Help FreeCAD

From FreeCAD Documentation
Revision as of 16:58, 14 September 2011 by Splineman (talk | contribs)

If you like FreeCAD and would like to help in its development, there are many things you can do, even if you are not a programmer. Actually, there are things to do for everyone: users, power users and developers:

Work on the documentation

Help us to build, correct and extend this documentation. Correct mistakes, extend or correct pages that are unclear, create new pages if a topic is missing, etc. To edit the wiki, you will need a SourceForge account, then, you can use the same login and password on this wiki. Then, ask on the forum or on the irc channel for write permission (the wiki is write-protected to avoid spamming). A couple of areas that would welcome your work:

  • The List of Commands page list and documents all of the FreeCAD commands. Most of them have few or no information at all. The Std_ViewScreenShot page is a good example of what every other command should like.
  • The Tutorials section is still very poor. If you developed something cool with FreeCAD, why not write there how you did it?

Translate the documentation and FreeCAD itself

  • Translate FreeCAD in your own language. All text of the FreeCAD interface can be easily translated in other languages. All we need is someone who know that other language and is willing to help! We currently have translation in english, german and french.
  • Translate the documentation: Translating this wiki is easy, you just need to add a /languagecode page to create a translation. For example, to translate the Part_Module page (its url ends with index.php?title=Part_Module) to french, you would just add /fr to the url, which will create a Part_Module/fr page.

Help others to know FreeCAD

  • Talk about FreeCAD to other people who might be interested
  • Find interesting uses for FreeCAD, and document it, for example with screenshots. FreeCAD is very young, and not many people see what they can do with it. If you are a FreeCAD fan already, you surely know some cool thing FreeCAD can do. Help us to show that to others!
  • Hang on the forum, and help newcomers to solve basic questions
  • Write tutorials, record videos, etc... showing what you do with FreeCAD
  • Contribute with files, drawings, etc... We still lack good example files of what can be done with FreeCAD

Report bugs and ask for interesting features

  • Report bugs, if you find some. Be careful to make sure what you found is really a bug, that is, something that should work and that doesn't work. Be sure to descibe enough how to make the bug happen, so someone can reproduce it.
  • Suggest new features, nobody can guarantee that your wish will be rewarded, but maybe you can bring an interesting idea. Before posting an official feature request, it might be a good idea to discuss your idea on the forum, to see what others think of it.

Program!

  • If you know a bit of python language, program some useful scripts. Maybe you want a small function that is missing? Or you feel bold enough to start to program some new tool? Look in the scripting section, or head to the forum and discuss your ideas, you will surely find plenty of help.
  • If you know how to program in C++, then you are ready for bigger stuff. Head to the Developer hub!
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