All workbenches at a glance

One of the biggest difficulty for new users of FreeCAD, is to know in which workbench to find a specific tool. The table below will give you an overview of the most important workbenches and their tools. Refer to each workbench page in the FreeCAD documentation for a more complete list.

Four workbenches are also designed to work in pairs, and one of them is fully included into the other: Arch contains all the Draft tools, and PartDesign all the Sketcher tools. However, for clarity, they are separated below.

Part

The Part Workbench provides basic tools for working with solid parts: primitives, such as cube and sphere, and simple geometric operations and boolean operations. Being the main anchor point with OpenCasCade, the Part workbench provides the foundation of FreeCAD's geometry system, and almost all other workbenches produce Part-based geometry.

Tool Description Tool Description
icon Box Draws a box icon Cone Draws a cone
icon Cylinder Draws a cylinder icon Sphere Draws a sphere
icon Torus Draws a torus (ring) icon Create Primitives Creates various other parametric geometric primitives
icon Shape Builder Create more complex shapes from primitives icon Fuse Fuses (unions) two objects
icon Common Extracts the common (intersection) part of two objects icon Cut Cuts (subtracts) one object from another
icon Join Connect Connects interiors of walled objects icon Join Embed Embeds a walled object into another walled object
icon Join Cutout Creates a cutout in a wall of an object for another walled object icon Extrude Extrudes planar faces of an object
icon Fillet Fillets (rounds) edges of an object icon Revolve Creates a solid by revolving another object (not solid) around an axis
icon Section Creates a section by intersecting an object with a section plane icon Section Cross Creates multiple cross sections along an object
icon Chamfer Chamfers edges of an object icon Mirror Mirrors the selected object on a given mirror plane
icon Ruled Surface Create a ruled surface between selected curves icon Sweep Sweeps one or more profiles along a path
icon Loft Lofts from one profile to another icon Offset Creates a scaled copy of the original object
icon Thickness Assign a thickness to the faces of a shape

Draft

The Draft Workbench provides tools to do basic 2D CAD drafting tasks: lines, circles, etc... and a series of generic handy tools such as move, rotate or scale. It also provides several drawing aids, such as grid and snapping. It is principally meant to draw the guidelines for Arch objects, but also serves as FreeCAD's "swiss knife".

Tool Description Tool Description
icon Line Draws a line segment between 2 points icon Wire Draws a line made of multiple line segments (polyline)
icon Circle Draws a circle from center and radius icon Arc Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle
iconEllipse Draws an ellipse from two corner points icon Polygon Draws a regular polygon from a center and a radius
icon Rectangle Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points icon Text Draws a multi-line text annotation
icon Dimension Draws a dimension annotation icon BSpline Draws a B-Spline from a series of points
icon Point Inserts a single point icon Shape String The ShapeString tool inserts a compound shape representing a text string at a given point in the current document
icon Facebinder Creates a new object from selected faces on existing objects icon Bezier Curve Draws a Bezier curve from a series of points
icon Move Moves or copies objects from one location to another icon Rotate Rotates objects by a certain angle around a point
icon Offset Offsets an object to a certain distance icon Trimex Trims, extends or extrudes an object
icon Upgrade Turns or joins objects into a higher-level object icon Downgrade Turns or separtes objects into lower-level objects
icon Scale Scales objects in relation to a point icon Shape2D View Creates a 2D object which is a flattened view of another object
icon Draft2Sketch Converts a Draft object to a Sketch and vice-versa icon Array Creates a polar or rectangular array from an object
icon PathArray Creates an array from an object by placing copies along a path icon Clone Creates linked copies of objects
icon Mirror Mirrors objects across a line

Sketcher

The Sketcher Workbench contains tools to build and edit complex 2D objects, called sketches. The geometry inside these sketches can be precisely positioned and relationed by the use of constraints. They are meant primarily to be the building blocks of PartDesign geometry, but are useful everywhere in FreeCAD.

