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== Storia ==
[[File:Screenshot mesh.jpg|thumb|300px|Vecchia versione sconosciuta di FreeCAD]]
[[File:Part BooleanOperations.png|thumb|300px|Versione 0.7 di FreeCAD del 2009]]
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== History ==
La storia di FreeCAD inizia nel gennaio del 2001, quando [[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]] ha cominciato a lavorare al progetto che sarebbe poi diventato ufficialmente FreeCAD. Cas.CADE, una struttura di sviluppo di software commerciale tra cui un [[Glossary#Geometric_modeling_kernel|kernel di modellazione geometrica]] (o kernel CAD), era stato rilasciato sotto una licenza open source nel 2000 e ribattezzato [[Glossary#Open_CASCADE|Open Cascade]]. Ciò ha reso possibile la realizzazione di un programma CAD 3D open source, dato che dover programmare un kernel CAD da zero avrebbe richiesto un'enorme quantità di lavoro.
[[File:Screenshot mesh.jpg|thumb|300px|Early FreeCAD version unknown]]
</div>
[[File:Part BooleanOperations.png|thumb|300px|FreeCAD version 0.7 from 2009]]


Dalle parole di Jürgen:
FreeCAD history began in January 2001, when [[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]] started working on the project that would later officialy become FreeCAD. CAS.CADE, a commercial software development framework including a [[Glossary#Geometric_modeling_kernel|geometric modeling kernel]] (or CAD kernel), had been released under an open source license in 2000 and renamed [[Glossary#Open_CASCADE|Open Cascade]]. This made the realisation of an open source 3D CAD program possible, as having to program a CAD kernel from scratch would have required a huge amount of work.


{{Quote|text=''The FreeCAD project was started by me in January 2001, as a so called GOM (Graphical Object Modeler), with the idea to use Qt, Python and Cas.CADE, an commercial CAD-Kernel that time I used in Daimler's projects. Cas.CADE gone open source shortly before, so the time seemed right to try a move in the, at that time, empty space of open source CAD. I had a two year experience with OpenCascade in a project called QSpect in which, at the end, I was the main software designer. I learned a lot about 3D and CAD programming. I also was influenced by Catia V5 and its very special user and programming interface… In March 17 2002, within the OpenCascade Project, I registered the software as FreeCAD. I couldn't think of a better name, I'm very bad on names… In April 2003, Werner Meyer, one of the colleges in the QSpect project, switched to a company called Imetric. The contact to Imetric resulted very promising since they searched for a new 3D software platform for their 3D sensors. In 2005, Imetric donated most of its Mesh Module to FreeCAD and the Open Source community, and since then they used FreeCAD as basis for their sensor system software. Since that time, Werner Meyer is a very active developer of FreeCAD. In 2005, after one year of struggle, I decided to rip of the OpenCascade document framework and replace it with an own implementation. So, at the end, we only use the CAD kernel of OpenCascade and not the rest of its Framework. 2007 was another interesting milestone. We switched to QT4 and, therefore, to the LGPL. At that time we did much work, mainly Werner''.
In Jürgen's owns words:
|sign=[[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]]|source=''[http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=295 Who is behind FreeCad?]''}}


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{{Quote|text=Start January 2001 by me as so called GOM (Graphical Object Modeler), with the Idea in mind to use Qt, Python and
Il progetto è stato annunciato al pubblico sul [http://www.opencascade.org/org/forum OpenCascade Forum] nel 2003. Ancora dalle parole di Jürgen:
Cas.CADE, an commercial CAD-Kernel I used in projects in Daimler this time. CasCade gone open source shortly before so
</div>
the time seams right to try a move in the (at this time) empty space of open source cad.
I had a two year experience with OpenCascade in a project called QSpect and was at the end the main
software designer. I learned a lot in the field of 3D and CAD programming. I was also influenced by Catia
V5 and its very special User and programming interface....


