Your own 3D parametric modeler
WebsiteDocumentationForumBug trackerGit repository
This project receives generous infrastructure support from
Overview
- Freedom to build what you want FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D
modeler made primarily to design real-life objects of any size.
Parametric modeling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into
your model history and changing its parameters. - Create 3D from 2D & back FreeCAD allows you to sketch geometry constrained
2D shapes and use them as a base to build other objects.
It contains many components to adjust dimensions or extract design details from
3D models to create high quality production ready drawings. - Designed for your needs FreeCAD is designed to fit a wide range of uses
including product design, mechanical engineering and architecture.
Whether you are a hobbyist, a programmer, an experienced CAD user,
a student or a teacher, you will feel right at home with FreeCAD. - Cross platform FreeCAD runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
- Underlying technology
- OpenCASCADE A powerful geometry kernel, the most important component of FreeCAD
- Coin3D library Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene representation model
- Python FreeCAD offers a broad Python API
- Qt Graphical User Interface built with Qt
Installing
Precompiled (installable) packages are available for Windows and Mac on the
Releases page.
On most Linux distributions, FreeCAD is directly installable from the
software center application.
Other options are described at the wiki Download page.
Build Status
Compiling
Compiling FreeCAD requires installation of several libraries and their
development files such as OpenCASCADe, Coin and Qt, listed in the
pages below. Once this is done, FreeCAD can be simply compiled with
cMake. On Windows, these libraries are bundled and offered by the
FreeCAD team in a convenient package. On Linux, they are usually found
in your distribution’s repositories, and on Mac OSX and other platforms
you will usually need to compile them yourself.
The pages below contain up-to-date build instructions:
Usage & Getting help
The FreeCAD wiki contains documentation on
general FreeCAD usage, Python scripting, and development. These
pages might help you get started:
The FreeCAD forum is also a great place
to find help and solve specific problems you might encounter when
learning to use FreeCAD.
More Stories
A teenager from Co Offaly has been “inundated” with orders for his handmade reindeer decorations after his mother put up a post in a popular Facebook group.
Run Windows apps such as Microsoft Office in Linux (Ubuntu) and GNOME as if they were a part of the native OS, including Nautilus integration. – Fmstrat/winapps
With Australia’s relationship with China at a very dangerous stage, the timing of what is expected to be a ‘more nuanced’ approach from a Biden administration could not be more welcome.