In those horrible times where slopecoding means dealing with insanely toxic pulls on dev branches, or nervis coming here to claim their love for a random vibedumped clone, Freecad stands strong.

A clear roadmap and release schedule that fits a human-driven world.

That's great, kudos to the ones who lead the ship. We love you!

If you learned CAD on Siemens NX and struggle with FreeCAD's interface, this may help. FreeCAD NX-Style is a launcher plus a module that runs your normal, unmodified FreeCAD with an NX-like interface:

• the ribbon, Top Border Bar and Resource Bar
• NX mouse buttons (MB2 rotate, MB2 click = OK, hold MB3 for the radial menu) and the NX keyboard shortcuts
• NX command names (Extrude, Edge Blend, Pattern Feature...) driving FreeCAD's own commands

It runs in its own profile, so your usual FreeCAD settings and add-ons are never touched. Delete the profile folder and it's gone.

Beyond the look, it adds things I missed in FreeCAD:

• GD&T with editable feature control frames and datum symbols, 3D PMI to ISO GPS or ASME Y14.5, and STEP AP242 export/import that keeps the PMI
• tolerance stack-ups (worst case, RSS, Monte Carlo), assembly clearance analysis and volume claims versions, history and releases through Strata (git-based)
• sheet metal, laser-cut and molded-part (DFM) checks, each on its own ribbon

Docs, install and a five-minute first part: https://foadsf.github.io/freecad-nxstyle/

Source: https://github.com/Foadsf/freecad-nxstyle

The docs include step-by-step tutorials that follow textbook exercises (including *NX 12 for Engineering Design*). Each one is replayed through the real UI and every feature is checked by its volume.

Status: tested on Windows 11 with FreeCAD 1.0.2 and 1.1.4, and on Linux Mint with the 1.1.4 AppImage. macOS is untested. It isn't NX and can't be: dialogs and modelling behaviour are still FreeCAD's.

What would help most:

• try it, and open an issue when something breaks or behaves differently from NX
• macOS testing
• PRs: ribbons are plain JSON, so adding or fixing a command is a small change

LGPL-2.1, like FreeCAD. Not affiliated with Siemens.

Hey FreeCAD folks!

I’m excited to share a major update on µcad (pronounced mucad, formerly known as microcad), a domain-specific language (DSL) I've been developing for parametric CAD.

In the video below you can watch a live coding of brick in the µcad language, but you can try it out yourself directly in your browser here: https://play.mucad.org

Over the past few months, I completely redesigned the µcad compiler architecture so it can seamlessly target any CAD kernel.

Up next on my roadmap: building a dedicated FreeCAD integration for µcad!

Before diving into the integration work, I’d love to get your feedback and thoughts.

Whether you are into code-based CAD, parametric workflows, or just curious to see another approach, please take it for a spin! I’d really appreciate your feedback:

* How does the syntax and design workflow feel to you?

* What features would make a FreeCAD integration most valuable for your projects?

* Any bugs, friction points, or suggestions for improvement? :)

Looking forward to hearing what you think!

Can I build CAD files like these with freeCAD or is it not really the right software for this purpose?

I read many people claim, "FreeCAD can't model a simple solid shape" or "FreeCAD just doesn't work for me" on this sub.

I don't model professionally, and am quite deep into FreeCAD as a hobbyist. However, I understand you need to learn the workflow, as you would with any "tool".

What I want to know is what specific things were you trying to model, and what specifically "didn't work" for you?

For transparency, it's currently my opinion that most people who say these things are either new and not understanding the learning curve, or coming from elsewhere and are making an apples to oranges comparison. Basically not understanding the proper methods to complete the task they want to complete.

Interested in opinions. Thanks all!

I kept rotating the view back and forth and hiding parts just to select a face on the backside, so I wrote a small macro for it.

**What it does**

TurnAround turns the view by 180° and hides everything you haven't selected. Run it again and the view turns back and all hidden parts reappear.

In the GIF I measure the thickness of a plate whose back face is covered by a wall: select the front face, turn around, Ctrl+click the back face, turn back. FreeCAD's quick measure in the status bar shows the thickness.

**How to use it**

1. Select something, e.g. a face.

2. Run TurnAround. The view turns and all other objects disappear.

3. Select what you need on the backside (Ctrl+click as usual).

4. Run TurnAround again. The view turns back and everything reappears.

It always turns around the axis that appears most vertical on screen, so the model stays upright, and it turns around your selection, so the selection stays in view. Parts and Bodies containing your selection stay visible.