{{Quote|text=''Hi together, my name is Juergen Riegel and today I want announce an OpenCasCade project, FreeCAD. It is an Open Source CAx RAD based on OpenCasCade, QT and Python. It features some key concepts like Macro Recording, Workbenches, ability to run as a server and as a dynamically loadable applications' extension, and it is designed to be platform independent… Although it is in an early stage and not usable for users nor developers—the first user release is planned for the end of 2003—, I would like to get some feedback on the direction and design of FreeCAD. The GUI is nearly finished and now we, my co-developer Werner Mayer and me, have started adding the first CAD functions. FreeCAD can be seen as a general purpose mechanical CAD system, but its first audience, I think, will be CAx developers which need groundwork for own development''.
sf.net registration 2002-03-17 19:42 as FreeCAD. I couldn't think of an better name. Im very bad on names....
|sign=[[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]]|source=''[https://dev.opencascade.org/content/announcing-freecad-project Announcing FreeCAD Project on Sun, 08/17/2003 - 19:23]''}}


=== Werner Mayer ===
April 2003 Werner Meyer was one of the colleges in the QSpect project switched to company called Imetric.
Werner Mayer joined the project as soon as it was announced as an open source project (prior to the announcement the project was a private project of Jürgen). See this forum post from Werner in German: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=40235&start=10#p342330
So the contact to Imetric was very promising since they searched for a new 3D software platform for
their 3D sensors.


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So 2005 Imetric donated most of the Mesh module to FreeCAD and OpenSource and use since then FreeCAD
Con il tempo, il progetto ha guadagnato trazione, e si sono aggiunti dei nuovi contributori chiave nella comunità.
as basis for their sensor system software. And Werner is since then a very active part of FreeCAD.
</div>


*'''Linux beginning'''
2005 after one year of struggle I decided to rip of the OpenCascade document framework and replace it with
an own implementation. So at the end we use only the CAD kernel of OpenCascade and not the rest of the Framework.


{{Quote|text=''A fun fact is that he wanted to have an open-source CAD software mainly for Linux because at that time there existed actually nothing for this platform. However, from the beginning on we exclusively developed on Windows for the next 1.5 years. Then a Czech guy made a contribution to make the code of the core build on Linux: https://github.com/berndhahnebach/All_FreeCAD/commit/9fd2e27c95ba3dc84778d92e2564cd094793ce2f#diff-480477e89f9b6ddafb30c4383dcdd705''}}
2007 was another interesting milestone. We switched to QT4 and has there fore the LGPL and a lot of work (which did mostly Werner ;) )
{{Quote|text=''Half a year later I continued the Linux build: https://github.com/berndhahnebach/All_FreeCAD/commit/35b962d7d751dd80f7c7781df60f93bc9a3da992''}}
|sign=[[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]]|source=''[http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=295 Who is behind FreeCad?]''}}


'''Q:''' Could you share how that first 1.5 years went? Were you meeting in person or online?
The project was announced to the general public on the [http://www.opencascade.org/org/forum OpenCascade Forum] in 2003. Again, in Jürgen's words:


{{Quote|text=''Well, at that time we were colleagues (until 2005) so we could discuss things face to face. After that time we still had some personal meetings but discussed most things by email or phone.''}}
{{Quote|text=Hi together,
my name is Juergen Riegel and I want today announce a OpenCasCade project, FreeCAD.


{{Quote|text=''As third core developer Yorik joined around end of 2007 but it took another 3 or 4 years until the community and number of contributors started to grow significantly.''}}
FreeCAD is an Open Source CAx RAD based on OpenCasCade, QT and Python. It features some key concepts like Macro recording, Workbenches, ability to run as a server and dynamically loadable Application extensions and its designed to be platform independent...


'''Q:''' Did you divide the tasks or work on competing implementations?
Although its in a early stage and not usable for users and developers (first user release plant for end 2003) I would like to get some feedback on the direction and design of FreeCAD. The GUI is nearly finished and now we (Me and my co developer Werner Mayer) starting to add the first CAD functions (Part design).


{{Quote|text=''Yes. Jürgen was designing and implementing most of the application and document logic and I was doing the basics of the GUI.''}}
FreeCAD can be seen as a general purpos mecanical CAD system but the first audience, I think, will be developers in the CAx area which need ground work for own development.
|sign=[[User:Jriegel|Jürgen Riegel]]|source=''[http://www.opencascade.org/org/forum/thread_6572/?forum=11 Announcing FreeCAD Project]''}}


{{Quote|text=''However, this wasn't a gradual process but we have experimented with many things at the beginning. For example, in the initial version we used OCC's document framework OCAF and its viewer but after a year or two we got into a dead end because documentation about OCC was very poor and we couldn't get it to work to extend OCAF with our own feature types. So, we decided to only use OCC's modeling capacities but develop our own application/document framework.''}}


'''Q:''' At the time did you think FreeCAD would be where it is today?
Eventually, the project gained traction, and saw the addition of new key contributors in the community.


