FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeller made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modelling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into your model history to change its parameters.
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| Freecad 2021 |
Overview
Freedom to build what you want FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeller made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modelling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into your model history to change its parameters.
Create 3D from 2D and back FreeCAD lets you 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, programmer, experienced CAD user, student or teacher.
Cross-platform FreeCAD runs on Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems.
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 macOS on the Releases page.
On most Linux distributions, FreeCAD is directly installable from the software centre application.
Other options are described on the wiki Download page.
Build Status 
| Master | 0.18 | Translation |
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Compiling
Compiling FreeCAD requires the installation of several libraries and their development files such as OCCT (Open Cascade), Coin and Qt, listed in the pages below. Once this is done, FreeCAD can be 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 macOS and other platforms, you will usually have to compile them yourself.
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| Freecad 2021 Logo |
The pages below contain up-to-date build instructions:
Reporting Issues
To report an issue please:
- First post to the forum to verify the issue;
- Link forum thread to bug tracker ticket and vice-a-versa;
- Use the most updated stable or development versions of FreeCAD;
- Post version info from eg.
Help > About FreeCAD > Copy to clipboard; - Post a Step-By-Step explanation on how to recreate the issue;
- Upload an example file to demonstrate the problem.
For more detail see:
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.
