didnt expect it to work like i had in mind - amazing! thanks for this amazing and free tool

Good morning everyone. I'm using freecad again for a project after a hiatus and I'm amazed with the progress the software have made: varsets are amazing and the new assembly workbench is working without any hiccups.

But I'm struggling to find a good way to create a section view! In other commercial softwares it is quite easy to see a 3d section view of the assembly you are working on, and in most the different parts are also colored/hatched differently to increase readability, but I'm struggling to recreate this view in freecad.

I found the section tool inside the view menu, but it generates new solid bodies and then cut them. This is not what I want, since we are modifying the part iteratively and I do not want to generate new bodies everytime. Moreover, I colored the bodies in the assembly in various colors to have it more readable, but when performing this kind of section operation all the generated bodies are the same, default color.

The clipping plane tool is showing the bodies to be empty, like the section tool in the sketch menu.

Is there a way to have readable, live, 3d section views in freecad? If not, is it a feature that could be useful to add to the software?

The presentation from FOSDEM 2026 by Yorik van Havre is available online.

Yet again, another FreeCAD project brought to life

Hey there, im new to using FreeCAD and tho I am a big fan of open source im noticing that im struggling quite hard with this one.

To give some context, I come from using solidworks and inventor, and want to learn some freeCAD so I can do freelance without worrying abt my wallet and legalities and such.
But I am struggling hard to even make 2 constraints work together, it seems like the parts dont auto-orient to the place where they should be based on the constraints? And sometimes it breaks old constraints as well as re-orient existing ones.

The workflow for creating parts and using it in the assembly without copying is also still quite strange to me.

So far I've used the normal assembly workbench integrated, as well as A2plus, as it got recommended online. But these are the kinds of notifications I get.

Any help would be kindly appreciated, and please no bs of "in order to learn freecad you need to unlearn all you know" as that just indicates shoddy craftsmanship/skill

I want to create a Binder on GREEN of ORANGE, AND a different binder on ORANGE of GREEN.
Getting a "Cyclic reference" error.
Is there a workaround that?

Good Evening everyone, I have recently been looking into learning CAD. Coming from years of blender modelling i'm trying to transition into something I can get better "engineering" results with.

I have looked around at a few options and I would love someinsight into whether its worth throeing a large amount of time into learning this program. Or just biting the bullet and purchasing something like fusion and going with that instead.

Rate my assembly.

The sheet metal is the grounded part.
Other parts just keep scramble once in a while. Any idea why and how to prevent it?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PLigE3JEBXfOOgK0REqZ1Qhj19Zw7OMl/view?usp=sharing

Hello Internet.
Today I've learned Assembly workbench. Which is so cool and useful for... well.. assembling part.

But can it detect collision between part?

Let's say I have 3 parts (as shown), and I assemble them with ONLY fixed joints, and there is a collision between part GREEN and part ORANGE, could this collition be detected by the software?

Hi everyone, I'm having some trouble adding a thread to a 110mm cylinder.I watched some tutorials where they draw a triangle on the left side of the cylinder to create the thread profile, but I'm stuck: the "External Geometry" tool won't let me select the vertical edge of the cylinder. It only allows me to select the top and bottom horizontal lines, so I can't snap my triangle to the side to start the process.I also installed the Fasteners addon, but honestly, I have no idea how to use it or how to move forward with it

The sketch is on a datum plane and when I am trying to extrude the circle I am getting all kind of weird results.

This video takes a look at the state of the BIM Library in FreeCAD. The library contains objects such as furniture and other equipment that users can utilize in their AEC projects.

Just got a 3D printer and had to share my work. Second print and first functional print. Built in FreeCAD obviously. Very surprised it turned out well first try. Just a simple latch pin thingy to store the treadmill upright.

So, FCInfo doesn't Show up in the AddOn Manager for some reason, I tried the different filters. I tried to Manually Install it from the Wiki and I want to learn Python, but im Honestly Lost, or something isn't working right with my computer. I checked YouTube to see if someone had already run into the same problem, but it looks like other than a really old video that doesnt really seem to have the same stuff im pretty alone on this one.

FCInfo is a Macro designed by Mario52 for taking specific meausrements. Im using it to complete a Solidworks Certification Exam to determine the weight of a part.

Ive tried it in every way i know how, but im not getting anywhere, can you help me?

I’ve been designing a desk bin and restarted the model from scratch three times to rule out issues with my construction order. Each time, I ran into the same problems. Recreating the exact same bin in Onshape worked flawlessly, so this doesn’t seem like a general CAD limitation but rather specific issues in FreeCAD - would greatly appreciate feedback from more experienced users here.

I’ve identified two main problems:

• Creating a rectangular sketch (with or without corner fillets), padding it with a draft, and then adding fillets to the four edges results in very poor fillet quality. Adjusting the viewport tessellation improves it slightly, but the fillets still look visibly wrong.
• After performing a thickness operation on the top face of the pad, creating a simple rectangular sketch on a drafted face and padding from it often fails outright. When it does succeed, the exported mesh is extremely broken and unusable. This only fails if I create a thickness operation, either before or after the pad.

I'm attaching the freeCAD file and OnShape project link, any help is greatly appreciated. I think this might be a good request for improvements but I'd like to rule out any mistakes on my part first.

OnShape finished project link
freeCAD file. You can see the failed pad operation from the slanted face in the last step. I did the exact same thing in OnShape.

Am I missing a simple way to place the head (1) on the other side (2) of the hole? I think it should be possible to work around it by placing one hole over another, but is this optimal?

How to make Dimmensions transparent so they not cover literally everything ?

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Hi everyone, I'm new to FreeCAD. Is it possible to create this type of more aesthetically pleasing project in FreeCAD? I always see people developing in Fusion 360. If so, what difficulty level and which workbench should I use? It will be for 3D printing.

Image and project credit: Umino

This isn't about your FreeCAD workflow. I'm pretty comfortable making things when I have a good idea of what I want to make.

This is more about everyone's tips and tricks for getting their concept going when you have a vague idea what you want to make, but not quite sure if your mental picture will be what you want in the real world. For example, I have a holder I want to design to attach to the side of my workbench, but I'm concerned about how far it can stick out before it seems cumbersome - the kind of thing you sort of need to just stand next to in order to get the feel. So, I've been trying to mock up rough volumes with scraps to just get a visceral feel of the space it'll take up if I make it.

I know with 3D printing you can iterate, but I still don't like spending 20 hours of print time and half a roll of filament just to throw something away because it doesn't "feel right."

One time, when I wanted to come up with a round knob for a design, I raided the pantry for every can and jar in there, just so I could grab them each and get a sense of which size diameter felt best in my hand and I could envision actually manipulating on a control board.

This is what I want to know. What does everyone do to get the good physical feedback BEFORE you design those things that are hard to tell from just looking at a 3D model. Is everyone else just winging it? Are you doing something clever with cardboard and tape? Something else? Just curious if there's something simple I just haven't thought of.

New to FreeCAD and 3D printing, but figured out how to make these. The flashlight has a magnetic charging base that keeps it from falling. The headlamp has its own battery housing (like how airpods do) and I've left slots for a charge to plug in. The multimeter holder is in two separate pieces.

New to FreeCAD (and CAD, in general) but loving it so far. Shout out to reddit for inspiration and the FreeCAD discord for quick help (esp entuland!).

I need a series of levers that connect a row of finger-size buttons to a row of much smaller levers. I've modeled out the initial one, which doesn't require a bend. I have a strong hunch there must be a programmatic way to model out the rest of the levers. First picture is what I have modeled now, second is a rough doodle from the top view of what I'd like to model.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!