85 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
85 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
FreeCAD
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FreeCAD is a general purpose feature-based, parametric 3D modeler for
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CAD, MCAD, CAx, CAE and PLM, aimed directly at mechanical engineering
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and product design but also fits a wider range of uses in engineering,
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such as architecture or other engineering specialties. It is 100% Open
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Source (LGPL2+ license) and extremely modular, allowing for very
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advanced extension and customization.
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FreeCAD is based on OpenCasCade, a powerful geometry kernel, features an
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Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene representation model provided by the
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Coin 3D library, and a broad Python API. The interface is built with Qt.
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FreeCAD runs exactly the same way on Windows, Mac OSX, BSD and Linux
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platforms.
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Home page: http://www.freecadweb.org
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Documentation wiki: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/
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Forum: http://forum.freecadweb.org/
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Bug tracker: http://www.freecadweb.org/tracker/
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Git repository: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD
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Installing
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Precompiled (installable) packages are available for Windows and Mac on the
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releases page at https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases
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On most Linux distributions, FreeCAD is directly installable from the
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software center application.
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Other options are described at http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Download
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Compiling
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Compiling FreeCAD requires installation of several libraries and their
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development files such as OpenCasCADe, Coin and Qt, listed in the
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pages below. Once this is done, FreeCAD can be simply compiled with
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cMake. On Windows, these libraries are bundled and offered by the
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FreeCAD team in a convenience package, on Linux they are usually found
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in your distribution's repositories and on Mac OSX and other platforms
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you will usually need to compile them yourself.
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The pages below contain up-to-date build instructions:
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For Linux: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=CompileOnUnix
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For Windows: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=CompileOnWindows
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For Mac OSX: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=CompileOnMac
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For Cygwin: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=CompileOnCygwin
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For MinGW: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=CompileOnMinGW
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Usage & Getting help
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--------------------
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The FreeCAD documentation wiki contains a lot of documentation on
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general FreeCAD usage, python scripting, and development. The following
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pages might help you get started:
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Getting started: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Getting_started
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Features list: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Feature_list
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Frequent questions: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=FAQ
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Workbenches: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Workbench_Concept
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Scripting: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Power_users_hub
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Development: http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Developer_hub
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The FreeCAD forum at http://forum.freecadweb.org is also a great place
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to find help and solve specific problems you might encounter when
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learning to use FreeCAD.
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