FreeCAD developers just announced the liberation of lto new version of FreeCAD 0.18, version in which the source code of the release was published on March 12 and then updated on April 4, but until May the developers delayed the official announcement of the release due to the lack of availability of installation packages for all platforms supported.
For those who are still unfamiliar with FreeCAD, you should know that this application is free and open source CAD For its acronym in English (Computer-Aided Design) in 3D, that is, the design is computer-aided in three dimensions of the parameter type. FreeCAD is licensed under the LGPL.
This application is intended for a wide range of usabilityFrom the mechanical engineer to the user of a 3D printer who wants to design a room.
In addition, it has a responsive community and many tutorials on its use are easily found on the Internet.
FreeCAD-cIt has great file support in addition to the file format itself of FreeCAD, the following file formats can be handled: DXF, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), STEP, IGES, STL (STereoLithography), OBJ (Wavefront), DAE (Collada), SCAD (OpenSCAD), IV (Inventor) and IFC .
The main new features of FreeCAD 0.18
FreeCAD 0.18 improvement of the architectural design environment, whereby the walls can now be displayed as a set of blocks of arbitrary size.
The components for the design of floors and buildings (Arch Floor and Arch Building) have been replaced by a more common interface Building Parts to organize groups of arbitrary objects.
Flexibility in panel design was increased and window placement organization redesigned. Added a new mode for drawing structural objects.
All IFC types and their properties are now available to all Arch objects. Significantly expanded the ability to import and export files in IFC format. Greater ability to define material hierarchies.
On the other hand also it is highlighted that the Path environment was improved, what pallows generating G-Code instructions based on the FreeCAD model (the G-Code language is used in CNC machines and some 3D printers).
Added support for 2D objects, the possibility of including several objects in the job was implemented, cleaning and adaptive deburring functions were added.
Besides that numerous enhancements have been made to the FEM environment (finite element modulus), which provides finite element analysis tools that can be used, for example, to evaluate the effect on a developed object of various mechanical effects (resistance to vibration, heat and stress).
Another important point is modifying the layout of the home page, showing recently opened files, a selection of examples, links to documentation and a section with a report on user actions.
Last but not least, the tools in TechDraw, the environment for 2D modeling and creating 2D projections of 3D models, have been expanded.
Se added support for exporting to DXF, the size format was improved, the ability to define your own line groups, simplified alignment and angle selection was added.
As well as the ability to create material maps that contain all the information, architectural specifications, links, comments and physical properties of the material.
How to install FreeCAD 0.18 on Ubuntu and derivatives?
If you want to install this new version of FreeCAD on your system, you can do so downloaded the AppImage file provided by the developers of the application from its official website in its download section.
For this they must be directed to the following link.
You can download this new version from the terminal with the help of wget:
wget https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases/download/0.18.1/FreeCAD_0.18-16110-Linux-Conda_Py3Qt5_glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage -O FreeCAD.AppImage
Once the download is done, give execution permissions with this command in a terminal.
sudo chmod a+x FreeCAD.AppImage
And they install it with this command:
./FreeCAD.AppImage
Once the installation is done, you can start using the application on your system.