{{Quote|text=''We didn't know but we hoped. Of course we couldn't anticipate how exactly FreeCAD will look today.<br>The most important design decisions were to make it available on all major platforms and make the whole SW as accessible as possible, i.e. to impose all important functions to Python so that (power) users are able to extend FreeCAD with own functions. This way we hoped to get a broad audience.''}}
[[User:Yorik|Yorik van Havre]] joined the project in 2008 and started work on the [[Draft Module]]. Before that point, there was no way to create 2D geometry through the [[Glossary#GUI|GUI]]. This module was programmed entirely in Python rather than in C++, the core programming language used in FreeCAD. This proved that Python integration was a success and could be used to extend or customize FreeCAD's capabilities. In addition to his work on the Draft module, Yorik worked on expanding the FreeCAD documentation, and became FreeCAD's ''de facto'' "Art director", creating many icons for FreeCAD's GUI and [[Artwork|defining its style]].

(See this forum post from Werner [https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47703#p411612 Re: FreeCAD History])

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[[User:Yorik|Yorik van Havre]] ha aderito al progetto nel 2008 e avviato i lavori sul [[Draft_Workbench/it|Modulo Draft]]. Prima non c'era modo di creare la geometria 2D attraverso la [[Glossary#GUI|GUI]]. Questo modulo è stato programmato interamente in Python, anziché in C++ che era il linguaggio di programmazione di base utilizzato in FreeCAD. L'integrazione di Python è stata un successo e ha dimostrato che poteva essere utilizzato per estendere o personalizzare le funzionalità di FreeCAD. Oltre al suo lavoro sul modulo Draft, Yorik ha lavorato sull'espansione della documentazione di FreeCAD, ed è diventato ''de facto'' "Art director" di FreeCAD, creando molte icone per la GUI e [[Artwork/it|definendo lo stile]] di FreeCAD.
</div>


Version 0.7 of FreeCAD released in April 2009 was the first to include the Draft module. The Part module provided a simple [[Glossary#Constructive Solid Geometry|CSG]] workflow with creation of primitive shapes and boolean operations accessible through the Part menu. Extrusion of 2D profiles and filleting was also possible.
Version 0.7 of FreeCAD released in April 2009 was the first to include the Draft module. The Part module provided a simple [[Glossary#Constructive Solid Geometry|CSG]] workflow with creation of primitive shapes and boolean operations accessible through the Part menu. Extrusion of 2D profiles and filleting was also possible.
Line 54: Line 63:
By the end of 2009, FreeCAD was accepted as a Debian package in the Debian repositories. FreeCAD was added to the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories in 2010.
By the end of 2009, FreeCAD was accepted as a Debian package in the Debian repositories. FreeCAD was added to the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories in 2010.


=== The project goes on ===
Version 0.10 released on July 2010 introduced the [[Sketcher Workbench]], based on Sketchsolve, a constraint-based solver to create 2D geometry. The first version was limited to creation of rectangles and lines.
Version 0.10 was released in July 2010 and introduced the [[Sketcher Workbench|Sketcher Workbench]], based on Sketchsolve, a constraint-based solver to create 2D geometry. The first version was limited to creation of rectangles and lines.


In early 2011, taking the opportunity given by the [https://launchpad.net Launchpad] online platform, the [https://launchpad.net/~freecad-maintainers FreeCAD Maintainers team] was created to provide fresh stable releases along with daily build packages of FreeCAD to users of the Ubuntu operating system.
In early 2011, taking the opportunity given by the [https://launchpad.net Launchpad] online platform, the [https://launchpad.net/~freecad-maintainers FreeCAD Maintainers team] was created to provide fresh stable releases along with daily build packages of FreeCAD to users of the Ubuntu operating system.


Version 0.11 released in May 2011 introduced the new Part Design workbench which included tools such as Pad, Pocket, Fillet and Chamfer. The Draft workbench received enhancements and new tools, like BSpline. The Robot workbench featured more GUI tools.
Version 0.11 as released in May 2011 and introduced the new Part Design workbench which included tools such as Pad, Pocket, Fillet and Chamfer. The Draft workbench received enhancements and new tools, like BSpline. The Robot workbench featured more GUI tools.

