Adding new modules and workbenches in FreeCAD is very easy. A module is any extension of FreeCAD, while a workbench is a special GUI configuration that groups some toolbars and menus. Usually you create a new module which contains its own workbench.
Modules can be programmed in C++ or in python, or in a mixture of both, but the module init files must be in python. Setting up a new module with those init files is easy, and can be done either manually or with the FreeCAD build tool.
Creating a new application module in FreeCAD is rather simple. The FreeCAD Build Tool (fcbt) does most of the heavy lifting for you. It is a Python script which can be found in the FreeCAD development tree under:
trunk/src/Tools/fcbt.py
When your python interpreter is correctly installed, you can execute the script from a command line with
python fcbt.py
It will display the following menu:
FreeCAD Build Tool
Usage:
fcbt <command name> [command parameter]
possible commands are:
- DistSrc (DS) Build a source Distr. of the current source tree
- DistBin (DB) Build a binary Distr. of the current source tree
- DistSetup (DI) Build a Setup Distr. of the current source tree
- DistSetup (DUI) Build a User Setup Distr. of the current source tree
- DistAll (DA) Run all three above modules
- NextBuildNumber (NBN) Increase the Build Number of this Version
- CreateModule (CM) Insert a new FreeCAD Module in the module directory
- CreatePyModule (CP) Insert a new FreeCAD Python Module in the module directory
For help on the modules type:
fcbt <command name> ?
At the command prompt enter CM to start the creation of a module:
Insert command: ''CM''
You are now asked to specify a name for your new module. Lets call it TestMod for this example:
Please enter a name for your application: ''TestMod''
After pressing Enter, fcbt starts copying all necessary files for your module into a new folder located at
trunk/src/Mod/TestMod/
Then all files are modified with your new module name. The only thing you need to do now is to add the two new projects "appTestMod" and "appTestModGui" to your workspace (on Windows) or to your makefile targets (unix). Thats it!
You need two things to create a new module:
Additionally, you can also add an Init.py file. InitGui.py file is loaded only when FreeCAD runs in GUI mode, whereas the Init.py file is always loaded. Since we're creating a workbench, however, we'll put our code in InitGui.py, since workbenches are GUI-only tools.
Inside the InitGui.py file, the first thing you will want to do is define a workbench. You can use the following example as a template:
class MyWorkbench ( Workbench ):
"My workbench object"
Icon = """
/* XPM */
static const char *test_icon[]={
"16 16 2 1",
"a c #000000",
". c None",
"................",
"................",
"..############..",
"..############..",
"..############..",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"................",
"................"};
"""
MenuText = "My Workbench"
ToolTip = "This is my extraordinary workbench"
def GetClassName(self):
return "Gui::PythonWorkbench"
def Initialize(self):
import myModule1, myModule2
self.appendToolbar("My Tools", ["MyCommand1","MyCommand2"])
self.appendMenu("My Tools", ["MyCommand1","MyCommand2"])
Log ("Loading MyModule... done\n")
def Activated(self):
# do something here if needed...
Msg ("MyWorkbench.Activated()\n")
def Deactivated(self):
# do something here if needed...
Msg ("MyWorkbench.Deactivated()\n")
FreeCADGui.addWorkbench(MyWorkbench)The workbench must have all these attributes defined:
Usually you define all your tools (called Commands in FreeCAD) in another module, then import that module before creating the toolbars and menus. Here is a simple example that can be used as a template:
import FreeCAD,FreeCADGui
class MyTool:
"My tool object"
def GetResources(self):
return {"MenuText": "My Command",
"Accel": "Ctrl+M",
"ToolTip": "My extraordinary command",
"Pixmap" : """
/* XPM */
static const char *test_icon[]={
"16 16 2 1",
"a c #000000",
". c None",
"................",
"................",
"..############..",
"..############..",
"..############..",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"......####......",
"................",
"................"};
"""}
def IsActive(self):
if FreeCAD.ActiveDocument == None:
return False
else:
return True
def Activated(self):
# do something here...
FreeCADGui.addCommand('MyCommand1',MyTool())Note there are three methods defined:
To Be Documented