Release notes 1.1

FreeCAD 1.1 was released on D Month Year, get it from the Download page. This page lists all new features and changes.

Older FreeCAD release notes can be found in the Feature list.

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General

User interface

Three-point lighting was added to improve the rendering of 3D models. Pull request #19397

Further user interface improvements

• A default shortcut for Std DlgPreferences has been added. Pull request #15536
• The Notification area preferences page was improved. Pull request #15207
• Auto save and additive selection features were added to the Measure tool. Pull request #17717
• A ToggleTransparency fine-tuning parameter was added to allow users to change the default transparency level enabled by the Toggle transparency tool. Pull request #18986
• A Show Plane view property was added to display the plane on which a 2D object is based. Pull request #18910
• It is now possible to change the color of the coordinate system axes using the new preferences under Edit → Preferences... → Display → 3D View. Pull request #16995
• A Show Placement view property was added to display the placement as a coordinate system at the origin of an object. Pull request #19671
• The SolidWorks navigation style was added. Pull request #19568
• New orbit styles Trackball Classic and Rounded Arcball have been added. Rounded Arcball is now the default, offering pure roll camera rotation when the cursor is near the screen edges. Pull request #20535
• Support for hints in the status bar was added. Pull request #18961

Core system and API

Core

Core Datum tools were implemented to create coordinate systems, datum planes, datum lines and datum points which can be attached and also used in Assembly. Pull request #18332

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The Transform tool was overhauled and now allows for precise inputs besides dragging in the 3D view. It is possible to align the interactive dragger to any element in the document and to transform the object in that local (U, V, W) coordinate system of the dragger, or in the global document coordinate system. The dragger can be aligned to the object's origin as before, and also to the center of mass of the object. It has a new feature to move the object (at the location of the dragger) to a target location in the document and flip the orientation. See all new options. Pull request #17564

API

Removed Python API

Changed Python API

New Python API

Start

• The Start page can now display the contents of additional folders specified by the user. Their paths should be separated by double semicolons (;;). Pull request #19473, Pull request #19918 and Pull request #19948.
• The Examples section on the Start page can be hidden with a setting in the preferences. Pull request #19376 and Pull request #19918.
• Previews (thumbnails) for more 3D model formats (such as STEP and STL) are now displayed in the Recent Files and Examples sections of the Start page if F3D viewer is installed and added to system PATH. Pull request #19489

Addon Manager

• The Python dependency updater now works correctly if FreeCAD is installed as a snap package or as an AppImage. Pull request #19384, Pull request #19766 and Pull request #19814.
• The installation path of Python modules in the dependency updater is now shown as an absolute path for better readability. It is also shown correctly according to the FreeCAD installation method. Pull request #19828 and Pull request #19816.

Assembly Workbench

• The Insert a new part tool was added making it possible to easily add new parts to assembly. Pull request #17922
• The Create Simulation tool was added making it possible to add motions to joints and create animations. Pull request #16414
• The Bill Of Materials (BOM) command can now output the values of given properties. Pull request #20732

Further Assembly improvements

• The new core datums can be used for attaching joints to assemble multiple parts. Pull request #18332

BIM Workbench

Further BIM improvements

• The Views panel got an overhaul and now has a section for all 2D views. Pull request #15836
• NativeIFC support for 2D objects was added to BIM, allowing to embed 2D objects (linework, texts, dimensions) inside IFC files, as well as opening such files from other BIM apps. Pull request #16629
• The Schedule dialog gained support for simple arrays (e.g. non-nested). This enables regular and link arrays (both either expanded or not expanded) to be processed for further calculations in the BIM Schedule report. Pull request #19219
• The Continue option is now stored separately for each Draft and BIM command. Pull request #20748
• When adding BIM views to a TechDraw page, they now adhere to the page's scale, so that they have a sensible size. Pull request #20935
• The default zoom level for new BIM projects has been changed to be more adequate to the magnitudes used for architectural models. Pull request #20271
• When creating a new level, selected objects in the tree view are now included in the level. Pull request #20180
• Spaces can now be created from a single object (e.g. the interior faces of a wall based on a rectangle base) Pull request #20158
• FreeCAD standard groups can now be ignored when a model is exported to IFC. This is controlled by a preference and is the new default Pull request #21583

