Release notes 0.20/en

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FreeCAD 0.20 was released on DD Month 202x, get it from the Download page. This is a summary of the most interesting changes. The complete list of changes can be found in the MantisBT bugtracker FC 0.20 changelog.

Older FreeCAD release notes can be found in Feature list.

Development
To compile FreeCAD under Windows, there are different Libpacks (prepackaged libraries) available:
 * Libpack for Windows with Qt xx, OCC yy, and Python zz

Other development news:

Further User Interface Improvements

 * It is now possible to pan the view of the dependency graph with the mouse. Forum discussion, pull request #4638.
 * Fixed an issue where using a tablet pen devices (e.g. Wacom tablet) was slow to the point of being completely unusable. Forum Discussion, pull request #4687.

Further FEM Improvements

 * The element order of Gmsh meshes can be changed via the mesh dialog. PR #4660
 * Material cards can now contain values for the electrical conductivity. PR #4647
 * Material cards added for Nitrogen and Argon. PR #4649
 * Support for the Gmsh mesh algorithms "HXT" (3D) and "Packing Parallelograms" (2D) added. PR #4654
 * Allow to set for the Gmsh property High Order Optimize a certain algorithm. PR #4705

OpenSCAD Workbench
Interoperability with OpenSCAD has been improved, adding support for several operations missing from earlier versions (linear extrude with rotations, rotational extrusions). Several operations are modified to provide improved FreeCAD object equivalents, particularly for twisted extrusions. Surface generation from discrete data was modified to give more OpenSCAD-like results, rather than splined surfaces.

Further improvements

 * The dialog to edit Cylinders allows now to specify an angle in respect to the normal of the chosen attachment plane. This way one can create skew cylinders. Pull request #4708

Further improvements

 * The Helix feature has the new mode Height-Turns-Growth to create flat spirals. Forum thread PR #4590
 * The Sprocket feature can now create also ISO-normed sprockets. Forum thread PR #4478

Further improvements

 * Refactored Trim support Pull Request Discussion <-- Needs screencasts
 * Visibility automation allows to open Sketcher in Section mode when entering edit mode Pull request Discussion
 * Visibility automation allows to force camera in Orthographic mode when entering edit mode Pull request Discussion

Spreadsheet Workbench

 * It is now possible to select in the row/column context-menu at what positions new rows/columns will be inserted. Furthermore, when selecting several rows/columns, the row/column context-menu offers now to insert as many new rows/columns as selected. pull request #4704.