Version 0.12 was released in January 2012 and featured a more complete Sketcher workbench. It included a totally rewritten solver, FreeGCS. It was the result of months of work by the main FreeCAD developers along with newcomers logari81 (who programmed the solver) and mrlukeparry. More tools were added to the PartDesign workbench.

=== Enlargement of core developer team ===
In April 2019 the team of core developers was expanded: Jürgen, Werner and Yorik were joined by Abdullah, Bernd, sliptonic and WandererFan


== Interesting Posts on the forum ==
Version 0.12 released in January 2012 featured a more complete Sketcher workbench. It included a totally rewritten solver, FreeGCS. It was the result of months of work by the main FreeCAD developers along with newcomers logari81 (who programmed the solver) and mrlukeparry. More tools were added to the PartDesign workbench.
* about PartDesignNext and other design decisions: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34923&start=130#p297074
* about Forum history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7448&start=200#p287106
* about Project history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47703
* about Code history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=46733&start=10#p405068 BTW: initial code checkin was on March 18th in 2002 (may be the birthday?)
* about Project to be OpenSource: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=40235&start=10#p342330
* about The release commit history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23695#p184940
* about Who is behind FreeCAD: http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=295
* about FEM history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=48646#p416389
* about FEM mesher history: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=48733#p417627


== Release history ==
== Cronologia dei rilasci ==


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* Overview
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.4em 0 0.5em;"
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.4em 0 0.5em;"
|-
|-
! style="background-color: #cccccc;"| Version
! style="background-color: #cccccc;"| Version
! style="background-color: #cccccc; white-space: nowrap;"| Release date
! style="background-color: #cccccc; white-space: nowrap;"| Data di rilascio
! class="unsortable" style="background-color: #cccccc;"| Informations
! class="unsortable" style="background-color: #cccccc;"| Informations
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"| 0.15
| style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"| 0.18
|
|
| Versione di sviluppo attuale
| Current Developer Release
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"| 0.14
| style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"| 0.17
| 2018-04-06
| [[Release_notes_0.17/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.17]]
|-
| style="background-color: #FEF8C6;"| 0.16
| 2016-04-18
| [[Release_notes_0.16/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.16]]
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.15
| 2015-04-08
| [[Release_notes_0.15/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.15]]
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.14
| 2014-07-01
| 2014-07-01
| [[Release_notes_0.14/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.14]]
| [[Release notes 014]]
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.13
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.13
| 2013-01-29
| 2013-01-29
| [[Release_notes_0.13/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.13]]
| [[Release notes 013]]
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.12
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.12
| 2011-12-20
| 2011-12-20
| [[Release_notes_0.12/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.12]]
| [[Release notes 012]]
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.11
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.11
| 2011-05-03
| 2011-05-03
| [[Release_notes_0.11/it|Note di rilascio della versione 0.11]]
| [[Release notes 011]]
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.10
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.10
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| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.0.1
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.0.1
| 2002-10-29
| 2002-10-29
| Initial Upload --> The birth of FreeCAD
| Caricamento iniziale --> La nascita di FreeCAD
|-
|-
|}
|}
</div>


|-
| style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"| 0.20
| ?
| in development
| [[Release_notes_0.20|Release notes 0.20]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/master head master]
|

|-
| style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"| 0.19
| -
| 2021-03-20
| [[Release_notes_0.19|Release notes 0.19]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-19 release commit 0.19]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-19 branch bugfixes 0.19]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.18
| -
| 2019-03-12
| [[Release_notes_0.18|Release notes 0.18]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-18 release commit 0.18]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-18 branch bugfixes 0.18]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.17
| Roland
| 2018-04-06
| [[Release_notes_0.17|Release notes 0.17]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-17 release commit 0.17]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-17 branch bugfixes 0.17]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.16
| -
| 2016-04-18
| [[Release_notes_0.16|Release notes 0.16]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-16 release commit 0.16]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-16 branch bugfixes 0.16]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.15
| -
| 2015-04-08
| [[Release_notes_0.15|Release notes 0.15]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-15 release commit 0.15]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-15 branch bugfixes 0.15]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.14
| -
| 2014-07-01
| [[Release_notes_0.14|Release notes 0.14]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-14 release commit 0.14]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-14 branch bugfixes 0.14]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.13
| -
| 2013-01-29
| [[Release_notes_0.13|Release notes 0.13]]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/releases/FreeCAD-0-13 release commit 0.13]
| [https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/tree/releases/FreeCAD-0-13 branch bugfixes 0.13]

