In this series of Beginner’s Tutorials, we’ll be using FreeCAD 1.0 to make some basic projects. You’ll learn the basic but fundamentally important features that you can use to create your own 3D models for 3D printing. These tutorials will be very simple for accessibility, however, I’ll add challenges and suggestions for those who want to make more advanced and complex projects.Here are the completed projects from other users so far!The more each guide is used, the more guides I’ll create for you all with new projects and features to learn. This first guide will teach you how to make a Plane Kit Card model. You’ll learn to use Sketches, Pads, and Pockets which are the main core features that I use to design. Even my most complex models are 90% composed of only Pads and Pockets.Downloading and Setting Up FreeCADYou can download FreeCAD for Windows, Mac, and Linux from freecad.org, or from this direct link. (https://www.freecad.org/downloads.php) When opening FreeCAD for the first time, you should see something like this:First off, I prefer to change everything to dark mode, so we’ll go to Edit -> Preferences. You’ll see something like this:Click that “Apply” button for the OpenDark preference pack and FreeCAD will stall a little bit before changing to:Next, we can change how we navigate the 3D space with our mouse by clicking the “CAD” button on the bottom right. These options change how you rotate, pan, and view your model and each use the mouse buttons differently. Personally, I like the TinkerCAD setup as that’s what I’m familiar with. Hopefully one of the options is familiar to you! Overview of The Lesson:Below is the Final Plane Kit Card model that uses only Pads and Pockets. To get to this point, we’ll go through 3 stages and an optional 4th “Advanced” stage. I’ll provide instructions for each stage along with a FreeCAD source file so that you can look and see exactly what I did or work on and modify the file yourself.  This is Stage 1 where we create 2 bodies that roughly outline the shape of the plane:Next, we’ll add another body for the tail in Stage 2:And the last main stage is where we refine the form and shape of the bodies to make it look more like a plane:For those who want to take a step further and advance their skills, the optional Stage 4 has you add additional details or parts to make the plane more customized for what you like: Before you start, all the source files are available here. There is a FreeCAD file for each stage for you to look at or follow along with.Stage 1:You’ll start with creating a new project in FreeCAD like so:Your new document should look like this:Navigate to the Part Design Workbench:Create a new Body:And now you’ll have this in your left sidebar:Create a Sketch for this Body:And this will show up:Click on the XY-Plane and you’ll now be in a Sketch (and using the Sketcher Workbench):I recommend turning on the Snap to Grid here: The Sketch we will be making will look like this:Each grid space here is 1 mm. We’ll use the Polyline tool in the Sketcher:This allows us to draw the lines we need to create the shapes we want. Try using the Polyline tool to create different shapes so you can understand how it works. You can delete lines by clicking them and pressing the “Delete” key. You can also click and drag to select multiple lines at once. Once you’ve gotten a feel for the Polyline Tool, draw the outline of the wings of your plane. You can use the exact same measurements as mine or try to create your own. When creating your outline, make sure that all the lines are connected to each other and that there is a clear shape. Otherwise, the program won’t be able to extrude/pad your outline. For example, this sketch will NOT work because it has gaps in the outline (on the right):This sketch will also NOT work because there are line intersections that make it hard to know what the full shape is:However, I can remove some lines to make the sketch above work: When you’re done creating your plane outline, we’ll need to add a 2 mm slot where the front of the plane will connect: After creating your sketch, you can close it here:Now, you’ll have a 2D sketch on your screen like so:Here’s where it starts to get fun, we’ll turn this 2D sketch into a 3D model by selecting the sketch and then using the Pad feature:Select the sketch (it’ll change colors):Then click Pad:The default Pad length is 10mm:Change it to 2mm and click OK:Nice! Now we’ll create another Body for the front and add a Sketch to it like before:This time, instead of the XY-Plane, we’ll use the YZ-Plane, this will make our new sketch perpendicular to the first part:You can rotate your view to see the sketch in 3D:You can toggle see-through with this:Now, we’ll use the Polyline tool again to create the front part of the plane, here’s what mine looks like:You can see that I drew in another 2mm slot here so that the pieces can fit together.Create your sketch and Pad it just like we did before. We’ll do 2mm again, but this time we’ll check the “Symmetric to plane” box:This will make the new Pad even on both sides instead of just extruding in one direction. And