CAM Workbench

CAM Tool Management was replaced with Better Tool Library integration introducing a new toolbit editor and selector. Pull request #21425

Further CAM improvements

• The CAM Shape experimental tool was replaced by Path from Shape with Tool Controller which is a significantly improved version of that tool based on a macro. Pull request #21108
• Adaptive roughing/overhang detection was implemented including intelligent 2.5D projection of the model and stock for all adaptive operations, one-click "adaptive roughing" of the entire model, "Z stock to leave" setting to complement the "finishing stepdown" setting and a checkbox to order cuts by depth or region. Pull request #18880
• G84/G74 tapping operations were added. Pull request #8069
• Multi-pass support was added for profile operations. Pull request #17326
• Support for Snapmaker and Masso postprocessors was added. Pull request #20154 and Pull request #18845
• The New CAM Simulator was improved, including two additional buttons to reset the camera and decrease the speed. Pull request #21288, Pull request #21222 and more
• The Array operation is now considered deprecated as it's currently also implemented as a dressup. Pull request #20321
• Support for multi-pass profile operations was implemented. Pull request #17326

Draft Workbench

• Support for relative font paths has been added to ShapeStrings. Pull request #17819
• The handling of Links in TechDraw DraftViews was fixed. Pull request #18175 and Pull request #19296
• The extrude mode of the Draft Trimex command has been made link-aware. It can now handle faces belonging to Links and objects in linked containers. And the point that defines the extrusion can be co-planar with the face. Pull request #18314 and Pull request #18320
• The Move, Rotate and Scale commands have been made link-aware as well. Pull request #18795
• If a Facebinder based on connected faces is extruded, an attempt is made to close its corners. The Sew property of the object must be set to true for this. Note that the code can fail for complex shapes. Pull request #18901
• Path arrays have been enhanced with several new properties. It is now possible to reverse the array, specify a fixed spacing unit, and use spacing patterns. Pull request #19017
• Objects in layers can now have overrrides. Pull request #19207
• The Draft AddToLayer command, to quickly put objects in the correct layer, has been added. Pull request #19427
• The TechDraw code that Draft Hatch relies on has been revised to also handle dashed lines in hatch patterns. Pull request #19458
• The Draft Downgrade and Draft Upgrade commands have been updated. Arrays can be downgraded (exploded), and new objects are put in the same container (Group, Part) as the original objects, and also receive the visual properties of the original objects. Pull request #19487 and Pull request #19685
• The Draft Polygon command now shows a preview (tracker) of an actual polygon, instead of a circle. Pull request #21045
• An Align to face checkbox has been added to the task panel of the Draft Hatch command. Pull request #21332
• An in-command shortcut to recenter the working plane during commands has been added. Pull request #19728

Further Draft improvements

• The Draft Fillet command now works on selected edges, instead of the first edge of selected objects. Pull request #17945 and Pull request #18150
• The Draft AutoGroup and the Draft AddToGroup commands have been improved. The menus of both commands are sorted alphabetically. In the menu of the Draft AutoGroup command layers are separated from groups, and the New layer option prompts for a name and activates the layer. The actions of both commands have been made undoable. Pull request #18172 and Pull request #19312
• The position of the Scale multiplier field in the UI was improved (Draft SetStyle, Draft AnnotationStyleEditor and Draft Preferences). Pull request #18299
• The Draft Draft2Sketch command now also applies coincident constraints between edges from different source objects. Pull request #18805
• The radius, and chamfer and delete modes of the Draft Fillet command are stored. Pull request #19067
• An edit option has been added for Draft Clones. After double-clicking them in the Tree view their scaling can be modified in a task panel. Pull request #19477
• For clarity the Filled checkbox in the task panel of for example Draft Wire has been relabeled to Make face. Pull request #19738
• The texts of newly created dimensions are now oriented automatically relative to the current working plane. A fine-tuning parameter is available to disable this behavior. Pull request #20072
• Near snap no longer overrides other snaps. On-object snaps, such as Midpoint snap and Endpoint snap, within snapRange of the cursor are now detected. Pull request #20118
• In the Draft Preferences a dropdown to select the font name for texts, dimensions and labels has been introduced. Previously the name had to be entered manually. Pull request #20400
• The Continue option is now stored separately for each Draft and BIM command. For the Draft Dimension command the old Continue option has been re-labeled to Chained mode for clarity, and a new Continue option has been added. Pull request #20748
• The Draft ShapeString command has seen several improvements. The font file is no longer a preference, instead the last selected file is stored. For the initial value of the font file an attempt is made to get a suitable file from the OS. This is primarily to help users who are not aware of font file locations. The last entered text and height are also stored. A Global option has been added to task panel. By unchecking that checkbox, coordinates can be specified in the working plane coordinate system. Finally, TrueType Collection font files (.ttc) can now also be selected, but only the first font in such a file can be used. Pull request #21004, Pull request #21054 and Pull request #21124
• A planar face and an edge can now be selected for the Draft SelectPlane command. Pull request #19728