Tool Description Tool Description
icon Point Draws a point icon Line by 2 points Draws a line segment from 2 points
icon Arc Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle icon Arc by 3 points Draws an arc segment from two endpoints and another point on the circumference
icon Circle Draws a circle from center and radius icon Circle by 3 points Draws a circle from three points on the circumference
icon Ellipse by center Draws an ellipse by center point, major radius point and minor radius point icon Ellipse by 3 points Draws an ellipse by major diameter (2 points) and minor radius point
icon Arc of ellipse Draws an arc of ellipse by center point, major radius point, starting point and ending point icon Polyline Draws a line made of multiple line segments. Several drawing modes available
icon Rectangle Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points icon Triangle Draws a regular triangle inscribed in a construction geometry circle
icon Square Draws a regular square inscribed in a construction geometry circle icon Pentagon Draws a regular pentagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle
icon Hexagon Draws a regular hexagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle icon Heptagon Draws a regular heptagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle
icon Octagon Draws a regular octagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle icon Slot Draws an oval by selecting the center of one semicircle and an endpoint of the other semicircle
icon Fillet Makes a fillet between two lines joined at one point icon Trim Trims a line, circle or arc with respect to a clicked point
icon External Geometry Creates an edge linked to external geometry icon Construction Mode Toggles an element to/from construction mode. A construction object will not be used in a 3D geometry operation and is only visible while editing the Sketch that contains it
icon Coincident constraint Affixes a point onto (coincident with) one or more other points. icon Point On Object constraint Affixes a point onto another object such as a line, arc, or axis.
icon Vertical constraint Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true vertical orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint. icon Horizontal constraint Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true horizontal orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint.
icon Parallel constraint Constrains two or more lines parallel to one another. icon Perpendicular constraint Constrains two lines perpendicular to one another, or constrains a line perpendicular to an arc endpoint.
icon Tangent constraint Creates a tangent constraint between two selected entities, or a co-linear constraint between two line segments. icon Equal Length constraint Constrains two selected entities equal to one another. If used on circles or arcs their radii will be set equal.
icon Symmetric constraint Constrains two points symmetrically about a line, or constrains the first two selected points symmetrically about a third selected point. icon Lock constraint Constrains the selected item by setting vertical and horizontal distances relative to the origin, thereby locking the location of that item
icon Horizontal Distance constraint Fixes the horizontal distance between two points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin. icon Vertical Distance constraint Fixes the vertical distance between 2 points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin.
icon Length constraint Defines the distance of a selected line by constraining its length, or defines the distance between two points by constraining the distance between them. icon Radius constraint Defines the radius of a selected arc or circle by constraining the radius.
icon Internal Angle constraint Defines the internal angle between two selected lines. icon Snell's Law constraint Constrains two lines to obey a refraction law to simulate the light going through an interface
icon Internal Alignment constraint Aligns selected elements to selected shape (e.g. a line to become major axis of an ellipse) icon Map sketch to face Maps a sketch to the previously selected face of a solid
icon Merge Merge two or more sketches icon Mirror Mirrors selected elements of a sketch

Part Design

The Part Design Workbench contains advanced tools to build solid parts. It also contains all the tools from the sketcher. Since it can only produces solid shapes (the rule number one of Part Design), it is the main workbench to use when designing pieces (parts) to be manufactured or 3D-printed, as you will always obtain a printable object.

Tool Description Tool Description
icon Pad Extrudes a solid object from a selected sketch icon Pocket Creates a pocket from a selected sketch. The sketch must be mapped to an existing solid object's face
icon Revolution Creates a solid by revolving a sketch around an axis icon Groove Creates a groove by revolving a sketch around an axis
icon Fillet Fillets (rounds) edges of an object icon Chamfer Chamfers edges of an object
icon Draft Applies angular draft to faces of an object icon Mirrored Mirrors features on a plane or face
icon Linear Pattern Creates a linear pattern of features icon Polar Pattern Creates a polar pattern of features
icon Scaled Scales features to a different size icon MultiTransform Allows creating a pattern with any combination of the other transformations
icon Shaft wizard Generates a shaft from a table of values and allows to analyze forces and moments icon Involute Gear wizard Allows you to create several types of gears

Arch

The Arch Workbench contains tools to work with BIM projects (civil engineering and architecture). It also contains all the tools from the Draft workbench. The main use of the Arch Workbench is to create BIM objects or give BIM attributes to objects built with other workbenches, in order to export them to IFC.

