Notes de version 0.19

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Revision as of 10:50, 2 November 2019 by Gnrc (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Cet outil a été spécialement développé pour aider à modifier les formes Arch Walls basés sur Draft Wires. Lorsque divers murs sont s...")
This page tracks new features as they are added to the development version of FreeCAD, which is currently 0.19. When the 0.19 feature freeze happens, delete these messages, and don't add more features to this page. FreeCAD 0.19 is expected to be released in 2020.

Are features missing? Mention them in the Release notes for v0.19 forum thread.

See Help FreeCAD for ways to contribute to FreeCAD.

FreeCAD 0.19 a été publié le DD mois 2020, il est disponible sur la page de téléchargement. Ceci est un résumé des changements les plus intéressants. La liste complète des modifications est disponible dans le journal des modifications MantisBT bugtracker FC 0.19.

Les notes de version plus anciennes de FreeCAD sont disponibles dans la liste des fonctionnalités.

Machine à vapeur à course courte Simpson et Shipton, vers 1845, à piston rotatif horizontal, par "un1corn", vitrine des utilisateurs.

Mise en lumière

Moteur à vapeur à soupape rotative horizontal 4 cylindres, par "un1corn", vitrine des utilisateurs.

Ajoutez ici une image de haute qualité qui met en évidence un développement de FreeCAD 0.19, avec son auteur, et un lien vers l'origine de l'image.

File:FreeCAD highlight 3 0.19.png

Ajoutez ici une image de haute qualité qui met en évidence un développement de FreeCAD 0.19, avec son auteur, et un lien vers l'origine de l'image.

Ajoutez ici une image de haute qualité qui met en évidence un développement de FreeCAD 0.19, avec son auteur, et un lien vers l'origine de l'image.

Généralités

Avec plus de 2000 validations dans la branche principale depuis la version 0.18, il s'agit de l'une des versions les plus complètes de tous les temps, avec plusieurs nouveaux composants tels que le nouvel objet "App::Link", ainsi que de nombreux nouveaux outils de l'atelier TechDraw qui rendra FreeCAD encore plus puissant pour la modélisation et l’assemblage solide en 3D. À côté de cela, l’écosystème FreeCAD a continué à se développer avec des ateliers externes plus spécialisés.

Python 3 et Qt5

L’effort de migration de Python 2 et Qt4 vers Python 3 et Qt5 est globalement terminé et la plupart des développeurs ont migré vers les chaînes d’outils Python3/Qt5.

Sans aucun doute, il y aura des bugs imprévus ; ceux-ci seront traités lorsqu'ils sont rapportés. Toute dépendance existante sur Python 2 ou Qt4 ne sera plus prise en charge au-delà du 1er janvier 2020, date à laquelle Python 2 ne sera officiellement plus pris en charge par la Fondation Python. Veuillez noter que certains addons n’ont pas encore été portés vers Python3/Qt5. Cela peut être dû à plusieurs raisons, notamment le manque de temps de la part de leurs développeurs, de dépendances brisées qui pourraient ne pas être facilement réparées, ou tout simplement parce que l'addon est considéré comme obsolète. Les personnes intéressées par la migration d'un atelier ou d'un outil particulier sont encouragées à participer au forum FreeCAD ; voir aussi Ateliers d'addon compatibles Python3 et Qt5 (en préparation depuis 0.18).

Quelques problèmes

Problème résolu avec la visibilité des conteneurs Std Part lorsque la fenêtre est affichée en plein écran dans Qt5 :