FEM Workbench

A popup menu was added to enable the selection of a proper solid if the selected face of CompSolid belongs to two solids. This makes it easier to select inner solids e.g. to apply materials to them. Pull request #18812

ZRefine property was added to Netgen making it possible to create simple extruded hex-dominated meshes when Quad Dominated property is enabled. However, it works only for first order elements unless the generated elements are all hexahedrons. Pull request #19524

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FEM results objects now support animations of results. Pull request #18496

Support for Elmer's static current conduction solver was added. Joule heating may also be calculated with it. Pull request #19835

Electric charge density load was added for use with Elmer's Electrostatic equation. Pull request #20494

The Results pipeline can now store results from multiple frames. Pull request #19610

Calculator filter was added to allow the creation of custom fields by defining mathematical expression operating on the existing fields. Pull request #20286

Glyph filter was added along with a framework making it possible to develop more Python VTK filters. Pull request #20891

Electrostatic analyses (also 2D ones) are now supported with the newly refactored CalculiX solver object. Pull request #21197

Further FEM improvements

• Log verbosity and number of threads used for meshing can now be set for Gmsh and Netgen in the Preferences. Pull request #17699 and Pull request #18608
• The DataSecond Order Linear property and support for local refinement, previously only available for Gmsh, are now also available for the new Netgen implementation. Pull request #17170
• Box and elliptical beam section types were added to FEM ElementGeometry1D. Pull request #15843
• The Purge results tool now deletes all the results objects, not just the ones native to CalculiX. Pull request #18328
• Tie constraint can now be applied also to shell faces. Pull request #18325
• Output format (binary or ASCII) and saving of geometry IDs can now be set for Elmer, also in Preferences. Pull request #17972
• A smoothing option was added to the Contours filter. Pull request #18088
• The BucklingAccuracy parameter was added to CalculiX solver - it might be necessary to capture the first eigenvalue in some linear buckling analyses. Pull request #18790
• Now all FEM objects for which suppressing makes sense can be suppressed. Previously only constraints were suppressible. Pull request #18636
• Contact forces are now printed to ccx_dat_file in CalculiX analyses. Pull request #18840
• The MaterialReinforced tool now uses the new material editor. Pull request #18893
• The Electrostatic potential boundary condition was extended to also support Neumann-type boundary condition and prescribe electric flux density. It now has a symbol too. Pull request #18514 and Pull request #19011
• Thermal expansion reference temperature can now be defined for solid material in thermomechanical analyses with CalculiX. Pull request #19285
• The Fem.frdToVTK Python function was added allowing conversion of CalculiX's frd results files to VTK format used by ParaView. Pull request #19426
• The Current density boundary condition was improved. It now has two modes (Custom and Normal) and a symbol for the Normal mode. Pull request #19930
• Two new FEM examples were added - one for the newly implemented Static current equation (Joule heating) and one for Rigid body constraint. Pull request #20007 and Pull request #20011
• The Heat flux load task panel was improved - radio buttons used to choose the heat flux type were replaced with a combo box. Pull request #20059
• The Magnetization boundary condition task panel was improved. Pull request #20055
• Selection mode was added to Geometry reference selector in the task panels of Elmer equations. Pull request #20053
• The renameArrays Python function was added to rename selected results pipeline fields. Pull request #20411
• A CalculiX-related preference named Result object was added. If its checkbox Pipeline only is enabled, a newly refactored CalculiX solver object is added to the Analysis container when using the Solver CalculiX option. It has an updated task panel, doesn't generate CCX_Results objects (only the results pipeline object is created) and will be further developed. Pull request #20609

