Tutorial: Tips for the Measuring Tool
Since version 1.0 FreeCAD has had the Measure tool, a persistent tool available across all workbenches. Let’s take a quick look through it in use using version 1.1.1. We’ve got a project that is a small flat part with fillets in the corners and a collection of holes and slots, but you can play with […]
WIP Wednesday, 13 May 2026
This week in FreeCAD development: Part and PartDesign CAM Other changes Additional improvements and fixes were contributed by 3x380V, alfrix, andershol, boomskats, chennes, coldtobi, danieljimol, ElementW, ItSaulGoodMan, Maik-0000FF, maxwxyz, rehan-ahmed-aix, Roy_043, tarman3, tritao, wwmayer, and z0r0. If you are interested in testing the latest weekly build, you can grab it here. Activity stats PR stats: […]
WIP Wednesday, 6 May 2026
This week in FreeCAD development: Draft Roy_043 fixed a regression where clones would not receive the correct Diffuse color (PR#29725), added statusbar hints for annotation tools (PR#29649), and fixed a bug where the XYZ would be overridden by the cursor position when creating a shapestring (PR#29762). Sketcher Part and PartDesign TechDraw CAM FEM BIM Measurement […]
GSoC2026 projects announced
Google announced the projects that will be part of the Summer of Code 2026 project. Here is what our GSoC students will be working on this year. Aymi will be adding support for animated multibody dynamics visualizations. The project will be built on top of the 3rd-party Motion workbench (by Jose Gabriel Egas Ortuño) and […]
Q2 2026 Grant Program
The FreeCAD Project Association is beginning to accept applications for the second grant review wave in 2026. If you are interested in improving FreeCAD and its ecosystem, please read more about the program and apply. In 2026, we introduced several changes to the grant program, including these: Please see here for more information.
FreeCAD Community Design Contest 2026: Open Science
The FreeCAD Project Association (FPA) are really pleased to share our first community design competition. We really want to see how people are using FreeCAD and thought a competition might be the way, furthermore, we thought a competition might produce something of use. As such we’ve chatted and partnered with Labcrafter, a UK based company […]
WIP Wednesday, 29 April 2026
This week in FreeCAD development: Sketcher Part and PartDesign Assembly PaddleStroke fixed two issues in the Simulation tool (PR#29428 and PR#29433) and another bug where the Distance joint wouldn’t be solved properly depending on the selection order (PR#29461). CAM FEM BIM Other changes Additional improvements and fixes were contributed by andershol, chennes, ElementW, ipatch, marioalexis84, […]
2025 annual report and plans for 2026
The FreeCAD Project Association (FPA) has just published the 2025 annual report and plans for 2026. Here are the report’s highlights: 2026 plans:
WIP Wednesday, 22 April 2026
This week in FreeCAD development: Draft ItSaulGoodMan fixed several issues: Sketcher Part and PartDesign TechDraw ayyaz20003 fixed incorrect B‑spline/spline rendering in the ArchView (PR#28853) and another bug where DraftView and ArchView would not respect the Scale property on newly created views (PR#28818). CAM FEM BIM Measurement Other changes Additional improvements and fixes were contributed by […]
New WIP Design for Manufacture Workbench
One of the most fantastic things about FreeCAD is the constant flow of people making brilliant add on collections of tools. One work in progress that has caught our eye is the FreeCAD DFM Workbench. The Design For Manufacture (DFM) workbench aims to perform analysis of your FreeCAD models against user configurable sets of rules […]