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.12
| -
| 2011-12-20
| [[Release_notes_0.12|Release notes 0.12]]
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.11
| -
| 2011-05-03
| [[Release_notes_0.11|Release notes 0.11]]
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.10
| -
| 2010-07-24
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.9
| -
| 2010-01-16
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.8
| -
| 2009-07-10
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.7
| -
| 2009-04-24
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.6
| -
| 2007-02-27
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.5
| -
| 2006-10-05
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.4
| -
| 2006-01-15
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.3
| -
| 2005-10-31
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.2
| -
| 2005-08-09
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.1
| -
| 2003-01-27
|
|
|

|-
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.0.1
| -
| 2002-10-29
| Initial Upload of a version
|
|

|}


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* Legend
* Legenda
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{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.4em 0 0.5em;"
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.4em 0 0.5em;"
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! style="background-color: #cccccc;"| Version Type
|-
|-
| style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"|
| style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"|
| Future release
| Future release
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|-
| style="background-color: #FED1A0;"|
| style="background-color: #FED1A0;"|
| Latest preview version
| Latest preview version
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|-
| style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"|
| style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"|
| '''Latest version'''
| '''Latest version'''
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|-
| style="background-color: #FEF8C6;"|
| style="background-color: #FEF8C6;"|
| Older version, still supported
| Older version, still supported
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| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"|
| style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"|
| Old version
| Old version
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<div class="mw-translate-fuzzy">
== Links ==
== Link ==
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/ SourceForge Files section]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/ SourceForge Files section]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/OldFiles/ SourceForge Old Files section]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/files/OldFiles/ SourceForge Old Files section]
* [http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=295 Who is behind FreeCad?] topic on the FreeCAD forum
* [http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=295 Who is behind FreeCad?] topic on the FreeCAD forum
* [http://www.opencascade.org/org/forum/thread_6572/?forum=11 Announcing FreeCAD Project] on the OpenCascade forum
* [http://www.opencascade.org/org/forum/thread_6572/?forum=11 Announcing FreeCAD Project] on the OpenCascade forum
</div>

[[Category:News{{#translation:}}]]

Revision as of 07:02, 8 September 2021

Storia

Vecchia versione sconosciuta di FreeCAD
Versione 0.7 di FreeCAD del 2009

La storia di FreeCAD inizia nel gennaio del 2001, quando Jürgen Riegel ha cominciato a lavorare al progetto che sarebbe poi diventato ufficialmente FreeCAD. Cas.CADE, una struttura di sviluppo di software commerciale tra cui un kernel di modellazione geometrica (o kernel CAD), era stato rilasciato sotto una licenza open source nel 2000 e ribattezzato Open Cascade. Ciò ha reso possibile la realizzazione di un programma CAD 3D open source, dato che dover programmare un kernel CAD da zero avrebbe richiesto un'enorme quantità di lavoro.

Dalle parole di Jürgen:

The FreeCAD project was started by me in January 2001, as a so called GOM (Graphical Object Modeler), with the idea to use Qt, Python and Cas.CADE, an commercial CAD-Kernel that time I used in Daimler's projects. Cas.CADE gone open source shortly before, so the time seemed right to try a move in the, at that time, empty space of open source CAD. I had a two year experience with OpenCascade in a project called QSpect in which, at the end, I was the main software designer. I learned a lot about 3D and CAD programming. I also was influenced by Catia V5 and its very special user and programming interface… In March 17 2002, within the OpenCascade Project, I registered the software as FreeCAD. I couldn't think of a better name, I'm very bad on names… In April 2003, Werner Meyer, one of the colleges in the QSpect project, switched to a company called Imetric. The contact to Imetric resulted very promising since they searched for a new 3D software platform for their 3D sensors. In 2005, Imetric donated most of its Mesh Module to FreeCAD and the Open Source community, and since then they used FreeCAD as basis for their sensor system software. Since that time, Werner Meyer is a very active developer of FreeCAD. In 2005, after one year of struggle, I decided to rip of the OpenCascade document framework and replace it with an own implementation. So, at the end, we only use the CAD kernel of OpenCascade and not the rest of its Framework. 2007 was another interesting milestone. We switched to QT4 and, therefore, to the LGPL. At that time we did much work, mainly Werner.

