Installing additional components

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Choose Your Operating System

FreeCAD is a truly multi-platform application, developed with the world-renowned Qt framework. This means FreeCAD looks and acts the same on Windows, Linux and Mac. However, the installation procedure is a little different for each operating system. Choose your operating system for details on installing FreeCAD.

'Windows' 'Linux' 'Mac'
Install on Windows Install on Linux Install on Mac

Help files

The offline documentation is not shipped with all installers, but it is available as a separate package; see Installing a helpfile.

External workbenches

Apart from the default workbenches bundled with FreeCAD, there is a 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 on where they are used in FreeCAD and where they can be downloaded.

Support

GitPython

GitPython is a library to interact with Git repositories. The Addon Manager uses this library to import addons from a Git repository.

GraphViz

GraphViz is an open source graph visualization software. It is used by the Dependency Graph 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.

File formats

All software in this section will be used by the Std Import and 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 this importer does not implement all features of the DXF format. For those feature 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. It is also use by the Arch IfcExplorer (version 0.18 and below) and BIM IfcExplorer tools.

ODA File Converter

The ODA File Converter is a proprietary, closed source, freely available application to convert between several versions of DWG and DXF files. See the FreeCAD and DWG Import page for more information.

OpenSCAD

OpenSCAD is a solid 3D modeller. FreeCAD can import and export OpenSCAD (CSG and SCAD) files. For SCAD files OpenSCAD must be installed. The OpenSCAD Workbench also depends on this software.

Pycollada

Pycollada, also known as python-collada, is a Python library to read and write COLLADA files, a standard for exchanging 3D scenes and elements.

Rendering

POVRay

POVRay is a well-known raytracer which can render photorealistic images. It is one of two raytracers currently supported by FreeCAD in the Raytracing Workbench. You can download POVRay from https://www.povray.org.

LuxCoreRender

LuxCoreRender, also known as LuxRender, is one of two currently supported render engines in FreeCAD. It is used through the workflow on the Raytracing Workbench. Currently only the old and abandoned LuxRender-1.x is supported by FreeCAD. Downloads for LuxRender-1.6 can be grabbed from the LuxCoreRender GitHub release page at https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCore/releases. The homepage for the current LuxCoreRender project is at https://www.luxcorerender.org.

Finite element

CalculiX

CalculiX is a suite of two finite element packages:

  • CalculiX CrunchiX, or calculix-ccx, is a FEM solver.
  • CalculiX GraphiX, or calculix-cgx, is a GUI frontend to display the results of the solver.

Only the solver is supported by FreeCAD. It can be accessed from the FEM Workbench through Solve → Solver CalculiX. There's a standard and experimental solver supported by FreeCAD. CalculiX can be downloaded from http://calculix.de

Gmsh

Gmsh is an automatic finite element mesh generator. It can be used in FreeCAD from the FEM workbench through Mesh → FEM mesh from shape by Gmsh. The homepage of Gmsh is at http://www.geuz.org/gmsh

Elmer

Elmer is a multi-physics simulation software, which was open sourced in 2005. In FreeCAD its Grid and Solver modules can be used by the FEM Workbench through Solve → Solver Elmer. The project's homepage is at https://www.elmerfem.org and it can be downloaded from GitHub at https://github.com/ElmerCSC/elmerfem/releases.

FEniCS

FEniCS is a computing platform to solve partial differential equations (PDEs), which are widely used when solving FEM problems. As such it can be used by the FEM workbench. FreeCAD can import and export FEniCS meshes through Std Import and Std Export by selecting the FEM mesh fenics file format. The homepage of FEniCS is at https://fenicsproject.org.

Z88

Z88 is another FEM program, containing a mesher, solver and converters, which can be used by FreeCAD's FEM workbench. It can be accessed through Solve → Solver Z88. Z88 distributes several packages, which all freely available, but are closed source. The Z88OS however, published under an open source license, is what is needed by FreeCAD. The homepage is at https://en.z88.de/. Z88OS is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/LSCAD/Z88OS, if you want to compile it yourself.

OpenFOAM

OpenFOAM is a large collection of libraries for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. OpenFOAM can be used by external workbenches that build on top of FreeCAD to work as a preprocessor. The project resides at https://openfoam.org.

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