Babies first FOSDEM! I’ve been thinking about going for several years but was never able to make it happen, in particular without a solid reason to be there, it was hard to justify. But this time around, I had updates on KiConnect to present and the FreeCAD Project Association graciously provided a travel grant to get me out there. And because I don’t fly around the world for a weekend, my partner decided to join me and we made a vacation out of it.

Welp, 2025 was pretty awful. From an American prospective, a bunch of idiots thought to themselves, “I guess I can accept a little fascism, as long as my property taxes don’t go up.” And then the other half of the country voted for it with enthusiasm. Now the entire world is in disarray and I’m constantly thinking, what’s the point.

*sigh*

moving on…

What actually went well in 2025….

KiCON US

One thing that did go well was my third attempt at a KiCAD workbench for FreeCAD. I tried this once with KiCadStepUp as the basis but as it was too monolithic I had trouble hooking into it to use as an API. My second attempt used the KiCADs SWIG bindings. This went decently well but a conversation with Wayne, project lead for KiCAD I figured I should wait for KiCAD v9 and use its new long term API. I started this project late 2024 and spent most of January hammering on a prototype that I was satisfied with. This became KiConnect

Barback V2 design files have finally been cleaned up! The project was plagued with tons of DAG errors and cyclical dependencies. With burnout from the big push last November, the hardware basically working, the firmware still needing a lot of attention, and being actively asked to pour at events… Time for this part of the project was hard to find. But with that last part, actively pouring drinks, we’ve come to find many short comings in the current design.

Needing some storage bins for the garage I came up with the idea for self-aligning stackable bins. Cut from 3/4" ply, the trick is the 45deg on the bottom panel and inside edges. My first attempt was a quick hand drawing and somewhere along the way I ended up with misaligned pieces. So in order to ensure my dimensions made sense I figured I’d FreeCAD it up. It’s pretty simple but still parametric, able to adjust for material thickness and inner dimensions. Plus, I figured if the design did work out (so far it’s looking good!) I could CNC batches of them, that would only need the 45def chamfers routed and final assembly. Would also update to include hand holds.