This repository is a collection of useful additional workbenches and modules for FreeCAD made by its community members, conveniently available for seamless integration in to the application itself.
Important Notes:
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Since these Addons are not part of the official FreeCAD package and not supported by the FreeCAD team, although this list is curated and maintained by the FreeCAD team, you should read the information provided on each of the addons page before installing any of them, to make sure you know what you are installing.
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Bug reports and feature requests should be made directly on each addon page. Any reports opened in this repository should be related directly to the Addon Manager itself.
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The commit number indicated in the github tree above is not considered by the Addons Manager. What is installed or updated is always the latest HEAD of the specified branch of each addon. If no branch is specified in the .gitmodules file, "master" is assumed.
For a description of each Addon you can either:
- within FreeCAD use the Addon Manager to scroll between all available Addon/External Workbenches.
- click on each individually linked Addons in this repository to read their README files.
Important Note: As of FreeCAD v0.17.9940 the Addon Manager was finally implemented in to FreeCAD. It can be accessed from within the Tools → 'Addon Manager' dropdown menu. For earlier versions (≤v0.16), please see the Deprecated Installation Methods section.
The recommended way is using the built-in Addon Manager that installs 3rd party workbenches, addons, and macros. Access it via Tools → Addon Manager:
For any reason the first option is not available, then manual installation is always possible. Github provides users to 'Clone or download' each of the addons listed in this repository. They can be downloaded by:
- navigating to the specific addon repository
- clicking the green 'Clone or download' → Download ZIP' buttons found in the top right of each addon page
OR - Using
git clone <github repository URL>
Most of the addons must either be placed in your user'sFreeCAD/Modfolder, or in the Macros folder. Refer to the instructions on each addon page.
Note: Your user's FreeCAD folder location is obtained by typing in FreeCAD's python console: FreeCAD.ConfigGet("UserAppData")while the Macros folder location is indicated in the dialog opened from Macro -> Macros... dropdown menu.
Have you made an interesting workbench or module that we are not aware of? Tell us on the FreeCAD forum so we can add it here!
To submit your workbench to the repository
- Announce your Workbench on the FreeCAD Forums
- Create a dedicated page for your workbench on the FreeCAD wiki (don't forget to add
[[Category:Addons]]to it) + add it to https://freecadweb.org/wiki/External_workbenches - Tag (AKA 'label') your Github repo with the following:
freecad,addons, andworkbench - Make sure you have a simple SVG logo of your workbench (no larger than 10kb) that can be used to represent it in the Addon Manager dialog.
- Please structure the README.md file in a way that makes it easy to understand while reading from the Addon Manager dialog. Example: SheetMetal Workbench
Note the use of: screenshots, screencasts, mentioning of Licence, Changelog etc... - Ensure that your Addon includes a
package.xmlmetadata file, and that that file includes an icon, repository url, and readme url. The readme url should be a direct link to the HTML-rendered README.md file (e.g. https://github.com/shaise/FreeCAD_SheetMetal/blob/master/README.md) - Submit a Pull Request to this repository adding your Addon to the
.gitmodulesfile. Supported git hosts are GitHub, Gitlab, Framagit, salsa.debian.org, and Codeberg.
For wider usage of external workbenches, we recommend that workbench developers integrate the ability to translate their workbench(es). FreeCAD uses a 3rd-party crowdsource translation service called Crowdin. There are some automated scripts that we use to push and pull translations from Crowdin via their API. Developers are invited to help improve these scripts so as to include their own workbenches in the process. Further discussion on this forum thread.
Source code for the Addon Manager lives in FreeCAD master FreeCAD/src/Mod/AddonManager/.
Before FreeCAD v. 0.17.9940 the methods below were utilized to automate the installation of workbenches and macros. This sections is being kept for historical purposes.
The installer macro can be launched from inside FreeCAD, and will download and install any of the addons above automatically. To install the installer macro:
- Download addons_installer.FCMacro
- Place the downloaded macro in your FreeCAD Macros folder. The FreeCAD Macros folder location is indicated in menu Macros -> Macros -> User macros location:
- 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 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.