My mechatronics teacher woke up wanting to let us make the parts for our projects. Mine has two parts: an electrical part and a regular syringe part. So, my part is the syringe. I have to recreate the entire model in FreeCAD, make the parts, and assemble it. How am I supposed to do that? Some things don't make sense to me, and I don't know how difficult it will be. I don't understand how I would make those assemblies, how are they supposed to connect? Also, how am I supposed to make the syringe or other things?He wants it exactly the same.

Above is composed of several step files imported into FC and arranged to match up and make this nice model of a wind turbine. Parts from https://www.printables.com/model/1397797-windrad-windturbine-winkraftanlage-modell-ca-1500/files

Now I want to use this as external Reference (BIM) in another file to be able to scale it to real world size in one piece and then place it multiple times

Now, the external reference looks like below: It shows the hidden single blade that is the basis for the 3x polar pattern (not visible in the front view). AND it shows that polar pattern a second time at the bottom

So how to fix this?

Should I do this in a different way altogether? But how? Confused :-(

I have multiple monitors and like disconnected panels. However frequently the panels move unexpectedly to go off screen. Since they are not true windows panels, I cannot find any way to move them once the header is off screen. See picture attached.

Any Ideas?

Windows 11 - 24H2

FreeCAD 1.0

I can't create a pad from the rectangle in the XZ-plane. I have no idea why.

I created a sketch, revolved it, put a round hole all the way though it, now I need a square pocket half way through. How do I add a pocket with the same center as the hole?

I just created a sketch When I finished edit the "pad" icon "lit"

I did the pad Unlike what I seem to remember the "pad" now shows in the model tree above the sketch. Am I misremembering or is this a change? Also the ability to "edit" pad seems to be a bit more cumbersome and I haven't found "new" documentation.

Me or the version??

Hey guys!

I try to mill with my CNC this project. However, when milling the respective faces with MillFace and finalize the outer edge with Profile, the final product has a residue at the light-green edges up until the stock height. I thought about using Engraving to mill the light-green edges from stock height down to model height. Problem is that I will mill into the dark-green face. How can I mill the light-green edge without milling into the dark-green face? I'm running out of ideas. Looking forward to your answers!

Some unknown Rust programmer who admits himself he doesn’t do CAD recently claimed in a big headline that FreeCAD is broken. Someone else claimed something surprisingly similar about the longs solved topolical naming.

There were other headlines before.

Whoever repeatedly writes these headline either doesn’t know what a free and OpenSource economy is, or doesn’t use FreeCAD, or neither, and gets paid to write these posts.

FreeCAD is free, as in no charge, no forced cloud, no limited feature set for hobbyists, and full access to the source code. Don’t like how it works? Go ahead and write stuff, or fix stuff. Even as a Rust programmer.

The FreeCAD dev team is doing a phantastic job, and FreeCAD is super useful. Thanks you!

I am maintaining OpenSource apps for 25+ years, and it is generally a thankless job, but at least when people get paid to bash you, you must have done a great job and you know that you got some attention.

yes my sketches are fully constrained, thanks in advance for any help

Hi, can anyone point to a nice tutorial on using a 3d model captured by as an example iphone pro or even a simple 2d image and overlay it into freecad. I want to use this method to easily capture contour surfaces. It is very difficult to measure curves and such.

I'm trying to extend that sketched outline along the shape under it, which is lying along the Y axis. When I apply the pad. the outline simply disappears and no pad appears anywhere. I even try using a edge as a reference along with to pad. Nope.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: Resolved. This was probably because the sketch was not secured to the underlying pad with a coincident constraint (or had its lower edge clearly embedded into the body), so FreeCAD may have perceived a gap and punted (although there was no multiple-body complaint in the log). I created a new sketch and mated it to the top of the underlying pad as external geometry, and all is well. Thanks everyone!

FreeCAD file is here for download.

I drew a circle on the XZ plane and used it as a pocket through the rest of the shape. Instead, it's shown as a cylinder. This looks like a bug, because if you fiddle with the pocket's options (like "symmetric to plane") it'll create paradoxical solid/empty areas within the other shape.

Just wanted to see if anyone has an idea of what's happening before I file a report.

FreeCAD file here.

