Release notes 0.19
Are features missing? Mention them in the Release notes for v0.19 forum thread.
See Help FreeCAD for ways to contribute to FreeCAD.
Older FreeCAD release notes can be found in Feature list.
General
Python 3 and Qt5
The effort to migrate from Python 2 and Qt4 to Python 3 and Qt5 is essentially complete and most developers have moved to the Python3/Qt5 toolchains.
Undoubtedly there are unforeseen bugs and unanticipated breakages that will present themselves during the next development cycle or two, but any existing dependence on Python 2 or Qt4 will not be supported moving forward. Note that the developers of certain addons have not yet ported to their tools to Python3/Qt5. This may be due to several reasons including lack of support, time, resources, or broken dependencies that may or may not be easily fixed. Individuals interested in the migration of a particular workbench or tool are encouraged to participate in the FreeCAD forum.
Fixed issue with Std Part containers visibility when the viewport is displayed in full screen in Qt5:
- Set
Qt::AA_ShareOpenGLContexts
for Qt 5.9 and above; forum discussion, commit 2a1dd8415, and commit 57b3ca6f77. - Disabled ESC button support in
View3DInventor::keyEvent()
for Qt5 to avoid MDI view mode-related rendering artifacts; forum discussion, commit 960d612547. - Fixed bug in
MainWindow::setActiveWindow
to avoid a crash when returning from full screen; forum discussion, commit c4e34ed9b. - Fixed issue #4088 about the visibility of the origin of a Part changing when undocking the 3D view; forum discussion, commit 1e19ef5be.
Development
- Merged QtWebEngine support; pull request #1937.
- New Libpack for Windows with Qt 5.12, OCC 7.3 and Python 3.6; forum discussion.
- Added support for existing Python virtual environments; pull request #2021.
- Fixed broken support for "INCH" units when exporting to STEP/IGES formats; forum discussion, commit 1b26173580.
- Improved import/export compatibility with proprietary CAD systems, when using compressed STEP, or STPZ; forum discussion, pull request #2323, commit 7de89cf62e.
- Pre-select name filter in the import/export dialog; forum discussion, commit e239994,
- Fix missing application ID and icon on GNOME/Wayland; pull request #2466.
Known Limitations
- Black screen due to video card drivers, while running FreeCAD inside a virtual machine; issue #3939.
- Logitech Wingman USB joystick can cause erratic behavior when spinning and zooming in the view; forum discussion.
- Gesture navigation is fully supported for Windows but yet to be maintained in Linux and MacOS. Problem: the developer, DeepSOIC, doesn't have a MacOS machine with its special trackpad, and hasn't tested it on Linux either; forum discussion.
User Interface
New COIL icon theme developed by user 1D_Inc. This is a minimalistic icon set inspired on Blender's 2.8 outline-style icons (a coil of threads or strands alludes to the appearance of the icons). The intention is to have professional-looking icons that can be used with different color themes, including light, dark, and monochrome.
Forum discussion 1 (old thread), discussion 2 (main thread), 1D_SVG_Tools repository. | |
New icon theme management developed by user triplus. | |
New dark stylesheet developed by user userzmp2000. | |
Dark themes by user pablogil. Blue, green, and orange variations, which are darker than previous templates. |
App::Link and assembly
After 2.5 years in development, the "Link" object, or more formally App::Link
, was introduced in FreeCAD. This is a special type of App::DocumentObject
with certain properties that will hopefully allow for doing assemblies easier.
A "Link" allows objects to use another object's data, such as geometry or even their 3D visual representation, in the same or different files. It can be thought of as a thin, absolute clone, or as the same object living into two different "instances". Some functionality offered by a "Link" is already present in some workbenches like Arch and BIM (clones, external references), but the "Link" implementation is at the core level, and thus can be used by all workbenches in different ways.
The "Link" component was thought and developed almost single-handedly by user realthunder. The motivations and design implementations behind this project are described in his GitHub page, Link. In order to accomplish this feature, several core changes to FreeCAD were made; these are also extensively documented in Core-Changes.
The history of "Link" can be traced to some essential forum threads:
- Why an object can only be inside one App::Part? (March 2017)
- Introducing App::Link/XLink (March 2017)
- Links (May 2017)
- Realthunder Link implementation: Architecture discussion (June 2017)
- PR #876: Link, stage one, context aware selection (July 2017)
- Preview: Link, stage two, API groundwork (July 2017)
- Assembly3 preview (December 2017)
- Merging of my Link branch (June 2018)
Finally, the pull request and merge happened:
- App::Link: the big merge, old thread (July 2019), pull request #2350 (the BIG merge), LinkMerge branch.
- App::Link: the big merge, main thread (July 2019)
- A simple path description of Link, 019, Link stage, Asm3, merge? (August 2019)
The "Link" object prepares FreeCAD for the phase that was scheduled to happen after the redesign of PartDesign in FreeCAD 0.17, which is working with assemblies.
"Assembly3" is an assembly workbench written in Python by realthunder, that makes use of the "Link" functionality. The workbench served as a testbed for the "Link" component during its development. While Assembly3 is still not officially part of FreeCAD, with the inclusion of "Link", it is a matter of time for Assembly3 to be provided as an installable add-on, just like A2plus Workbench is provided currently.
