FreeCAD is a free three-dimensional computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering application for assistance in mechanical engineering and design of mechanical elements.
Announced the launch of the new version of FreeCAD 0.21, in which various changes and improvements have been implemented in the user interface, in tools, functions and more.
FreeCAD an application de open source multiplatform with support for Windows, Mac and Linux designed primarily for real-life object design of any size. Parametric modeling allows you to easily modify your design by going back to your model history and changing its parameters.
FreeCAD has support for various formats among which we find STEP, IGES, STL, SVG, DXF, OBJ, IFC, DAE and many others. FreeCAD use the LGPL license, so we can download, install, redistribute and use FreeCAD for free,
Main new features of FreeCAD 0.21
In this new version of FreeCAD 0.21 that is presented, it is highlighted that updated the “navigation cube” UI so that it does not display in perspective when the orthogonal 3D view is active. The corner faces have been enlarged and replaced with hexagonal faces to make it easier to click the mouse, plus borders have been added around the buttons, and the default font selection and size have been improved. The Mini-cube menu now includes a checkbox to toggle cube mobility.
Another of the changes that stands out in this new version is the new added support for cutting intersecting objects on the Section Cut tool. In addition to that, in FreeCAD 0.21 settings provide the ability to change the display style of the measurement results in the environment to create blank spaces (PartDesign).
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- The workbench selector can be placed not only on the toolbar, but also in the menu.
- Added new properties to use in scripts.
- Added functions for creating objects such as vectors, matrices, rotations and positions, as well as functions for working with matrices: mrotate, mrotatex, mrotatey, mrotatez, mtranslate.
- Added simple Python package management tools to update and remove installed dependencies automatically.
- Added “developer mode” to make it easier to create a metadata file for each plugin.
- Extended environments for architectural design (Arch), two-dimensional drawing (Draft), impact analysis (FEM, finite element module), creation of blank spaces (PartDesign), generation of G-code instructions for CNC machines and 3D printers (Path ), 2D sketches - figures (Sketcher), 2D modeling and creation of 2D projections of 3D models (TechDraw).
- The default naming scheme for backups has been changed (FCBak instead of FCStd).
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.
How to install FreeCAD on Linux?
For those interested in being able to install this new version of the application, they should know that it can be found inside the repositories of the most famous distributions, so it is not necessary to have to resort to its source code to compile the application on our computer.
In the case of Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives we install FreeCAD with the following command:
sudo apt-get install freecad
In the case of Ubuntu we have a repository that offers us to always have the most recent version almost immediately, for this we only have to add it with:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable
We update our list of repositories with:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, use the following to install the program:
sudo apt-get install freecad
In the case of Arch Linux and derivatives, we find it in the AUR repositories:
yaourt -S freecad
While for Fedora and derivatives we install the application with:
sudo yum install freecad
To openSUSE we use the following command:
sudo zypper install freecad
Also we have the possibility to install the application from appimage, for this we only have to download it from its official website, the link is this.
Done the download we must give it execution permissions to downloaded file
chmod a+x FreeCAD_*.AppImage
Y finally we install FreeCAD with this command:
./ FreeCAD_*.AppImage
Once the installation is done, we just have to look for the application in our menu and run it to start using it.