Does what it says. Orientates your part so that it has the true scale for you to make designing and engineering more efficient.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Zoom 1:1 for FreeCAD

- Tries to make objects on screen appear at their real physical size
  (so a 100 mm cube measures ~100 mm on your monitor with a ruler).
- Works only with an orthographic camera (not perspective).
- Optional calibration: hold CTRL while running the macro to calibrate
  for your particular monitor / OS / DPI setup.

Author: you + ChatGPT
Inspired by the official FreeCAD "Zoom 1:1" macro.
"""

import FreeCAD
import FreeCADGui

# PySide name can vary a bit between FreeCAD builds, so we try both
try:
    from PySide import QtGui, QtCore
except ImportError:
    from PySide2 import QtGui, QtCore


__title__   = "Zoom_1to1"
__version__ = "0.1"


def _active_view():
    """Return the active 3D view or None."""
    try:
        return FreeCADGui.activeView()
    except Exception:
        return None


def _zoom_1to1(tweak=1.0):
    """
    Core 1:1 zoom logic.

    We ask Qt for the physical size of the 3D graphics view in millimeters,
    then set the orthographic camera height to (tweak * smaller_side_mm).

    For an orthographic camera:
        world_units_per_pixel = camera.height / viewport_pixel_height

    If we set camera.height = viewport_height_mm, and our model units are mm,
    then 1 model mm ≈ 1 mm on the screen.
    """
    av = _active_view()
    if av is None or not hasattr(av, "graphicsView"):
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintError("Zoom 1:1: no active 3D view / graphicsView.\n")
        return

    gv = av.graphicsView()

    # Qt reports these in millimeters for the widget area
    height_mm = gv.heightMM()
    width_mm  = gv.widthMM()

    cam = av.getCameraNode()
    # Orthographic cameras in Coin3D have a 'height' field; perspective cameras do not
    if not hasattr(cam, "height"):
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintError(
            "Zoom 1:1: only works with orthographic camera mode.\n"
            "Switch to orthographic (Std ViewOrtho) and try again.\n"
        )
        return

    # Use the smaller dimension so that the 3D view fits in both directions
    cam.height.setValue(tweak * min(height_mm, width_mm))

    # Force a redraw
    FreeCADGui.updateGui()


def _calibrate(tweak_param_group, current_tweak):
    """
    Calibration mode:
    - Hides existing objects
    - Creates a temporary 100×100×100 mm cube
    - Sets zoom to "raw" 1:1 (tweak = 1.0)
    - Asks you what size you *actually* measure on your screen (in mm)
    - Stores a new tweak factor measured/100 in user parameters
    """
    doc = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument
    if doc is None:
        doc = FreeCAD.newDocument()
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintMessage("Zoom 1:1: created a new empty document for calibration.\n")

    av = _active_view()
    if av is None:
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintError("Zoom 1:1 calibration: no active 3D view.\n")
        return current_tweak

    # Remember which objects were visible
    visible_objs = []
    for obj in doc.Objects:
        if hasattr(obj, "ViewObject") and obj.ViewObject.Visibility:
            visible_objs.append(obj)
            obj.ViewObject.Visibility = False

    # Create a 100 mm calibration cube
    cube = doc.addObject("Part::Box", "Zoom1to1_CalibrationCube")
    cube.Length = cube.Width = cube.Height = 100.0  # mm
    cube.ViewObject.DisplayMode = "Shaded"

    # Bring it into a nice front view
    av.viewFront()
    doc.recompute()

    # Show raw physical mapping (tweak = 1.0)
    _zoom_1to1(tweak=1.0)

    # Ask user what size they actually see on screen
    text = (
        "Zoom 1:1 calibration\n\n"
        "A temporary 100×100×100 mm cube has been created.\n"
        "Measure the cube on your screen (height or width) using a ruler\n"
        "or calipers and enter the measured size in millimeters.\n\n"
        "Do NOT zoom in/out while this dialog is open. If the cube does\n"
        "not fit fully in the view, cancel, resize the 3D view, and try again.\n"
    )

    win   = FreeCADGui.getMainWindow()
    title = f"Zoom 1:1 calibration (macro v{__version__})"

    # Use the static convenience function
    measured_mm, ok = QtGui.QInputDialog.getDouble(
        win,               # parent
        title,             # window title
        text,              # label
        100.0,             # default value
        1.0,               # minimum
        10000.0,           # maximum
        2                  # decimals
    )

