Chapter 1. FreeCAD [How-to]
Welcome to FreeCAD [How-to]. This book will provide an introduction to the organization and versatility of this open source application. The recipes described in this book will introduce most of the concepts used throughout FreeCAD so that knowledge gained in one area will help you explore the other areas more efficiently.
FreeCAD is a general purpose modeling tool aimed at the engineering world. Unlike other modeling tools such as Blender or Maya, which are designed for animators and artists, FreeCAD puts heavy emphasis on parametric, feature-based design of three dimensional solids.
A great deal of foresight and planning has gone into the underlying technology of FreeCAD. The result is a tool that is powerful, easy to use, and easy to extend with the powerful scripting language Python.
This first part of this book will help you get familiar with the FreeCAD interface and philosophy. We'll look at a couple of specific techniques for modeling objects. The later recipes will focus more on using Python to automate and extend FreeCAD.
