899fb722ea
Some of these new APIs are not strictly needed for Link to work, but good to have. Summary of the API changes: * getModeSwitch/getTransformNode() exposes view provider mode switch and transformation coin3D node, required by ViewProviderLink to override placement and visibility. * canAddToSceneGraph() inform 3D viewer whether to add the root node to scenegraph. Some object only exists as a child of some coordinate system. Not adding them can simplify scenegraph and visibility management. * showInTree() inform tree view whether to show the corresponding tree item. * getDefaultMode() to expose the current active mode regardless of the view provider's visibility * (can)DropObjectEx() superseds (can)DropObject() with additional support of subname reference, which makes it easy to support linking to sub-objects. One of the use case is cross coordinate system linking. * getDropPrefix() is used to tell tree view where the object is dropped into. A non empty return means the object is actually dropped into a sub-object. For example, Assembly3 container puts all dropped object into its child container PartGroup. * canDragAndDropObject() is used to inform tree view whether the object dropped need to be dragged out of its original parent, which usually does not make sure for Link type object. * beforeDelete() will be called by Gui::Document when either the object itself is being deleted or when the document is being destoried. * is/setLinkVisibility() allows to show/hide a link to this object. This may be used during editing, to prevent showing editing geometry in multiple places. * update() is made a virtual function, it will be overridden by ViewProviderDocumentObject in future patch. * startEditing() now becomes virtual, and return a ViewProvider that actually handles the editing. This is for future Link type object to forward editing request * covert(), convenience function to convert between Coin3D and FC matrix ViewProviderExtension also gains many relavant extension point of the new API. There is also the new extensionModeSwitchChange() for notifying mode switch changes ViewProviderPy exposes several method/attribute for the new API as well.
Your own 3D parametric modeler
Website • Documentation • Forum • Bug tracker • Git repository
Overview
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cross platform FreeCAD runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
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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 
| Master | 0.18 | Translation |
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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.