It's best with a shortcut: Tools → Customize… → Macros → choose TurnAround.FCMacro, enter a shortcut, Add.

**Get it**

https://github.com/Palmstroemen/FreeCAD-script-TurnAround

Copy `TurnAround.FCMacro` and `TurnAroundIcon.png` into your macro folder (`App.getUserMacroDir(True)` in the Python console shows where it is). MIT licensed.

I've tested it with FreeCAD 1.1.4. Feedback is very welcome, especially from people using assemblies, links or older FreeCAD versions. Bug reports here or as GitHub issues.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for online collections of technical drawings to expand my FreeCAD experience. I like to get better with modeling and would like to escape the tutorial hell by engaging real world parts. With some examples I found I successfully did the modeling and also recreated the drawings from my model.

Obviously I tried to search for such collections, and the outcome was okay'ish. I found a few nice drawings and lots of ad-ridden websites that want to sell something.

Now I'm looking for some hidden gem collections which you might want to share. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,
Basically, by mistake, I participated in the trial for Chitubox, and I found myself very fond of the coat outer edge to create one solid to then print out without any errors. I work in jewellery, so it's often pretty helpful as a solution.
Now that I discovered that the tool is only available by paying, I was wondering if there is any other free software that has a similar tool.
Thank you :)

I'm new to Freecad so I have done a bunch of mirroring and polar patterns because I'm used to fusion.

there's a bottom bar that has the viewport dimensions and other things, it totally vanishes when I activate Clipping View, how do I restore it?

Hey Guys,
Im new to FreeCad and I really dont get it how to make the object round like i used to draw in the picture.
Could sb please help me?

This video made my me. How can we use SUBD model on freecad macro

https://youtu.be/L_laTIPc9aY?si=A9qWtoOkDuU9FajJ

what does this mean? it appears to reset in 15 minutes. How do I find how many tokens I have? does it cost to get more on demand.

at the bottom of the extrude-ai panel it says Gemini 3.1.Pro what does this mean.

Take pity on my I'm 78 years old and learning a lot of new stuff. I did work in programming ,system design, etc.etc for 40 years but things have changed a lot :)

This tutorial shows how to create a Dormer in FreeCAD BIM.

I’m making beginner FreeCAD drills where you model a part from a drawing, then check your answer by weight by grams. If you get it right, the STL unlocks so you can print it.

This one’s a phone stand with an angle. We have a 70° backrest, a symmetric Pad, and a hole sketched on the slanted face. The classic mistake is measuring the backrest thickness straight across instead of square to the face, and the checker tells you if that’s what happened.

Drawing + checker: https://undodiligence.github.io/#/p/P-2

Video walkthrough (my channel): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwnLLBma1vo\]

There’s also a plant pot one (Revolution + Polar Pattern): https://undodiligence.github.io/#/p/P-1
Video walkthrough (my channel): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lueV7pu17Dc\]

What should I do next? Trying to make stuff people actually WANT to print.

I've been working on **Talk to me**, an addon that lets you operate FreeCAD by voice. It runs entirely offline on your own machine: no cloud, no account, nothing you say leaves your computer.

It doesn't generate geometry or code. It only runs FreeCAD's own commands, the ones you'd otherwise click, picked from the current context. Some examples that work:

- "Pad", "Make a fillet", "Isometric view", "Undo that"

- "Switch to Part Design, create a new body and then a new sketch"

- "Rectangle" → click the first corner → "50 by 30"

- "Pad it 12 mm", "XY plane", "Call it base plate"

- "Extrude this and remove it from the body" → finds Pocket from the command's description

The microphone listens continuously, but ordinary talk is ignored ("the circle is a bit too big"). When it's unsure, a small menu next to the mouse pointer asks. It also learns how the speech recognition hears *your* voice. English and German for now; language packs are plain data files.

**Status:** beta. Tested on Linux with the FreeCAD 1.1.4 AppImage, CPU only. **Windows and macOS are untested**, so reports from there would be great. Flatpak/Snap don't work yet.

**Heads-up on size:** the addon is a few MB, but speech recognition (faster-whisper) isn't: about 550 MB for the speech service plus a 75–500 MB model, roughly as much as FreeCAD itself. It's downloaded once from pypi.org and Hugging Face, then everything runs offline.