Développement

Documentation

  • La page Compiler sur Unix a été examinée pour mieux expliquer les conditions requises pour compiler sur différentes distributions Linux. Comme de nombreux développeurs utilisent des systèmes basés sur Debian, cette section a retenu l’attention. Les utilisateurs d'autres distributions Linux sont encouragés à maintenir la documentation de leur distribution particulière. Compiler sur Windows a également été réécrit pour expliquer comment utiliser LibPack pour la compilation.
  • La page de documentation Source a également été nettoyée pour mieux expliquer comment produire la documentation de programmation (API) à partir de sources C++ et Python.
  • La page Doxygen a été examinée et étendue pour donner plus de détails sur la syntaxe utilisée dans les fichiers C++ pour produire la documentation de programmation.
  • La page de gestion du code source a également été retravaillée avec de meilleures descriptions et des exemples d'utilisation de git pour gérer les branches et contribuer au code.
  • La page des ateliers externes a été réorganisée, de sorte que tous les ateliers dotés de nombreuses fonctionnalités et disponibles publiquement soient répertoriés. Si vous souhaitez ajouter un atelier à cette page, présentez-le dans le forum et fournissez des informations complémentaires telles que le manuel d'utilisation, les pages wiki et un lien vers son référentiel. Poussez ensuite pour qu’il soit inclus dans le gestionnaire d’addon.

Limitations connues

  • Écran noir en raison des pilotes de carte vidéo, lors de l'exécution de FreeCAD dans une machine virtuelle ; problème #3939.
  • La manette de jeu USB Logitech Wingman peut provoquer un comportement erratique lors de la rotation et du zoom dans la vue ; discussion sur le forum.
  • La navigation par navigation est entièrement prise en charge pour Windows mais doit être maintenue sous Linux et MacOS. Problème : le développeur, DeepSOIC, n’a pas de machine MacOS avec son trackpad spécial et ne l’a pas non plus testé sous Linux ; discussion sur le forum.

Interface utilisateur

Le cube de navigation a eu quelques retouches ; maintenant la transparence est utilisée pour être plus agréable aux yeux, et les flèches sont plus grosses pour que vous puissiez cliquer plus facilement.

Forum discussion, pull request #2076.

Nouveau thème d'icônes COIL développé par l'utilisateur 1D_Inc. Il s'agit d'un jeu d'icônes minimaliste inspiré des icônes de style de contour 2.8 de Blender (une bobine de fils ou de brins fait allusion à l'apparence des icônes). L'intention est d'avoir des icônes d'aspect professionnel qui peuvent être utilisées avec différents thèmes de couleurs, notamment clair, foncé et monochrome.

Forum discussion 1 (ancien thread), discussion 2 (thread principal), 1D_SVG_Tools repository.

Nouvelle gestion des thèmes d'icônes développée par l'utilisateur triplus.

Forum discussion.

Nouvelle feuille de style sombre développée par l'utilisateur userzmp2000.

Forum dscussion, BlenderLike-dark.qss.

Thèmes sombres par l'utilisateur pablogil. Variations bleue, verte et orange, plus sombres que les modèles précédents.

Forum discussion.

App::Link et assemblage

L'objet "App::Link" permet de lier de manière allégée des objets d'un document et de documents externes.

Après 2,5 années de développement, l'objet "Link", ou plus officiellement App::Link, a été introduit dans FreeCAD. C'est un type spécial de App::DocumentObject avec certaines propriétés qui, espérons-le, faciliteront la réalisation des assemblages.

Un "lien" permet aux objets d'utiliser les données d'un autre objet, telles que la géométrie ou même leur représentation visuelle 3D, dans le même fichier ou dans des fichiers différents. Cela peut être considéré comme un clone absolu et mince, ou comme le même objet vivant dans deux "instances" différentes. Certaines fonctionnalités offertes par un "lien" sont déjà présentes dans certains ateliers tels que Arch and BIM (clones, external references), mais l'implémentation de "lien" se situe au niveau de base et peut donc être utilisée par tous les ateliers de différentes manières.

Le composant "Link" a été conçu et développé presque à lui seul par l'utilisateur realthunder. Les motivations et les implémentations de conception derrière ce projet sont décrites dans sa page GitHub, Lien. Afin de réaliser cette fonctionnalité, plusieurs modifications essentielles à FreeCAD ont été apportées ; celles-ci sont également largement documentés dans Core-Changes.

L’histoire de "Link" peut être reliée à quelques fils essentiels du forum :

Finalement, la demande d'extraction et la fusion sont arrivées :

L'objet "Link" prépare FreeCAD pour la phase qui devait avoir lieu après la refonte de PartDesign dans FreeCAD 0.17, qui fonctionne avec les assemblages.

