Official installation: freecad stable Edition
Freecad officially provides several stable versions for developers:Windows(XP, Vista and 7, 32 and 64 bits ),Mac OS X(Lion 10.7), andDebian-based Linux systems(Debian, Ubuntu, 32 and 64 bits ). the following links are stable freecad versions. there are also unstable versions: freecad files page, which provides cutting-edge new features and tools, but may crash more easily or contain features that are incompatible with earlier versions.
Windows32/64-bit |
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Ubuntu32/64 bit |
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Mac OS XLion 64-bit |
Development version
If you want to install freecad with the latest features and are willing to accept the high errors and collapse of these versions, you can check the official freecad file page freecad files page to download a 64-bit or unstable version. Of course, if you want to stay at the forefront of development, You can compile freecad, or use Ubuntu daily build to update Ubuntu daily build updates.
Comment on Windows users
Windows Installer is also applicable to the old Windows platform, but not all versions have been tested. You need to select the appropriate version for installation based on your system. Similarly, in Linux, select the corresponding Deb file for your Ubuntu and Debian versions.
Comment on Linux Users
In the recently released Linux systems such as Debian, Ubuntu, fedora or arch, freecad is included in the software package library of the official release version of the above system. We recommend that you get freecad from there, make sure that one of you is 100% compatible with your system version. Pivy's Python module (usually called Python-pivy) is required by freecad 0.9 or later. If it is not installed on your system, you must download it from here.
Comment On Debian system users
Because freecad required by a third-party library conflicts with other software, the freecad package is removed from the current Debian stable library. You can download the source code to recompile and install it.
You should also note that although Ubuntu is a Debian-based software package, Ubuntu and Debian PPA are not compatible.
Comment on MAC system users
There are very few people who rely on the help to build Mac OSX software packages, so freecad won't often update Mac platforms. Versions on this website may be slightly outdated.
Ubuntu PPA package
The freecad Launchpad team Team has established a Ppa (private software package) library to conveniently install the freecad Development Branch of the Ubuntu package. After the software is updated, it is pushed to the Ubuntu update manager, which makes it the easiest to install and obtain the latest freecad development kit.
The freecad daily build library PPA is automatically generated every day and provides you with the latest freecad version.
The latest supported versions are:
- Ubuntu 12.04 lts (precise pangolin) 32 & 64-bit
- Ubuntu 13.10 (saucy salamander) 32 & 64-bit
- Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty Tahr) 32 & 64-bit
Add and install freecad from the console
Enter (or paste) the following command on the console to add a PPA and install freecad and documentation:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-daily
Then:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get install freecad freecad-doc
Install PPA and freecad on the GUI
Install Ppa (read what are PPAs and how do I use them? If you don't know how ):
ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-daily
When a dialog box prompts you to update your software source, click OK.
Now you can install freecad and documentation through the Ubuntu Software Center.
Fedora package
Install freecad in fedora. First confirm that you can install a non-free software library (Because OCC/OCE requires authentication)
yum install freecad
Or install the SDK through a graphical interface.
Interactive freecad Construction
Freecad, which is not officially built. They may include custom components, Optimizations to certain types of processors, or other modifications without being judged by software package maintainers. They may also be out of date because they make it possible for those package people to learn about the new version of freecad. But sometimes it is more suitable for a specific operating system. NOTE: For the most common Linux version, official software packages are usually installed by system software package management tools, so you do not need to download and install the freecad source code.
- Official Debian package
- Official Ubuntu package
- Official opensuse package
- Softpedia windows build
- Packman RPM package (for opensuse, fedora)
- Slackbuilds package (for slackware)
- Archlinux Aur package
- Gentoo ebuild package
- Pardus Linux build script
- Unofficial but well maintained fedora freecad Repository
- Unofficial Debian wheezy package (32-bit and 64-bit)
Freecad document
Freecad documents are written by developers and users. Therefore, we recommend that you read the latest content on the Wiki and download the latest version, if you are free, upload it to the Wiki ):
The manual can also be displayed as one big text, so you can print it or save it as a PDF file:
- All-in-One printable version
The manual is also be compiled as a QT help file, so it can be browsed offline with the QT Help Viewer. this is usually made at each release and is available together with freecad package on most Linux software repositories (On Debian/Ubuntu-based systems, lookFreecad-DocPackage) and is also bundled in the Windows Installer. to access it, simply open the "help" menu inside freecad, or use the "What's this? "Button.
For convenience, we also provide a pdf version of this manual:
- 0.10 Manual (pdf file)
- 0.11 Manual (pdf file)
- 0.12 Manual (pdf file)
- 0.13 Manual (pdf file)
- 0.14 Manual (pdf file)
Here you can also find a copy of The opencascade 5.2 docs, in. CHM File. after 5.2, the opencascade documentation is not available as a single file anymore, but as a heavy 180 MB package. so, since there is little change, we keep this one around und for convenience:
- Opencascade 5.2 documentation
Freecad source package
For all other platforms you need to compile freecad on your own from the source package. you might also want to compile freecad yourself if you want to optimize certain things, or customize certain parts of freecad. instructions for compiling can be found on the compileonwindows, compileonmac and compileonunix pages. you can grab a ZIP or tar.gz file containing the latest official version here (look for the latest version for your system ):
- Official freecad files Repository
Alternatively, you can also download latest source code from the GIT repositories. you'll get a more recent version, but it might contain bugs or even fail to compile. instructions for accessing the GIT repositories can be found here:
- Freecad git repository (most active)
- Freecad repository on github.com
You can also download automatically a GNU tarball from the latest source code tree or any part of it by using the code browser and clicking the "Download GNU tarball" at any time. the trunk folder contains the current development version, while the branches folder contains a snapshot of all stable releases to date.
Freecad libpack
To collect all the needed libraries to compile freecad can be a time consuming task. so we deliver a convenient package for development on Windows (vs8) with all needed libraries. you can download the latest version of the libpack from:
For Linux, you will normally find all necessary libraries in your software management system, so you should read the compileonunix page.
Additional modules and related projects
There are additional modules, Addons of plugins for freecad developed outside of the main freecad development team. They are listed here but are not officially supported by the freecad team.
- Fold module: a module for working with metal sheets (abandoned for some time, lmay not work anymore ).
- Ship module, the blog of Jose Luis cercós Pita: a module in development for Ship Design (since 0.13, it has ded in official freecad sources ).
- Mendelmax: a macro suite for freecad to generate a mendelmax machine.
- Openplm: an online PLM platform with freecad support.
- Macros recipes: additional tools for your freecad installation.
- Drawing templates: Additional SVG templates for the drawing module.
- Tumbler thumbnailer: Show. fcstd files as thumbnails in thunar and Marlin file managers.
- KDE thumbnailer: Show. fcstd files as thumbnails in KDE doldolphin File Manager.
Freecad download and Installation