Migrating to FreeCAD from Revit

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This page is intended to give you a quick start with FreeCAD if you are coming from Autodesk Revit.

Setting things up

FreeCAD is a multi-purpose 3D modelling application. Although it is not solely a BIM application, it features two dedicated BIM workbenches: the Arch Workbench, which is bundled with every FreeCAD installation, and contains a minimal set of BIM tools, and the BIM Workbench, which you must install through the Addons manager. You are highly recommended to start by installing the BIM Workbench, which will give you an environment more similar to Revit.

Key concepts

Although you will be able to perform the same tasks and obtain a similar result to what you are used to in Revit, both software are different and you should learn the differences.

  • The Revit file format (.RVT) is proprietary, non-documented, and is not supported by FreeCAD (supporting it would be a gigantic task which would swallow all of FreeCAD resources for a very incomplete result). Instead, you should rely on open formats such as IFC, which is rather well supported by both applications.
  • There is no concept of family in FreeCAD. But there are many ways to obtain the same result, that is, several objects that share the same properties and are linked together (if you modify one, you modify them all). The most straightforward is cloning. A clone is like a copy of an object, but if you modify the original object, its clones will get updated too. But there are other, more subtle ways to make objects share properties. For example, you can draw a 2D profile and build several objects from the same 2D profile.


Suggested adoption workflow

Further reading