"Assembly3" est un atelier d'assemblage écrit en python par realthunder, qui utilise la fonctionnalité "Link". L'atelier a servi de banc d'essai pour le composant "Link" au cours de son développement. Bien que Assembly3 ne fasse toujours pas officiellement partie de FreeCAD, avec l’inclusion de "Link", Le temps est proche pour que Assembly3 soit fourni en tant que complément installable, tout comme l'atelier A2plus est actuellement fourni.

Autres ajouts dans la fusion App::Link

Outre l'introduction de "App::Link", la branche "LinkMerge" a également introduit certaines modifications visibles pour l'utilisateur en ce qui concerne les propriétés de l'objet, les expressions, la sélection visuelle et la vue en arborescence. Celles-ci sont décrites dans la page Core-Changes.

File:Custom-property.gif Des propriétés dynamiques peuvent être ajoutées à n’importe quel objet C++ ou Python. Cela peut rendre des macros telles que Macro PropertyMemo obsolètes.

Forum discussion | Animated gif

Les éléments sélectionnés masqués par d'autres éléments sont mis en surbrillance pour indiquer leur position dans le modèle.

Addon Manager

L'Addon Manager a été mis à niveau ; il est maintenant en mesure d'afficher des informations plus complètes sur tous les ateliers externes et macros, et d'afficher une icône pour chacun d'eux. Il permet également de vérifier les mises à jour au démarrage et d'utiliser des référentiels personnalisés.

Forum discussion.

Atelier Arch (Architecture)

L'outil Arch Site est à nouveau capable de générer des diagrammes de trajectoire solaire si la latitude, la longitude et la déclinaison fournies sont fournies. Cela nécessite Pysolar 0.7 ou supérieur, et ne fonctionne qu'avec Python 3.

Forum discussion, commit 2177f4437, commit c05bc0990.

L'outil Arch Site peut désormais afficher une boussole pour indiquer la direction du "vrai nord" (déclinaison) dans le modèle. Par défaut, le nord est aligné sur l'axe des ordonnées. Ceci est utile lorsque vous travaillez en coordonnées du monde réel.

Forum discussion, pull request #2111, commit ff1fb11af, pull request #2360.

L'outil Arch SectionPlane a maintenant la possibilité de découper la vue pour qu'elle serve de caméra.

Forum discussion, commit 9a64f3fad9.

L'outil Arch Fence a été ajouté pour produire des objets de clôture à partir d'une situation et d'un chemin.

Forum discussion, pull request #2151, pull request #2173, pull request #2263, pull request #2270.

Arch Fence en action.

Améliorations apportées au module renforcement, qui étend l'outil Arch Rebar.

Interface utilisateur graphique automatisée pour le renforcement : le but est de faciliter la création automatique de barres d’armature simples et complexes. Ce développement a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet Google Summer of Code 2019 : Suraj_Dadral/gsoc_proposal.

Forum discussion, FreeCAD-Reinforcement (master code), SurajDadral/FreeCAD-Reinforcement (development fork).

Atelier Draft (Planche à dessin)

L'outil Draft Edit a été mis à niveau pour permettre la modification simultanée de plusieurs objets brouillons et pour afficher de meilleurs suiveurs.

Forum discussion | Animated gif | Pull request #1968, commit 272a8dfcc9, commit 7de2248bb, pull request #2108, pull request #2430.

L'outil a également été déplacé dans son propre module : commit a4e2df115d, commit c351b9094.

Nouvel outil Draft SubelementHighlight pour mettre en évidence les nœuds et les arêtes de certains objets, tels que Draft Wires, afin de les éditer à l'aide de modificateurs tels que Draft Move, Draft Rotate, et Draft Scale. Il vous permet de sélectionner plusieurs objets à modifier au lieu d'un seul. Une fois les objets mis en surbrillance, vous pouvez sélectionner des sous-éléments, des sommets et des arêtes spécifiques et les transformer (déplacer, faire pivoter, mettre à l'échelle) uniquement.

