Installing additional components

Introduction
After installing FreeCAD for you operating system (Windows, Linux or Mac), you may want to consider installing one or more of the following additional components.

Help files
The offline documentation is not shipped with all installers, but it is available as a separate package. See the Installing Helpfile page for more information.

External workbenches
Apart from the default workbenches bundled with FreeCAD, there is a large collection of useful external workbenches made by community members.

Third party software
FreeCAD supports several third party software packages out of the box. In many cases all you need to do is install the software, and when FreeCAD is restarted it will automatically find and be able to use it. This section aims to provide a list of such software packages, together with some information about where they are used in FreeCAD and where they can be downloaded.

GitPython
GitPython is a library to interact with Git repositories. The Addon Manager can use this library. GitPython is included in the FreeCAD installers for Windows and Mac.

GraphViz
GraphViz is an open source graph visualization software. It is used by the Std DependencyGraph tool.

OpenCAMLib
OpenCAMLib is an open source library of computer aided manufacturing (CAM) algorithms. It is used in the Path Workbench. See the OpenCamLib page for installation instructions.

OpenSCAD
OpenSCAD is a solid 3D modeller. The OpenSCAD Workbench depends on this software and the Mesh Workbench uses it for its Boolean tools. It is also required for the import of SCAD files with the Std Import tool.

File formats
All software in this section will be used by the Std Import or Std Export tools.

CADExchanger
CADExchanger is a commercial application for exchanging various CAD file formats. There is an external workbench to use this application in FreeCAD.

DXF Importer
FreeCAD has a native importer and exporter for DXF files, programmed in C++. Currently they do not implement all features of the DXF format. For those features the legacy Python importer and exporter are still available. These require the Draft-dxf-importer Python library. See the FreeCAD and DXF Import page for more information.

IfcOpenShell
IfcOpenShell is a library for working with the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file format used in architectural design. The library is also used by the Arch IfcExplorer and BIM IfcExplorer tools. IfcOpenShell is included in the FreeCAD installers for Windows and Mac.

LibreDWG
Support for LibreDWG is still experimental. Like the ODA File Converter it can convert DWG to DXF files which FreeCAD can then import. See the FreeCAD and DWG Import page for more information.

ODA File Converter
The ODA File Converter is a free application to convert between several versions of DWG and DXF files. FreeCAD requires this converter, or LibreDWG, to import DWG files. See the FreeCAD and DWG Import page for more information.

Pycollada
Pycollada, also known as python-collada, is a Python library to read and write Collada (DAE) files. Pycollada is included in the FreeCAD installers for Windows and Mac.

POVRay
POVRay is a well-known ray-tracer which can render photo-realistic images. It is one of two render engines currently supported by the Raytracing Workbench.

LuxCoreRender
LuxCoreRender, also known as LuxRender, is the other render engine supported by the Raytracing Workbench. Only the old and abandoned LuxRender-1.x versions can be used. LuxRender-1.6 can be downloaded from the LuxCoreRender GitHub release page.

CalculiX
CalculiX is a suite of two finite element packages: CalculiX CrunchiX, a FEM solver, and CalculiX GraphiX, a GUI frontend. Only the solver is supported by FreeCAD. It is used by the Solver CalculiX tool.

Gmsh
Gmsh is an automatic finite element mesh generator. it is used by the FEM MeshGmshFromShape and Mesh FromPartShape tools.

Elmer
Elmer is a multi-physics simulation software, which was open sourced in 2005. In FreeCAD its Grid and Solver modules are used by the FEM SolverElmer tool.

FEniCS
FEniCS is a computing platform to solve partial differential equations (PDEs), which are widely used when solving FEM problems. It is used by the FEM workbench

Z88
Z88 is another FEM program, containing a mesher, a solver and converters. It is used by the FEM SolverZ88 tool. FreeCAD requires the open source Z88OS package.

OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM is a large collection of libraries for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. OpenFOAM is used by the Cfd and CfdOF external workbenches.

Related pages

 * Import Export
 * Import Export Preferences
 * Third Party Libraries