Tool Description Tool Description
icon Wall Creates a wall from scratch or using a selected object as a base icon Structure Creates a structural element from scratch or using a selected object as a base
icon Reinforcement Bar Creates a reinforcement bar in a selected structural element icon Floor Creates a floor including selected objects
icon Building Creates a building including selected objects icon Site Creates a site including selected objects
icon Window Creates a window using a selected object as a base icon Section Plane Adds a section plane object to the document
icon Axes Adds an axes system to the document icon Roof Creates a sloped roof from a selected face
icon Space Creates a space object in the document icon Stairs Creates a stairs object in the document
icon Panel Creates a panel object from a selected 2D object icon Frame Creates a frame object from a selected layout
icon Equipment Creates an equipment or furniture object icon Set Material Attributes a material to selected objects
icon Schedule Creates different types of schedules icon Cut Plane Cut an object according to a plan.
icon Add Component Adds objects to a component icon Remove Component Subtracts or removes objects from a component
icon Survey Mode Enters or leaves surveying mode

Drawing

The Drawing Workbench handles the creation and manipulation of 2D drawing sheets, used for displaying views of your 3D work in 2D. These sheets can then be exported to 2D applications in SVG or DXF formats, to a PDF file or printed.

Tool Description Tool Description
icon New sheet Creates a new drawing sheet icon Insert view Inserts a view of the selected object in the active drawing sheet
icon Annotation Adds an annotation to the current drawing sheet icon Clip Adds a clip group to the current drawing sheet
icon Browser preview Opens a preview of the current sheet in the browser icon Ortho Views Automatically creates orthographic views of an object on the current drawing sheet
icon Symbol Adds the contents of a SVG file as a symbol on the current drawing sheet icon Draft View Inserts a special Draft view of the selected object in the current drawing sheet
icon Export Saves the current sheet as a SVG file

Other built-in workbenches

Although the above summarizes the most important tools of FreeCAD, many more workbenches are available, among them:

  • The Mesh Workbench allows to work with polygon meshes. Although meshes are not the preferred type of geometry to work with in FreeCAD, because of their lack of precision and support for curves, meshes still have a lot of uses, and are fully supported in FreeCAD. The Mesh Workbench also offers a number of Part-to-Mesh and Mesh-to-Part tools.
  • The Raytracing Workbench offers tools to interface with external renderers such as povray or luxrender. Right from inside FreeCAD, this workbench allows you to produce high-quality renderings from your models.
  • The Spreadsheet Workbench permits the creation and manipulation of spreadsheet data, that can be extracted from FreeCAD models. Spreadsheet cells can also be referenced in many areas of FreeCAD, allowing to use them as master data structures.
  • The FEM Workbench deals with Finite Elements Analysis, and permits the performing of pre- and post-processing FEM calculations and to display the results graphically.

External workbenches

A number of other very useful workbenches produced by FreeCAD community members also exist. Although they are not included in a standard FreeCAD installation,they are easy to install as plug-ins. They are all referenced in the FreeCAD-addons repository. Among the most developed are:

  • The Drawing Dimensioning Workbench offers many new tools to work directly on Drawing Sheets and allow you to add dimensions, annotations and other technical symbols with great control over their aspect.
  • The Fasteners Workbench offers a wide range of ready-to-insert fasteners objects like screws, bolts, rods, washers and nuts. Many options and settings are available.
  • The Assembly2 Workbench offers a series of tools to mount and work with assemblies.

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