Cet outil a été spécialement développé pour aider à modifier les formes Arch Walls basés sur Draft Wires. Lorsque divers murs sont sélectionnés et que l'outil est utilisé, les fils de base deviennent automatiquement visibles et affichent leurs nœuds de manière bien visible.

Forum discussion | Video demonstration 1, 2 | Pull request #1975.

New Draft CubicBezCurve tool, to create 3rd degree Bezier curves in a way similar to Inkscape.

Forum discussion | Animated gif | Pull request #2072.

New Draft Arc 3Points tool, to create circular arcs by specifying three points through which the arc passes. Originally developed in the BIM Workbench and then migrated to Draft.

Forum discussion, commit 4f19a65559, commit 0b905fade0, pull request #2286.

New Draft Layer tool that replaces the seldom used Draft VisGroup, providing a true layer system as it exists in other CAD systems. Draft Layer supports adding objects by drag-and-drop, controls object visibility and, optionally, object color.

Forum discussion (development), forum discussion (announcement), commit 5ee99ca4ee, commit 36bc48c9bf.

Substantial reworking of Draft SVG routines to improve inclusion of 2D projections in TechDraw pages. This benefits tools like Draft Shape2DView and Arch SectionPlane, when used with TechDraw NewDraft and TechDraw NewArch.

Forum discussion.

New Draft Fillet tool that creates a fillet (rounded corner) or a chamfer (straight line) between two simple Draft Lines.

Forum discussion, pull request #2441, pull request #2492.

Autres

  • The Draft Wire tool now is called "Polyline" in the menu, instead of "DWire"; all options and functionality remain the same, so this doesn't break compatibility; commit 39e748229e.
  • Undergoing efforts to split tools into their own module files to ease maintenance of the codebase for the future; forum discussion, commit 16c26cb3b1.
  • Undergoing efforts to document the Python source code (adding complete docstrings), in order to produce better programming documentation that can be used by both users and developers. See Source documentation for instructions on generating the documentation with Doxygen.

Atelier FEM

After half a year in development and testing the "femconcrete" branch was added to the FEM Workbench. This provides tools to estimate the level of reinforcement required in a concrete structure to prevent brittle failure under tension or shear. In essence, it is a post processing routine for the CalculiX solver, which calculates the principal tensile stresses in the concrete from an elastic analysis and uses those to determine the minimum reinforcement in the three coordinate directions required to prevent failure.

Forum discussion, Analysis of reinforced concrete with FEM (tutorial) | Pull request #2267.

After a few months in development the "fcFEM" macro was published. It implements a finite element solver entirely in Python. Its author designed it to overcome the limitations of other external solvers, like CalculiX and z88. Some of the intended improvements include creating mixed mesh analyses, improved beam and shell elements, arc-length control for overcoming limit points in elastic-plastic analyses, implementation of zero-thickness interface elements for different applications, and others.

In due time this solver could be distributed together with the FEM Workbench, meaning that the FreeCAD project would have its own finite element solver for doing mechanical and structural analyses.

Forum discussion | fcFEM repository (LGPL 2).

Topology optimization has long been a feature desired for those working with FEM. In 2016 the BESO (Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization) project was started, implementing an iterative method with the CalculiX solver that removes ineffective elements from a mesh in order to optimize the mass of the design. In the 0.19 development cycle, a simple graphical interface has been developed to facilitate generating the beso configuration files.

Forum discussion | beso repository (LGPL 3).

Similar to beso, the ToOptix project also provides a macro to perform topology optimization; it currently only works in structural and heat transfer studies.

Forum discussion (just a mention) | ToOptixFreeCADAddon repository (GPL 2).