**Install:**

1. You need a system Python 3.10+ (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint: `sudo apt install python3-venv libportaudio2`)

2. Edit → Preferences → Addon Manager → Custom repositories: add `https://github.com/Palmstroemen/TalkToMe\`, branch `main`, then install "Talk to me" in the Addon Manager and restart

3. Press the microphone button in the new toolbar. A dialog installs the speech service.

If you want to try it without anything happening, there's a dry-run option in the settings that only shows what it would do.

Most useful feedback: sentences it didn't understand, or (worse) ones that triggered the wrong command. Say "Training" to see exactly what the speech recognition heard.

GitHub: https://github.com/Palmstroemen/TalkToMe (issues and discussions welcome)

Model Monday Live! 1 PM east coast - https://www.youtube.com/live/GDPnhsmn84A

Hello, I enjoy 3D printing, I mostly use models I find in the internet but from time to time I need to design something on my own, so far I've been using TinkerCAD, which is simple and great but it seems sometimes it is too limited and I'd like to finally learn something 'serious'.

I've tried some random tutorials on YouTube but the quality (despite the upvotes) is often questionable, often people just say click this, select that without really explaining why they are taking specific steps, there also seems to be a lot of AI generated stuff, which is usually bad.

Could someone recommend me a channel, or some other source of knowledge accessible for free and dedicated to beginners, where someone tries to explain why they do what they do? Thanks in advance for any tips.

Hello,

I am a fairly new freecad user trying to design a multi colored name badge for an upcoming conference. I designed a backplate in freecad and then added multiple parts, one for each color.

My goal is to get this printed in the WJP process offered by jlc3dp. For whatever reason however, when ever I export my design jlc3dp claims that there are gaps between my parts while I do not see any gaps (and also would not expect any) in my desgin.

I either suspect the export function from freecad or the import functions from jlc3dp. Does anyone have experience with that?

I am on FreeCad 1.1.4 on a 9950X3D with 96GB Ram (I saw on same of the other posts that this may be relevant)

Just a list what I already have tried:

Exporting via 3mf -> jlc3dp cannot read the file as it is created by Freecad. That is the case for the past year roughtly.

Exporting via steps with colors => jlc3dp claims this is an assembly as there are gaps between the components and wants to print teh individual parts on its own which make sno sense

Exporting via the 3D Printer 3mf Workflow macro => results in a 3mf jlc3dp can read and accepts but losses the color information

I also wrote with the service team from jlc3dp and they claim that there are gaps in the step file between the rainbow strips (actually between all components I have but as a minimal example lets focus on the rainbow ;) and the carrier depicted below.

Does anyone have an idea what is goind on here?

Please keep in mind, I am a total noob in regards to freecad, there is a good chance I just did a stupid somewhere so I am happy with any tipps as obvious they may be.

Cheers,

For today's afternoon exercise I wanted to complete the tutorial by MangoJelly (WarGloomy6636) where he builds a studded interlocking brick akin to the ones of a well known company, that is fully parametric and automatically driven by functions from a variable set. That makes it possible to resize the brick in fixed increments and creates a procedural pattern where the number of features will increase and decrease when entering a corresponding integer to the variable set.

In the tutorial I learned how to work with conditional expressions inside functions and how to link that to sketch geometry and 3D-operations. The most eye opening part for me was to enable different variants of a model by suppressing features in the model tree automatically via a function. In this example it's the hollow tubes inside the bricks that have to vanish when the brick gets smaller than 2×2 studs. That sparked so many new ideas in me for how to model stuff in my projects. Highly recommend to watch the tutorial!

https://wiki.freecad.org/Expressions#Conditional_expressions

In my urge to experiment I drove the concept further, added more details like the lettering on the studs that could be activated and deactivated to reduce recomputing load. Instead of the free integer selection for the raster size of the bricks, I opted for a list of fixed raster values that reflect the real-life production sizes of those bricks: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 8; 10; 12 and 16. Every value in the list can be called separately by it's corresponding index number, similar to indexed arrays in bash.

It would take to long for me to explain everything. It was quite exhausting with many hours of head-scratching, but it was worth it. Just wanted to share my joy. Instead I put the link to my file here, so if anyone wants to play around with it a little bit or wants to create a own procedural pattern in their project and needs some inspiration, have fun! Feel free to ask questions though...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BoXwm5FfUvOZ0XDY6dXP3N6lVUFhDWRp/view?usp=drive_link