OpenCamLib

OpenCamLib (OCL) is an open source library aiming to provide computer aided manufacturing (CAM) algorithms. FreeCAD uses OCL in the experimental 3D surface path operations and other experimental features.

Windows
Note: Beginning with FreeCAD version 0.19, OCL should be included with all Windows distribution packages.

To install OCL on Windows, follow these instructions.
 * 1) Obtain the Python version of OpenCamLib (OCL).
 * 2) * Build from source using the Python version used by your FreeCAD version. Peter Lama's fork of the same source has project files for a MSVC build.
 * 3) * Download the Python 2.7 x86/x64 binary by sgrogan on GitHub.
 * 4) * Download the Python 3.6 x64 binary by sgrogan on GitHub.
 * 5) Navigate to your OCL build or binary folder
 * 6) Copy the ocl.pyd library file
 * 7) Proceed with one of the following four(4) options:
 * 8) * Navigate to your FreeCAD\lib folder, and paste the ocl.pyd file there.
 * 9) * Navigate to your FreeCAD\bin folder, and paste the ocl.pyd file there.
 * 10) * Navigate to your FreeCAD\Mod folder. Create a new folder, OCL. Enter the OCL folder and paste the ocl.pyd file.
 * 11) * Navigate to your %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\FreeCAD folder. Create a new folder, Mod. Enter the Mod folder. Create a new OCL folder. Enter the OCL folder and paste the ocl.pyd file.
 * 12) Restart FreeCAD
 * 13) Verify proper installation
 * 14) Click View → Panels → Python console.
 * 15) Type "import ocl" into the Python console and press the enter key.
 * 16) If no error appears, you have correctly installed OCL
 * 17) * If you receive an error:
 * 18) ** Check the placement and name of the ocl.pyd file as instructed above
 * 19) ** Verify the correct architecture type of the OCL library you installed - x86 or x64
 * 20) ** Verify the Python version used to build the OCL library is the same as that of your FreeCAD software - 2.7 or 3.6 currently

Linux
The repository is here and contains basic installation instructions.

Before beginning installation, or during the installation process, you will probably find you need to install some additional packages:

For example:

sudo apt install cmake sudo apt install libboost-program-options-dev sudo apt-get install doxygen sudo apt-get install texlive-full

Note: the "libboost-program-options-dev" may be substituted with "libboost-all-dev".

Python 3
In order to make a python 3 version you may need to upgrade to the latest version of cmake, as version 3.10 from the standard package does not make the appropriate python 3 files. Version 3.14 is known to work. (Run `cmake --version` to confirm you are on a later version).

Use these flags in the make phase:

cmake -DBUILD_PY_LIB=ON -DUSE_PY_3=ON ../src -Wno-dev

See the FreeCAD forum at, Re: How to activate openCamLib after compiling it, and a few posts following.

Mac
(No entry)

More help
In case you run into difficulties, you may find additional help at these forum posts:


 * Windows
 * Linux

Acknowledgments
Thank you to Dr. Anders Wallin for providing OCL to the public.