Autres

  • Updated coding standards that strive for PEP8 compliance with Python; forum discussion, commit ad03ee9bdf, commit 27cb54009b.
  • The Elmer project has developed a library for handling batch type pre-processing for the ElmerSolver, using the FEM Workbench. This includes creating mesh objects for FreeCAD, manipulating the mesh sizes of solids, creating finite element meshes using Gmsh, running ElmerGrid and exporting the mesh for ElmerSolver, and selecting and naming bodies and boundaries for ElmerSolver; forum discussion, elmerfem repository (Elmer main repository), FreeCADBatchFEMTools repository (library to interact with FEM Workbench, LGPL 2.1).
  • The integration of the OOFem solver, which started in 2018, is progressing, so it is now another option that can be used for structural analysis in FreeCAD. This solver is interesting in that it has interface elements, as well as arc-length control, in addition to many non-linear material models. The integration of OOFEM into FEM has been carried in various commits that together serve as documentation on how to integrate similar solvers; forum discussion, femoofem branch, OOFEM main website, oofem repository (LGPL 2.1).

Atelier Part (Pièce)

New command Part PointsFromMesh to create an object made of points from an imported mesh. Then the points can be used as reference objects to do further operations, such as define a plane, and draw a sketch. This can be used to reverse engineer or remodel meshes by creating solid objects.

Forum discussion (and video), pull request #2450.

  • New Face method: Part.Face.cutHoles(list_of_wires) to cut holes into a face. The face usually needs to be validated after operation.
  • The "App::Link" merge introduced two new commands, Part TransformedCopy and Part ElementCopy. These commands create non-parametric copies of a body with a transformed placement, and of an element (vertex, edge, or face); commit 6da72b9859. These operations essentially make the Macro Repro Wire obsolete.

Atelier PartDesign (Conception de pièces)

Features that have an "Attachment" property now show when the attachment mode is "deactivated" by displaying a small overlay to the left of the icon in the tree view. Features that are attached to a plane or other reference don't display this overlay.

Forum discussion, pull request #2272.

Atelier Path

Added coolant modes for coolant management.

Forum discussion, pull request #2463.

Autres

Atelier Render

Added support for Blender's standalone "Cycles" renderer; commit 759067912f; FreeCAD-render repository. The Cycles standalone renderer usually needs to be compiled from source, as the binary is normally not provided by itself in a complete Blender distribution.

Besides this, the Render Workbench already has support for Pov-Ray, Luxrender and Appleseed.

Atelier Sketcher (esquisseur)

In the Sketcher "Elements" panel there is now a "Mode" filter to select "normal", "construction", "external", or "all" geometry. This is useful to perform an action with only one type of geometry. For example, one use case is selecting only the "construction" edges, and deleting them after being used.

Atelier Spreadsheet (Feuille de calcul)

The introduction of "App::Link" also brought some improvements to the Expressions capabilities of FreeCAD, which are visible in the Property editor, and the Spreadsheet Workbench. These are described in Core-Changes.

  • A new expression syntax is introduced to unambiguously reference a property of the owner object, by omitting the object reference and starting with a leading dot (.), similar to Python relative import syntax. So instead of Cylinder.Height, now you can use .Height.
  • You can refer to an object by its Name or by its Label. In the case of a Label, it must be enclosed in << and >> symbols, such as <<Label>>. For example, <<Metal_cylinder>>.Height.
  • Improved spreadsheet recomputation logic, and cell copy and paste functions.

Atelier Start

Re-added example files to the Start page with saved thumbnails in their icons.

Forum discussion, pull request #2316.

Atelier Surface

None

TechDraw Workbench

Improved placing and scaling of a 3D viewport screenshot in a TechDraw page.

Forum discussion.

New TechDraw Balloon tool to add balloon decorators to create notes with numbers, letters, and text.

Forum discussion, pull request #2013.

New TechDraw LeaderLine and TechDraw RichTextBlock tools to create better annotations in the drawing page.

Forum discussion, commit 7f07195f93, commit 6c699887c0; testing and bug fixing commit ab986d9a00, commit 15f440525e, commit 8ef3f13fbb, commit bf38ae958f, commit 74737f71fd, commit be257182ba, commit de3715908e, commit 916fe7ced3.

New TechDraw CosmeticVertex, TechDraw Midpoints, and TechDraw Quadrant tools, which allow the user to place fake or "cosmetic" vertices that can be used to create dimensions. The midpoint and quadrant vertices can be used to add more points to straight and curved edges (circular arcs), respectively; the "CosmeticVertex" tool can add a point anywhere on the drawing view without requiring being based on existing geometry.