Material Workbench

• Materials can now be stored in external datastores. Pull request #21047

Further Material improvements

• Polycarbonate with physical properties was added to the material database. Pull request #19432

Mesh Workbench

Further Mesh improvements

OpenSCAD Workbench

Further OpenSCAD improvements

Part Workbench

Further Part improvements

• The Check geometry tool now also has results entries for valid shapes, shows skipped objects and generates reports in the report view.

PartDesign Workbench

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The task panel of the Hole tool was redesigned. The elements that are not relevant are now hidden, leaving only those useful for the current configuration, even if they are read-only. The panel is based on a diagram that provides direct context, and its elements have been placed near their area of effect. Pull request #19052 and Pull request #19167

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Added model taper support and more thread profiles to the Hole tool: British Standard Whitworth British Standard Fine British Standard Pipe National Pipe Threads Pull request #15744

Further PartDesign improvements

• The origin feature in a PartDesign body makes use of the new core datums. The appearance has been changed and the planes enlarge when creating a new sketch. As the orientation was wrong in older FreeCAD versions, files created with these versions need to be converted on opening. It can break files which reference the datums, and converted or new files created with 1.1 and above will be broken in 1.0 and below. Pull request #18126
• The Toggle freeze command is now available from PartDesign. Pull request #18373
• The performance of modeled threads from the Hole tool has been improved. Pull request #15744
• The initial angle for tapered threads in the Hole tool is now automatically set to the value from the ISO 7-1 and ASME B1.20.1 standards. Pull request #15744
• The Hole tool can now create holes based on sketch points and arcs in addition to circles. Pull request #20583

Points Workbench

Further Points improvements

Sketcher Workbench

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Projection tool was added making it possible to create defining external geometry and toggle between defining and construction modes for external geometry. Pull request #17736

Intersection tool was added making it possible to create external geometry based on the selected reference geometry and the intersection of the sketch plane. Pull request #17736

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External geometry (both projection and intersection) can now be created by selecting a face. Pull request #17736

Further Sketcher improvements

• It is now possible to directly use external geometry as input for tools like offset or transform (array), for both external construction and defining geometry. Pull request #17615
• External geometry (projected or intersecting) is now by default real (defining) geometry (which does not need to be traced as in 1.0 and prior). It can be toggled to construction geometry as any other geometry Pull request #17736
• The Sketcher axes are now displayed with infinite length. Pull request #17312
• Sketches are now ordered alphabetically in the Attach sketch dialog. Pull request #16518
• Group dragging was added, making it possible to drag all the selected geometrical entities. Pull request #18273
• There is a new preference that, if checked, makes external geometry creation independent of the current construction mode - it is always created as reference geometry in such a case. Pull request #18697
• A preference was added to allow optional grouping of the Line and Polyline tools. Pull request #20165
• When selecting a constraint or a geometry element within the sketch, the corresponding Tasks panel list is now automatically scrolled to that object. Pull request #18859 and Pull request #20866
• Status bar hints were added for all Sketcher geometry creation tools. Pull request #21632

Spreadsheet Workbench

Further Spreadsheet improvements

• Default shortcuts for Bold text, Italic text and Underline text have been added. Pull request #15556
• Double-clicking on the separator in the header now resizes the column to content. Pull request #16296
• Zoom was added to Spreadsheet. Pull request #16130

Surface Workbench

Further Surface improvements

TechDraw Workbench

Further TechDraw improvements

• The Insert Area Annotation tool now properly accounts for holes in faces. Pull request #17740
• Shape validation is now available and can be enabled in Preferences. Pull request #18282
• Scaling of SVG symbols has been fixed. Pull request #18757
• New r format specifier was added. It rounds the dimension value to the step specified as decimal before r. For example, %0.5r (or just %.5r) rounds to 0.5. Pull request #19393

Import and export

• The alignment of sketches in SVG export and legacy DXF export has been fixed. Pull request #19765

Compilation

Known limitations

Other resources