Other additions in the App::Link merge
Beside the introduction of App::Link
, the "LinkMerge" branch also introduced some changes visible to the user with regards to object properties, expressions, visual selection, and the tree view. These are described in the Core-Changes page.
App::Link object allows lightweight linking of objects in a document and from external documents. | |
File:Custom-property.gif | Dynamic properties can be added to any object. |
Selected elements hidden by other elements are highlighted to indicate their position within the model. |
Arch Workbench
The Arch Site tool once more is able to produce sun path diagrams if the given latitude, longitude, and declination are provided. This requires Pysolar 0.7 or above, and only works with Python 3. | |
The Arch Site tool now can display a compass to show the direction of the "true North" (declination) in the model. By the default, North is aligned to the Y axis. This is useful when working in real world coordinates.
Forum discussion, pull request #2111, commit ff1fb11af, pull request #2360. | |
The Arch SectionPlane tool now has the ability of clipping the view, to act as a camera. | |
The Arch Fence tool was added to produce fence objects starting from a post and a path.
Forum discussion, pull request #2151, pull request #2173, pull request #2263, pull request #2270. | |
Improvements in the Reinforcement Addon, which extends the Arch Rebar tool.
Automated reinforcement graphical user interface: the intention is to facilitate the automatic creation of simple and complex rebars. This development was carried out as a Google Summer of Code 2019 project: Suraj_Dadral/gsoc_proposal. Forum discussion, FreeCAD-Reinforcement (master code), SurajDadral/FreeCAD-Reinforcement (development fork). |
Draft Workbench
New Draft Edit and Draft Edit Improved modes to edit shapes by directly manipulating nodes.
Forum discussion | Animated gif | commit 272a8dfcc9, commit 7de2248bb, pull request #2108, pull request #2430. Tool in its separate module: commit a4e2df115d, commit c351b9094. | |
File:Draft 3rd degree bezier.gif | New Draft CubicBezCurve tool, to create 3rd degree Bezier curves similar to Inkscape. |
New Draft Arc 3Points tool, to create circular arcs by specifying three points through which the arc passes. Originally developed in the BIM Workbench and then migrated to Draft.
Forum discussion, commit 4f19a65559, commit 0b905fade0, pull request #2286. | |
New Draft Layer tool that replaces the seldom used Draft VisGroup, providing a true layer system as it exists in other CAD systems. Draft Layer supports adding objects by drag-and-drop, controls object visibility and, optionally, object color. | |
Substantial reworking of Draft SVG routines to improve inclusion of 2D projections in TechDraw pages. This benefits tools like Draft Shape2DView and Arch SectionPlane, when used with TechDraw NewDraft and TechDraw NewArch. | |
New Draft Fillet tool that creates a fillet (rounded corner) or a chamfer (straight line) between two simple Draft Lines. |
Other
- The Draft Wire tool now is called "Polyline" in the menu, instead of "DWire"; all options and functionality remain the same, so this doesn't break compatibility; commit 39e748229e.
- Undergoing efforts to split tools into their own module file to ease maintenance of the codebase for the future; forum discussion, commit 16c26cb3b1.
FEM Workbench
- Updated coding standards; forum discussion, commit ad03ee9bdf, commit 27cb54009b.
Part Workbench
New command Part_PointsFromMesh to create an object made of points from an imported mesh. Then the points can be used as reference objects to do further operations, such as define a plane, and draw a sketch. This can be used to reverse engineer or remodel meshes by creating solid objects.
Forum discussion (and video), pull request #2450. |
- New Face method:
Part.Face.cutHoles(list_of_wires)
to cut holes into a face. The face usually needs to be validated after operation.
PartDesign workbench
Path Workbench
Added coolant modes for coolant management. |
Other Changes
- Fixed issue #3993, Python 3 memory leak. Forum discussion, commit.
Render Workbench
Added support for Blender Cycles renderer; commit 759067912f.
Sketcher Workbench
Sketcher Elements Widget - Filter geomtry by type (Discussion)
Spreadsheet Workbench
Start Workbench
Re-added example files to the Start page with saved thumbnails in their icons. |
Surface Workbench
TechDraw Workbench
Improved placing and scaling of a 3D viewport screenshot in a TechDraw page. | |
New TechDraw Balloon tool to add balloon decorators to create notes with numbers, letters, and text. | |
New TechDraw LeaderLine and TechDraw RichTextBlock tools to create better annotations in the drawing page.
Forum discussion, commit 7f07195f93, commit 6c699887c0; testing and bug fixing commit ab986d9a00, commit 15f440525e, commit 8ef3f13fbb, commit bf38ae958f, commit 74737f71fd, commit be257182ba, commit de3715908e, commit 916fe7ced3. | |
New TechDraw CosmeticVertex, TechDraw Midpoints, and TechDraw Quadrant tools, which allow the user to place fake or "cosmetic" vertices that can be used to create dimensions. The midpoint and quadrant vertices can be used to add more points to straight and curved edges (circular arcs), respectively; the "CosmeticVertex" tool can add a point anywhere on the drawing view without requiring being based on existing geometry. | |
New TechDraw FaceCenterLine, TechDraw 2LineCenterLine, and TechDraw 2PointCenterLine tools, to add a line in the center of a face, or between two existing edges, or between two existing points, respectively.