Forum discussion, commit 59e47de506, commit 94b167f3a2.

New TechDraw FaceCenterLine, TechDraw 2LineCenterLine, and TechDraw 2PointCenterLine tools, to add a line in the center of a face, or between two existing edges, or between two existing points, respectively.

Also, TechDraw DecorateLine to change the appearance of single edges, and TechDraw CosmeticEraser to remove any of the cosmetic features from the view.

Forum discussion (v1, alpha), forum discussion (v2), commit 656e1654ff, commit 93431edfba, commit f25826bba3, commit 11d8aaed61, commit 941968b37c.

New TechDraw WeldingSymbol tool to provide welding symbols. One of the most requested features from the older Drawing Workbench is finally in TechDraw.

Forum discussion (testing), forum discussion (main thread); pull request #2446.

Old welding symbols from Drawing Workbench.

New TechDraw ActiveView tool. It produces a static image from the active 3D view, and puts it in a new TechDraw view. The result is a snapshot that doesn't update with changes to the model, and which is very fast to produce because it doesn't perform hidden line removal calculations. It is intended for rapid visualization of models, or to display flat projections of models without needing to add dimensions, a workflow that may be interesting for architectural visualization. Together with Arch SectionPlane and TechDraw NewArch, TechDraw ActiveView hopes to improve the interaction between Arch and TechDraw to document building models.

Forum discussion, commit 13676bfe57.

New page templates, Russian State Standard of Technical Documentation (Unified system for design documentation), GOST 2.104-2006, GOST Р 21.1101-2013.

Forum discussion, pull request #2249.

New page templates, the People's Republic of China Templates A series; please use with font family "HYSWLongFangSong".

Forum discussion, pull request #2322.

New page templates, A-size, Slovenian (GPL 2).

Forum discussion, FreeCADTemplates repository.

Only LGPL2 compatible code can be provided directly with TechDraw; code contributed under GPL2 or GPL3 needs to be stored in a separate repository.

The drawing of dimensions was completely rewritten. Now any drawn dimension is fully compliant with one of ISO 129-1 or ASME Y14.5M standards. There are four styles to choose from: ISO oriented (rotated value), ISO Referencing (horizontal value), ASME Inlined (horizontal value), ASME Referencing (value connected by a reference line).

Forum discussion, pull request #2552.

Further TechDraw Improvements

  • There has been discussions about changing the standard behavior of TechDraw. Instead of keeping the drawing pages updated automatically, they would be updated only on demand; this would mitigate the effects of TechDraw slowing down the rest of FreeCAD when modelling. Moreover, now that "App::Link" is included in FreeCAD, TechDraw pages may be stored in a separate file, and loaded on demand; forum discussion (main discussion), forum discussion (alternatives).
  • Fixed font size issues when exporting to SVG; forum discussion, pull request #2219.
  • Fixed regression in caption handling and hide caption property where not applicable; pull request #2228.
  • Added options for page size, line width and background when saving to SVG; this improves Draft/Arch and TechDraw integration; pull request #2455.
  • New panning of the page using the middle mouse button; forum discussion, pull request #2458.
  • Finer control of drawing updates; forum discussion, pull request #2468, commit 5bed53f858, commit b2d8eeeb65.
  • Also new TechDraw Redraw tool to force a drawing page update while ignoring the state of the options "Update with 3d", "Allow page override", or "KeepUpdated". This tool disappeared in 0.18, but was re-implemented for 0.19; forum discussion.

Material Handling

None

Macros

See Macros recipes for many more macros.

Automatic light-gauge steel frame creator and panelizer.

Forum discussion | Screencast | FreeCAD-Steel_Frame repository (GPL 3).

Additional modules

See external workbenches for the full list of additional workbenches that can be installed in FreeCAD. If you want to see your workbench added, join the forum and present your code.

3D Printing Tools

Previously it was called "MeshTools". It has utilities for working with imported STL meshes which could be used for 3D printing, like scaling the mesh up and down, scale it to fit a 3D printer, make objects transparent, hide and show objects, change colors and line widths of groups of objects, and others.

