to TPU. Simulation wants the opposite: cosmetic details removed, contacts merged, useful volumes only, so the mesh goes through and the solver converges. Renders and animation want everything, including the parts that serve no mechanical purpose but do show up on screen. Drawings, for their part, want the nominal, dimensioned model.
All four versions derive from the same parametric source, never redrawn by hand: when the assembly changes, each variant regenerates. That disciplined versioning is what prevents the simulated part, the printed part and the filmed part from ever telling three different stories.
03From 3D to drawings
Manufacturing does not feed on pretty renders: it demands drawings. FreeCAD's TechDraw workbench produces dimensioned drawings straight from the assembly — here the base and its arm: radii, borings, heights, the 150 mm tube, at 1:1 scale, title block included.
This is the fourth variant of the model, and the most demanding: since everything derives from the parametric assembly, a dimension changed upstream updates the sheet — the drawing cannot drift away from the part.