Installing additional components: Difference between revisions

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* see this forum thread: http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=12839#p102933
* see this forum thread: http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=12839#p102933


==External software supported by FreeCAD==
{{UnfinishedDocu}}
FreeCAD supports a whole lot of external software packages out of the box. This means, you just need to install the software and it will be automatically available, the next time you start it. There's no need to recompile it. This section aims to provide a list of all such software packages, together with some information of where it's used in FreeCAD and where you can grab them.

===CalculiX===
CalculiX is a suite of two finite element packages. One, CalculiX GraphiX, or calculix-cgx, is a GUI frontend to display the results of the second package, CalculiX CrunchiX, or calculix-ccx, a FEM solver. Only the latter one is supported by FreeCAD. It can be accessed from the [[FEM_Module|FEM Workbench]] through {{MenuCommand|Solve->Solver CalculiX}}. There's a standard and experimental solver supported by FreeCAD. CalculiX can be downloaded from http://calculix.de

===GraphViz===
GraphViz is an open source graph visualization software. In FreeCAD it is used to generate dependency graphs through {{MenuCommand|Tools->Dependency Graph...}} Its homepage is at https://www.graphviz.org

===POVRay===
POVRay is well-known raytracer which can render photorealistic images. It is one of two raytracers currently supported by FreeCAD in the raytracing workbench. Its usage is described on the [[Raytracing_Module|raytracing module]] page. You can download POVRay from https://www.povray.org.

===pycollada===
Pycollada aka python-collada is a python library to read and write COLLADA documents, a standard for exchanging 3D scenes and elements. If it is installed you can im- and export scenes to and from COLLADA files through the {{MenuCommand|File->Import}} and {{MenuCommand|File->Export}} commands by selecting the COLLADA file type. The project is hosted through GitHub at https://pycollada.github.io/ and you can download the releases at https://github.com/pycollada/pycollada/releases/


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Revision as of 18:00, 26 October 2018


Choose Your Operating System

FreeCAD is a truly multi-platform application, developed with the world-renowned Qt framework. What that means is that FreeCAD looks and acts the same on Windows, Linux and Mac. However, the installation procedure is a little different for each Operating system. Choose your Operating system below for more details about how to install FreeCAD.

'Windows' 'Linux' 'Mac'
Install on Windows Install on Linux/Unix Install on Mac

Installing additional contents

The offline documentation is not shipped with all installers and available as a separate package. See here for Installing a helpfile.

Apart from the default workbenches bundled with FreeCAD, there is a growing collection of useful additional workbenches and modules made by community members available on the web. Several efforts are in progress to gather them and make them available to you in a convenient way. They are listed below.

Since these workbenches are not part of the official FreeCAD package and not supported by the FreeCAD team, you should read the information provided on each of the addons page above before installing any of them, to make sure you know what you are installing. Also, bug reports and feature requests should be made directly on each addon page.

The FreeCAD-addons repository

This is a gathering of useful workbenches, using the git submodules system, which allows keeping constantly updated contents. The FreeCAD-addons repository can be found at https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-addons . This repository features an installer macro that can be launched from inside FreeCAD, that will list, download and install any of the addons automatically. As of FreeCAD 0.17, the addons can be managed directly from the Tools menu. There is no need to install the macro previously used.

With older version of FreeCAD, to install the installer macro:

  1. Right-click on addons_installer.FCMacro and choose Save as...
  2. Place the downloaded macro in your FreeCAD Macros folder. The FreeCAD Macros folder location is indicated in menu Macros -> Macros -> User macros location:

  1. Restart FreeCAD. The addons installer will now be listed in menu Macro -> Macros and can be launched by selecting it then clicking the Execute button:

The pluginloader addon

The plugin loader is a much more elaborate way to install and manage additional content for freecad. Install it with the method above, or following the instructions on the pluginloader page.

Manual install

External workbenches, when they are fully programmed in python (which is the case of all of them when this was written) can always easily be installed manually, simply by downloading them (usually clicking the **Download ZIP** button found on top of each addon page when they are hosted on github), and placing them in your user's FreeCAD/Mod folder (or in the Macros folder if they are macros). Refer to the instructions on each addon page for complete instructions.

Notes for users with 32-bit system and FreeCAD 0.16.6706

After attempts to install, the additional Workbenches may not be available. In this case

External software supported by FreeCAD

This documentation is not finished. Please help and contribute documentation.

GuiCommand model explains how commands should be documented. Browse Category:UnfinishedDocu to see more incomplete pages like this one. See Category:Command Reference for all commands.

See WikiPages to learn about editing the wiki pages, and go to Help FreeCAD to learn about other ways in which you can contribute.

FreeCAD supports a whole lot of external software packages out of the box. This means, you just need to install the software and it will be automatically available, the next time you start it. There's no need to recompile it. This section aims to provide a list of all such software packages, together with some information of where it's used in FreeCAD and where you can grab them.

CalculiX

CalculiX is a suite of two finite element packages. One, CalculiX GraphiX, or calculix-cgx, is a GUI frontend to display the results of the second package, CalculiX CrunchiX, or calculix-ccx, a FEM solver. Only the latter one is supported by FreeCAD. It can be accessed from the FEM Workbench through Solve->Solver CalculiX. There's a standard and experimental solver supported by FreeCAD. CalculiX can be downloaded from http://calculix.de

GraphViz

GraphViz is an open source graph visualization software. In FreeCAD it is used to generate dependency graphs through Tools->Dependency Graph... Its homepage is at https://www.graphviz.org

POVRay

POVRay is well-known raytracer which can render photorealistic images. It is one of two raytracers currently supported by FreeCAD in the raytracing workbench. Its usage is described on the raytracing module page. You can download POVRay from https://www.povray.org.

pycollada

Pycollada aka python-collada is a python library to read and write COLLADA documents, a standard for exchanging 3D scenes and elements. If it is installed you can im- and export scenes to and from COLLADA files through the File->Import and File->Export commands by selecting the COLLADA file type. The project is hosted through GitHub at https://pycollada.github.io/ and you can download the releases at https://github.com/pycollada/pycollada/releases/

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