Forum discussion | 3D Printing Tools repository (LGPL 2.1).

A2plus

The successor to the Assembly2 workbench, A2plus is the most mature assembly workbench, and has received important updates in this development cycle, like an improved point on plane constraint, and point on line constraint, using the center of a sphere as the point; this improves the constraining of spheres.

Forum discussion | A2plus repository (LGPL 2.1).

Please note: A2plus is not compatible with Assembly2 or other assembly workbenches. If you have previous assemblies, they will need to be re-created entirely in A2plus.

Assembly3

Assembly3 is an assembly workbench created by developer realthunder, that is inspired by Assembly2, but is not compatible with it. Assembly3 makes use of realthunder's "App::Link" object and various significant changes to the internal code of FreeCAD. Because of this reason, Assembly3 cannot be installed simply from the Addon Manager. Instead, realthunder provides a pre-compiled version of FreeCAD that includes Assembly3. This workbench serves as a testing environment for the "App::Link" object, and other changes that realthunder plans to submit to the main FreeCAD source code.

Forum discussion (massive thread) | FreeCAD_assembly3 repository (GPL 3).

Please note: Assembly3 is not compatible with Assembly2 or other assembly workbenches. If you have previous assemblies, they will need to be re-created entirely in Assembly3.

Assembly4

Assembly4 is an assembly workbench created by developer Zolko, that uses realthunder's "App::Link" object and many other changes to the base FreeCAD system. Because of this, Assembly4 cannot be installed simply from the Addon Manager. Instead, first the pre-compiled FreeCAD from realthunder needs to be installed, and then Assembly4 can be installed.

Assembly4 is an experimental workbench that tries to perform assembly without using a constraint solver, but rather with the concept of arranging local coordinate systems.

Forum discussion (original idea), forum discussion (main thread) | FreeCAD_Assembly4 repository (LGPL 2.1).

Please note: Assembly4 is not compatible with Assembly3 or other assembly workbenches. If you have previous assemblies, they will need to be re-created entirely in Assembly4.

ArchTextures

The ArchTextures Workbench was developed to provide basic texture support to Arch Workbench elements like walls and roofs, in order to quickly visualize a building. It is not intended to produce photo-realistic renderings, just simple texturing of materials like wood, brick, and concrete. It also provides lights (directional, point, and spot), which makes it more feature complete to set up a scene.

Forum discussion (help requests), forum discussion (development), forum discussion (only announcements), forum discussion (announcement of lights) | FreeCAD-ArchTextures repository (MIT).

BOLTSFC

BOLTS is an "open library of technical specifications"; it is meant to provide free, standardized parts defined parametrically that can be used in different CAD systems like OpenSCAD and FreeCAD. The BOLTS library was launched in 2013 but received little maintenance since 2016. Now, with a new maintainer and repository, the project has revived with the BOLTSFC workbench that provides an interface to insert the different parametric objects.

Forum discussion | Homepage | BOLTSFC repository, BOLTS main repository (GPL 3).

CurvedShapes Workbench

The CurvedShapes workbench has tools for designing 3D surfaces starting from a skeleton of multiple curves in the XY, XZ, or YZ planes. It was created particularly to simplify the modelling of the wings of aircrafts.

Forum discussion | CurvedShapesWorkbench repository (LGPL 3).

Dodo (formerly Flamingo)

Dodo is the successor to the Flamingo Workbench, a workbench specialized in creating piping and frames. While Flamingo was developed for Python 2 and Qt4, Dodo is meant to work with Python 3 and Qt5. It provides the same features as Flamingo, but has improved tools and interfaces.

Forum discussion (main thread), forum discussion (Dodo announcement), tutorial | flamingo repository (LGPL 3), dodo repository (LGPL 3).

Fasteners

The Fasteners Workbench to generate standard ISO screws, bolts, washers, and other fasteners, was updated to work with Python 3 and Qt5.

Forum discussion, FreeCAD_FasternersWB repository (GPL 2), additional details.

Geomatics Workbench

A workbench that provides functionality specific to Geomatics and Survey engineering, such as importing geodata information, and creating surfaces from clouds of points. There are some issues with rendering objects that use large coordinates (kilometers) and importing large DXF files. If you want to help solving these issues, please contact the developers.