that’s it for Stage 1! Stage 2In this stage, we’ll use a Pocket, which is the opposite of a Pad, to cut out a slot where we can add a Tail.When working with Bodies in FreeCAD, we need to specify which Body we want to work with by making it the Active Body. The Active Body is in Bold like so: The Wings here are in Bold and thus is the Active Body. You can choose an Active Body by double-clicking on the Body on the left sidebar or by right-clicking and toggling:  Now, we’ll select the top face of our Wings, it’ll change colors like so:We can create a new Sketch right onto this selected face:This allows us to draw a Sketch that is connected to this face instead of one the planes. We can draw a 2mm slot on the tail where we want to add a Pocket:I like to add a bit of extra cut on the outside to make sure that the cut goes through fully.Create this Sketch and close out of the Sketcher:Select the Sketch and use the Pocket feature:You should see that the slot is now cut into the tail!Click OK and you should have this:Now, create a Tail by creating a new Body, Sketching it, and Padding it (2mm, Symmetric) just like we did with the Front part. Here’s the Sketch for my Tail: Here’s how mine looks like, don’t forget you can download my source files to see it exactly in FreeCAD here:That’s it for Stage 2! Next, we’ll use Pockets to shape the Wings better. Stage 3:Just like how we added a slot for the Tail, we’ll select the top face of the Wings and add a Sketch:I drew some triangles to cut out near the front like so:And then did a Pocket of that Sketch:Then, I shaped the wings by creating another Sketch on that top face and drawing more triangles to cut out:You can draw any shape to cut out and it can be more complex than single lines. After this Pocket I did the same process just once more to shape the Tail area better:All of this came together to make the Plane shape more refined:This is where I normally do a test print! While adding details is the most fun part, it’s best to test out the design to make sure it works before putting the time and work into the details. We can export this 3D model into either a .STEP or .STL file that works with your slicer, I use Bambu Studio. We’ll begin by selecting the part we’d like to export, then going to File -> Export (or Ctrl + E on Windows):Choose either .STEP with colors or .STL Mesh and export the file:Do this for each part and you’ll be able to drop them into your slicer for printing!Here’s how mine looks in Bambu Studio (after auto-rotating and arranging): Print your files out and make sure they fit together! If it’s satisfactory, then you’ve completed your first project! Feel free to upload your design as an original design, no need to mark it as a remix as I’m giving full permission to use my source files for this tutorial in any way you see fit. If the fits are not ideal for your parts, you can either adjust your models or calibrate your printer/filament better. The 2mm slots are the standard sized slots for kit cards and should work well so I recommend checking your file to make sure it’s 2mm slots and then calibrating your printer's flow calibration for better dimensional accuracy. If you’re interested in going further, you can move onto Stage 4 where we’ll add more details to make the plane even cooler! Stage 4 (Optional):Here is where you can put your own creative flair and spins on your design to really make it yours. My ‘detailed’ plane has extra details added such as more tail fins, thrusters on the wings, mini-guns on the wings, and a little more shape to the cockpit:All of this can be achieved by creating a Sketch on a face of a Body and Padding or Pocketing that Sketch. You can see exactly how I did each part inside the source file “Project1_Part4.FCStd”. I’ve done each modification one step at a time so you can see what I did for each modification. You can select a feature in the left sidebar and open it up to show the Sketch:Double-Clicking the Sketch allows you to open it up and look at it:You can even change an earlier Sketch and modify it to alter your designs (or you can modify my source files). So go ahead and use the Pads and Pockets to customize your plane kit card! If you’re looking to share what you’ve designed, I’d very much like to see it! Upload your design to MakerWorld as an original design and comment a link to it on this article. I’ll try to collect all of your projects in a MakerWorld Collection that I’ll attach to the top of this article so everyone can see your work! Hopefully, this tutorial has worked well for you, let me know if there’s anything that needs additional clarification or if you have any questions. If you’re able to google your questions, you’ll learn much more and faster, but if you can’t find any answers I’ll try to answer any questions here. I’d like to make more lessons like this with more projects that show you new features of FreeCAD and the best way to support me in this is to download, print, and boost my models (especially the model that goes along with this tutorial). Thank you for your support and I hope to see you all design cool 3D models!