Il progetto è stato annunciato al pubblico sul OpenCascade Forum nel 2003. Ancora dalle parole di Jürgen:

Hi together, my name is Juergen Riegel and today I want announce an OpenCasCade project, FreeCAD. It is an Open Source CAx RAD based on OpenCasCade, QT and Python. It features some key concepts like Macro Recording, Workbenches, ability to run as a server and as a dynamically loadable applications' extension, and it is designed to be platform independent… Although it is in an early stage and not usable for users nor developers—the first user release is planned for the end of 2003—, I would like to get some feedback on the direction and design of FreeCAD. The GUI is nearly finished and now we, my co-developer Werner Mayer and me, have started adding the first CAD functions. FreeCAD can be seen as a general purpose mechanical CAD system, but its first audience, I think, will be CAx developers which need groundwork for own development.

Werner Mayer

Werner Mayer joined the project as soon as it was announced as an open source project (prior to the announcement the project was a private project of Jürgen). See this forum post from Werner in German: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=40235&start=10#p342330

Con il tempo, il progetto ha guadagnato trazione, e si sono aggiunti dei nuovi contributori chiave nella comunità.

  • Linux beginning

A fun fact is that he wanted to have an open-source CAD software mainly for Linux because at that time there existed actually nothing for this platform. However, from the beginning on we exclusively developed on Windows for the next 1.5 years. Then a Czech guy made a contribution to make the code of the core build on Linux: https://github.com/berndhahnebach/All_FreeCAD/commit/9fd2e27c95ba3dc84778d92e2564cd094793ce2f#diff-480477e89f9b6ddafb30c4383dcdd705

Half a year later I continued the Linux build: https://github.com/berndhahnebach/All_FreeCAD/commit/35b962d7d751dd80f7c7781df60f93bc9a3da992

Q: Could you share how that first 1.5 years went? Were you meeting in person or online?

Well, at that time we were colleagues (until 2005) so we could discuss things face to face. After that time we still had some personal meetings but discussed most things by email or phone.

As third core developer Yorik joined around end of 2007 but it took another 3 or 4 years until the community and number of contributors started to grow significantly.

Q: Did you divide the tasks or work on competing implementations?

Yes. Jürgen was designing and implementing most of the application and document logic and I was doing the basics of the GUI.

However, this wasn't a gradual process but we have experimented with many things at the beginning. For example, in the initial version we used OCC's document framework OCAF and its viewer but after a year or two we got into a dead end because documentation about OCC was very poor and we couldn't get it to work to extend OCAF with our own feature types. So, we decided to only use OCC's modeling capacities but develop our own application/document framework.

Q: At the time did you think FreeCAD would be where it is today?

We didn't know but we hoped. Of course we couldn't anticipate how exactly FreeCAD will look today.
The most important design decisions were to make it available on all major platforms and make the whole SW as accessible as possible, i.e. to impose all important functions to Python so that (power) users are able to extend FreeCAD with own functions. This way we hoped to get a broad audience.

(See this forum post from Werner Re: FreeCAD History)

Yorik van Havre ha aderito al progetto nel 2008 e avviato i lavori sul Modulo Draft. Prima non c'era modo di creare la geometria 2D attraverso la GUI. Questo modulo è stato programmato interamente in Python, anziché in C++ che era il linguaggio di programmazione di base utilizzato in FreeCAD. L'integrazione di Python è stata un successo e ha dimostrato che poteva essere utilizzato per estendere o personalizzare le funzionalità di FreeCAD. Oltre al suo lavoro sul modulo Draft, Yorik ha lavorato sull'espansione della documentazione di FreeCAD, ed è diventato de facto "Art director" di FreeCAD, creando molte icone per la GUI e definendo lo stile di FreeCAD.

