TechDraw Module



FreeCAD is primarily a 3D modelling tool. There are times, however, when we must produce 2D drawings for documentation, manufacturing instructions, contracts, permits, etc. The Technical Drawing workbench (TechDraw) is used to produce basic technical drawings based on the 3D model. Each drawing is a Page, which can contain various Views of drawable objects such as Part::Features, PartDesign::Bodies, App::Part groups, and Document Object groups.

Dimensions, sections, hatched areas, annotations, and SVG symbols can be added to the page, which can be further exported to different formats like DXF, SVG, and PDF.

TechDraw was officially included in FreeCAD starting with version 0.17; it is intended to replace the unsupported Drawing Workbench. Both workbenches are still provided in v0.17, but the Drawing module may be removed in future releases.

Note: if your primary goal is the production of complex 2D drawings, and you don't need 3D modelling, you may wish to consider a dedicated software program for technical drafting such as LibreCad, QCad, TurboCad, and others.



Pages
These are tools for creating Pages.


 * TechDraw_New_Default.png New Default: Adds a new Page using the default Template.


 * TechDraw_New_Pick.png New Pick: Adds a new Page using a selected Template.

Views
These are tools for creating Views.


 * techdraw-view.png New View: Adds a 2D View of a one or more Drawable Objects.


 * techdraw-projgroup.png New Projection Group: Invokes a dialog for creating Views of one or more Drawable Objects from multiple directions.


 * techdraw-viewsection.png New Section: Adds a cross-section View of one or more Drawable Objects.


 * techdraw-viewdetail.png New Detail: Adds a detail View of a portion of an existing View.


 * techdraw-annotation.png New Annotation: Adds a text block to a Page.


 * techdraw-draft-view.png New Draft: Adds a View of a Draft module object.


 * techdraw-arch-view.png New Arch: Adds a View of a Arch module Section Plane object.


 * techdraw-spreadsheet.svg Spreadsheet: Inserts a view of a selected spreadsheet into a drawing.

Clips
These are tools to create and manage clipped views.


 * techdraw-clip.svg Clip: Inserts a clip group into a Page.


 * techdraw-clipplus.svg ClipPlus: Adds a View to a clip group.


 * techdraw-clipminus.svg ClipMinus: Removes a View from a clip group.

Dimensions
These are tools for working with Dimensions. Linear dimensions can be based on two points, one line or two lines.


 * Dimension_Length.png New Length: Adds a Length Dimension.


 * Dimension_Horizontal.png New Horizontal: Adds a horizontal distance dimension.


 * Dimension_Vertical.png New Vertical: Adds a vertical distance dimension.


 * Dimension_Radius.png New Radius: Adds a Radius dimension to a circle or circular arc.


 * Dimension_Diameter.png New Diameter: Adds a Diameter dimension to a circle or a circular arc.


 * Dimension_Angle.png New Angle: Adds an Angle dimension between two straight edges.


 * TechDraw_Dimension_Angle3Pt.png New Angle3Pt: Adds an Angle dimension using three vertices.


 * Dimension_Link.png New Links: Links 1 or more Dimensions to 3D geometry.

Import/Export
These are tools for exporting Pages to other applications.


 * techdraw-saveSVG.png Save SVG: Saves a Page as an SVG file.
 * TechDraw_SaveDXF.png Save DXF: Saves a Page as a DXF file.

Decoration
These are tools for changing the appearance of Pages and Views.


 * techdraw-hatch.png Hatch Area: Applies a hatch pattern from a file to a Face.


 * techdraw-geomhatch.png Geometric Hatch: Hatches a Face using an Autodesk PAT specification.


 * techdraw-symbol.png New Symbol: Inserts an SVG symbol into a Page.


 * Techdraw-image.png New Image: Inserts a png/jpg image into a Page.


 * techdraw-toggleframe.png Toggle Frames: Turns View frames and labels on or off in a Page.

Additional features

 * Hatching: TechDraw supports a number of hatching techniques.
 * Line Groups: default weights can be assigned to various line types.

Preference settings
The TechDraw module has a preferences screen to adjust default values.

Scripting
The TechDraw Workbench features a Python API that can be used in scripts and macros.
 * TechDraw API
 * TechDrawGui API

Limitations

 * TechDraw drawings and Python API are not interchangeable with the Drawing Module. It is possible to convert Drawing Pages to TechDraw Pages using Python . It is possible to have both TechDraw and Drawing Pages in the same FreeCAD document, as each page is completely independent from each other.
 * There are minor differences in specifying editable texts in SVG templates compared to the Drawing module. See forum discussion  here.
 * Do not Cut/Copy/Paste TechDraw objects. This does not generally work out well.

Workarounds

 * None required at the moment.

To keep up with TechDraw plans and developments, visit the TechDraw Roadmap.