Also, TechDraw DecorateLine to change the appearance of single edges, and TechDraw CosmeticEraser to remove any of the cosmetic features from the view. Forum discussion (v1, alpha), forum discussion (v2), commit 656e1654ff, commit 93431edfba, commit f25826bba3, commit 11d8aaed61, commit 941968b37c. | |
New TechDraw WeldingSymbol tool to provide welding symbols. One of the most requested features from the older Drawing Workbench is finally in TechDraw.
Forum discussion (testing), forum discussion (main thread); pull request #2446. Old welding symbols from Drawing Workbench. | |
New TechDraw ActiveView tool. It produces a static image from the active 3D view, and puts it in a new TechDraw view. The result is a snapshot that doesn't update with changes to the model, and which is very fast to produce because it doesn't perform hidden line removal calculations. It is intended for rapid visualization of models, or to display flat projections of models without needing to add dimensions, a workflow that may be interesting for architectural visualization. Together with Arch SectionPlane and TechDraw NewArch, TechDraw ActiveView hopes to improve the interaction between Arch and TechDraw to document building models. |
Other
- There has been discussions about changing the standard behavior of TechDraw. Instead of keeping the drawing pages updated automatically, they would be updated only on demand; this would mitigate the effects of TechDraw slowing down the rest of FreeCAD when modelling. Moreover, now that "App::Link" is included in FreeCAD, TechDraw pages may be stored in a separate file, and loaded on demand; forum discussion (main discussion), forum discussion (alternatives).
- Fixed font size issues when exporting to SVG; forum discussion, pull request #2219.
- Fixed regression in caption handling and hide caption property where not applicable; pull request #2228.
- New page templates, Russian State Standard of Technical Documentation (Unified system for design documentation), GOST 2.104-2006, GOST Р 21.1101-2013; forum discussion, pull request #2249.
- New page templates, the People's Republic of China Templates A series; forum discussion, pull request #2322.
- Added options for page size, line width and background when saving to SVG; this improves Draft/Arch and TechDraw integration; pull request #2455.
- New panning of the page using the middle mouse button; forum discussion, pull request #2458.
- Finer control of drawing updates; forum discussion, pull request #2468, commit 5bed53f858, commit b2d8eeeb65.
- Also new TechDraw Redraw tool to force a drawing page update while ignoring the state of the options "Update with 3d", "Allow page override", or "KeepUpdated". This tool disappeared in 0.18, but was re-implemented for 0.19; forum discussion.
Material Handling
Macros
Automatic light-gauge steel frame creator and panelizer (GPL 3)
Forum discussion | Screencast | FreeCAD-Steel_Frame repository. |
Additional modules
Curved Shapes Workbench
A new workbench for designing curves 3D surfaces.
Forum discussion | CurvedShapesWorkbench repository. |
A2plus discussion github | |
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A new workbench to assemble different parts in FreeCAD. It is an extension of the Assembly2 workbench providing an extended color and transparency handling for parts and a new constraint using the center of mass of parts.
|
|
CadQuery github | |
Scripting based on the CadQuery CAD scripting API. A new code editor is available and script variables can be edited dynamically through a parameter dialog. The workbench also supports normal file operations for CadQuery scripts (open, new, close, etc), and example scripts to help users learn new concepts. | |
Civil Engineering/Transportation Workbench | |
A toolset for developing highway and railway designs, including horizontal alignments, vertical profiles, and 3D models | |
Curves github discussion | |
A collection of tools to create and edit NURBS curves and surfaces. | |
Defeaturing Workbench discussion github | |
Edit imported STEP models and remove selected features from the model. | |
Electromagnetic (EM) discussion | |
Electromagnetic | |
Fasteners Workbench discussion github details | |
Generate screws, bolts, washers, and other fasteners | |
Flamingo Workbench discussion github | |
A set of customized FreeCAD commands and objects that help to speed-up the drawing of frames and pipelines. | |
InventorLoader discussion github | |
Import Autodesk Inventor files (in progress). | |
KicadStepUp Workbench discussion sourceforge | |
Provide support for KiCad and FreeCAD users in ECAD and MCAD collaboration. | |
Lithophane Workbench github discussion | |
Create Lithophanes by projecting images onto solid surfaces | |
Manipulator Workbench discussion | |
Tools to aid in part manipulation | |
Nurbs discussion github Microelly's "FreeCAD Buch" | |
A collection of scripts for managing freeform surfaces and curves. | |
SheetMetal Workbench Discussion (thread 1 | thread 2 | thread 3) github | |
Tools for designing and bending objects made from sheet metal | |
Silk discussiongithub | |
A collection of NURBS surface modeling tools focused on low degree and seam continuity. | |
SQL Workbench discussion github | |
Perform Structured Query Language (SQL) queries on FreeCAD document files to retrieve and report model data. |