Forum discussion | FreeCAD-Geomatics-Workbench repository (LGPL 2.1).

MeshRemodel Workbench

This workbench helps convert a mesh, for example, an imported STL file, into a native FreeCAD object. It will not do the conversion automatically, but it will help re-build, or re-model, the imported mesh. The general workflow is to select the mesh object, then create a "points" object from it; then these points can be used as references for creating FreeCAD objects such as lines, polygons, circles, arcs, and BSplines. These wires can then be turned into a Sketch object, which can be padded to create a 3D solid with the PartDesign Workbench.

Forum discussion (only announcement) | MeshRemodel repository (LGPL 2.1).

MOOC Workbench

The MOOC workbench is an educational tool that offers interactive tutorials and exercise evaluations to learn to use FreeCAD. It was developed as part of a series of courses on Digital Manufacturing.

At this moment, the workbench is only offered in the French language.

Forum discussion | mooc-workbench repository (GPL 2).

NodeEditor (PyFlow)

The NodeEditor workbench implements a system of nodes that can be used to dynamically control the properties of objects, similar to Blender's node system to edit materials. The NodeEditor is based on a slightly modified version of the PyFlow framework, which is under active development.

A node editor has been a requested feature for a very long time, at least since 2014 (see this thread). A fully working node editor has the potential of simplifying the drawing of complex shapes using generative algorithms that produce a shape based on the values of its inputs. This could be used to create various types of meshes and surfaces with applications in architecture and mechanical design.

Forum discussion | NodeEditor repository (MIT License), PyFlow customized fork (Apache 2.0 license), PyFlow original project (Apache 2.0 license).

Trails (and PyTrails and Turns)

The Trails workbench was formerly known as the "Transportation Engineering" workbench. It consists of a toolset for developing highway and railway designs, including horizontal alignments, vertical profiles, and 3D models. Read more in the wiki page Civil Engineering/Transportation Workbench.

Forum discussion (original thread that started the project), forum discussion (main thread, very long), video example | freecad.trails repository (LGPL 2.1).

Most of the functions used in the Trails workbench have been placed in a new Python library called PyTrails. The expectation is that Trails serves as a FreeCAD based graphical interface for PyTrails, while PyTrails remains a general purpose library that can be used outside FreeCAD in other projects.

Forum discussion (PyTrails announcement) | PyTrails repository (LGPL 2.1).

The Turns workbench is a small component that was created during development of the Trails workbench. It performs vehicle swept-path analysis (turning analysis) for highway intersections and other entrances.

Forum discussion (main thread) | freecad.turns repository (LGPL 2.1).

Other Modules

CadQuery
github
Scripting based on the CadQuery CAD scripting API. A new code editor is available and script variables can be edited dynamically through a parameter dialog. The workbench also supports normal file operations for CadQuery scripts (open, new, close, etc), and example scripts to help users learn new concepts.
Curves
github discussion
A collection of tools to create and edit NURBS curves and surfaces.
Defeaturing Workbench
discussion github
Edit imported STEP models and remove selected features from the model.
Electromagnetic (EM)
discussion
Electromagnetic
InventorLoader
discussion github
Import Autodesk Inventor files (in progress).
KicadStepUp Workbench
discussion sourceforge
Provide support for KiCad and FreeCAD users in ECAD and MCAD collaboration.
Lithophane Workbench
github discussion
Create Lithophanes by projecting images onto solid surfaces
Manipulator Workbench
discussion
Tools to aid in part manipulation
Nurbs
discussion github Microelly's "FreeCAD Buch"
A collection of scripts for managing freeform surfaces and curves.
SheetMetal Workbench
Discussion (thread 1 | thread 2 | thread 3) github
Tools for designing and bending objects made from sheet metal
Silk
discussiongithub
A collection of NURBS surface modeling tools focused on low degree and seam continuity.
SQL Workbench
discussion github
Perform Structured Query Language (SQL) queries on FreeCAD document files to retrieve and report model data.