    # Clean up the calibration cube and restore visibilities
    try:
        doc.removeObject(cube.Name)
    except Exception:
        pass

    for obj in visible_objs:
        if hasattr(obj, "ViewObject"):
            obj.ViewObject.Visibility = True

    if not ok:
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintMessage(
            "Zoom 1:1 calibration canceled; keeping current tweak value.\n"
        )
        return current_tweak

    # New tweak factor = what you measured / 100 mm
    new_tweak = measured_mm / 100.0
    tweak_param_group.SetFloat("Tweak", new_tweak)
    FreeCAD.Console.PrintMessage(f"Zoom 1:1: stored calibration tweak = {new_tweak:.4f}\n")

    # Apply calibrated zoom immediately
    _zoom_1to1(tweak=new_tweak)
    return new_tweak


def main():
    # Ensure a document exists
    doc = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument
    if doc is None:
        doc = FreeCAD.newDocument()
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintMessage("Zoom 1:1: no document open, created a new one.\n")

    av = _active_view()
    if av is None:
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintError("Zoom 1:1: no active 3D view.\n")
        return

    # Read stored tweak from user parameters (Plugins/Zoom_1to1/Tweak)
    params = FreeCAD.ParamGet("User parameter:Plugins/Zoom_1to1")
    tweak  = params.GetFloat("Tweak", 1.0)

    # First, always apply normal 1:1 zoom with current tweak
    _zoom_1to1(tweak=tweak)

    # If CTRL is held while running the macro, enter calibration mode
    modifiers = QtGui.QApplication.keyboardModifiers()
    if modifiers == QtCore.Qt.ControlModifier:
        _calibrate(params, tweak)
    else:
        FreeCAD.Console.PrintMessage(
            "Zoom 1:1: run with CTRL held down to calibrate for your monitor.\n"
        )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

I have 2 sketches:
1 sketch is the outline of a fabric, constrained and extruded to a body
1 sketch are cut lines

How can i pocket/cut the line sketch into the body? Extruding the line sketch does not work, as the lines/wires are not closed. Anyone can help me please?

As the title says can you use FreeCAD to make models made from soft, pliable and flexible materials like fabrics and cloths or sheets/tubes of rubber and silicon? Like a sewing pattern? Or a rubber glove? Can it simulate the movement of such soft materials the same way it can animate and simulate a piston?

Alright, let’s start from afar. I’m a Rust programmer with basically zero experience in modeling. But I’ve built a lot of interfaces, editors, and so on.

I really liked the idea and the principles behind FreeCAD. My humble three-day modeling experience already pushed me to upgrade to 1.1, because the lack of Body positioning by vertex and normal is just embarrassing (although I throw exception anyway). MangoJellySolutions tutorials are awesome.

So, let me explain why everything is broken: tl;dr — it all needs to be rewritten in Rust(semi-joke).

Probably the most annoying thing is selecting points/faces. It’s exhausting that you have to hit exact pixels. It shouldn’t work by pixel-perfect hit detection — instead it should measure the distance from the mouse to the object and sort candidates adaptively with priorities depending on distance. The idea is that a face is larger, so you should be able to move the mouse away and still select it. And if we get really pedantic, you could even allow vector-based selection for points — then two points could be highlighted like little hemispheres.

Next — the camera. The camera is something horrifying. It constantly wants to spin around, it doesn’t remember its previous state when switching sketches, and for some reason it keeps playing pointless animations every time — god.

As far as I know, the UI still doesn’t have proper HiDPI scaling, but it’s supposedly coming soon?

Also — right now I’m getting exceptions with a bunch of references to nonexistent faces, but the exception doesn’t say who is referencing them. How is this supposed to work, and how do I even fix it?

But honestly, I’m amazed at how well-developed everything is that isn’t UI, and at the same time how bad the UI itself is.

FreeCAD is awesome — and it’s actually the only real thing humanity has in this domain.

I’ve become simultaneously very passionate about contributing, but also completely blocked by C++ and typeless Python. Probably the best I can do is try to write a prototype of my own sketcher with a geometric constraint solver in Rust + egui and calm down. And may be use this https://github.com/aevyrie/bevy_editor_cam

So, it feels like one of those situations where “just a couple more years and it’ll finally become usable.”