About FreeCAD: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Interface screenshot.jpg|200px|thumb|left|the FreeCAD interface]]
[[Image:Interface screenshot.jpg|200px|thumb|left|the FreeCAD interface]]


{{About}}
'''FreeCAD''' will be a general purpose 3D [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAD '''CAD'''] modeler. The development is completely [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source Open Source]. FreeCAD is aimed directly at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_engineering mechanical engineering], product design and related areas, but also fits in a wider range of uses around engineering, such as architecture or other engineering specialties.

FreeCAD features tools similar to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catia Catia], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidworks SolidWorks] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_Edge Solid Edge], and therefore also falls into the category of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAD '''MCAD'''], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_Lifecycle_Management '''PLM'''], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAx '''CAx'''] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_engineering '''CAE''']. It will be a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametric_feature_based_modeler feature based parametric modeler] with a modular software architecture which makes it easy to provide additional functionality without modifying the core system.

As with many modern 3D [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAD CAD] modelers it will have a 2D component in order to extract design detail from the 3D model to create 2D production drawings, but direct 2D drawing (e.g. AutoCAD LT) is not the focus, neither are animation or organic shapes (e.g. Maya, 3D StudioMAX or Cinema 4D), although, thanks to its extremely wide adaptability, FreeCAD might become useful in a much broader area than its current focus.

Got curious? Take a look at the [[Feature list]] or the [[Getting started]] articles.

A major concern of FreeCAD is to make heavy use of all the great open-source libraries that exist out there in the field of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Computation Scientific Computing]. Among them are:

* [http://OpenCascade.org OpenCascade], a powerful CAD kernel
* [http://Coin3D.org Coin3D], an incarnation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Inventor OpenInventor]
* [http://www.qtsoftware.com/ Qt], the world-famous UI framework
* [http://www.python.org Python], one of the best scripting languages available



[[Category:User Documentation]]
[[Category:User Documentation]]

Revision as of 01:24, 15 April 2009

the FreeCAD interface

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