Version 0.7 of FreeCAD released in April 2009 was the first to include the Draft module. The Part module provided a simple CSG workflow with creation of primitive shapes and boolean operations accessible through the Part menu. Extrusion of 2D profiles and filleting was also possible.

Version 0.8 released in July 2009 saw some more work in the Draft module, including a new Dimension tool. The Part module benefited from a new toolbar along with new tools, Revolve and Section.

By the end of 2009, FreeCAD was accepted as a Debian package in the Debian repositories. FreeCAD was added to the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories in 2010.

The project goes on

Version 0.10 was released in July 2010 and introduced the Sketcher Workbench, based on Sketchsolve, a constraint-based solver to create 2D geometry. The first version was limited to creation of rectangles and lines.

In early 2011, taking the opportunity given by the Launchpad online platform, the FreeCAD Maintainers team was created to provide fresh stable releases along with daily build packages of FreeCAD to users of the Ubuntu operating system.

Version 0.11 as released in May 2011 and introduced the new Part Design workbench which included tools such as Pad, Pocket, Fillet and Chamfer. The Draft workbench received enhancements and new tools, like BSpline. The Robot workbench featured more GUI tools.

Version 0.12 was released in January 2012 and featured a more complete Sketcher workbench. It included a totally rewritten solver, FreeGCS. It was the result of months of work by the main FreeCAD developers along with newcomers logari81 (who programmed the solver) and mrlukeparry. More tools were added to the PartDesign workbench.

Enlargement of core developer team

In April 2019 the team of core developers was expanded: Jürgen, Werner and Yorik were joined by Abdullah, Bernd, sliptonic and WandererFan

Interesting Posts on the forum

Cronologia dei rilasci

  • Overview
Version Data di rilascio Informations
0.18 Versione di sviluppo attuale
0.17 2018-04-06 Note di rilascio della versione 0.17
0.16 2016-04-18 Note di rilascio della versione 0.16
0.15 2015-04-08 Note di rilascio della versione 0.15
0.14 2014-07-01 Note di rilascio della versione 0.14
0.13 2013-01-29 Note di rilascio della versione 0.13
0.12 2011-12-20 Note di rilascio della versione 0.12
0.11 2011-05-03 Note di rilascio della versione 0.11
0.10 2010-07-24
0.9 2010-01-16
0.8 2009-07-10
0.7 2009-04-24
0.6 2007-02-27
0.5 2006-10-05
0.4 2006-01-15
0.3 2005-10-31
0.2 2005-08-09
0.1 2003-01-27
0.0.1 2002-10-29 Caricamento iniziale --> La nascita di FreeCAD

|- | style="background-color: #C1E6F5;"| 0.20 | ? | in development | Release notes 0.20 | head master |

|- | style="background-color: #D4F4B4;"| 0.19 | - | 2021-03-20 | Release notes 0.19 | release commit 0.19 | branch bugfixes 0.19

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.18 | - | 2019-03-12 | Release notes 0.18 | release commit 0.18 | branch bugfixes 0.18

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.17 | Roland | 2018-04-06 | Release notes 0.17 | release commit 0.17 | branch bugfixes 0.17

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.16 | - | 2016-04-18 | Release notes 0.16 | release commit 0.16 | branch bugfixes 0.16

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.15 | - | 2015-04-08 | Release notes 0.15 | release commit 0.15 | branch bugfixes 0.15

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.14 | - | 2014-07-01 | Release notes 0.14 | release commit 0.14 | branch bugfixes 0.14

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.13 | - | 2013-01-29 | Release notes 0.13 | release commit 0.13 | branch bugfixes 0.13

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.12 | - | 2011-12-20 | Release notes 0.12 | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.11 | - | 2011-05-03 | Release notes 0.11 | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.10 | - | 2010-07-24 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.9 | - | 2010-01-16 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.8 | - | 2009-07-10 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.7 | - | 2009-04-24 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.6 | - | 2007-02-27 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.5 | - | 2006-10-05 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.4 | - | 2006-01-15 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.3 | - | 2005-10-31 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.2 | - | 2005-08-09 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.1 | - | 2003-01-27 | | |

|- | style="background-color: #FDB3AB;"| 0.0.1 | - | 2002-10-29 | Initial Upload of a version | |

|}

  • Legenda
Color Version Type
Future release
Latest preview version
Latest version
Older version, still supported
Old version