Compile on Windows/es

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Prerequisitos

La compilación de FreeCAD en Windows requiere varias herramientas y bibliotecas.

Requerido

• Git (También hay frontales de GUI disponibles para Git, ver la siguiente sección).

• CMake version 3.11.x or newer.
  Hint: Choosing the option Add CMake to the system PATH for all users when installing CMake will make CMake accessible from the Windows command prompt, which can be useful.

• The LibPack. This is a single package containing all of the libraries necessary to compile FreeCAD on Windows. Download the version of the LibPack that corresponds to the version of FreeCAD you want to compile. To compile FreeCAD 0.20 download the LibPack version 2.6, for FreeCAD 0.19 download the LibPack version 1.0. Extract the LibPack to a convenient location. (If your computer does not recognize the .7z extension, you must install the program 7-zip.)
  Note: It is highly recommended to compile FreeCAD with the compiler version the LibPack is designed for. For example, you might run into problems compiling FreeCAD 0.20 using MSVC 2017 because the LibPack is designed to be built with MSVC 2019 or newer.
  To update your LibPack later, see the section Updating the LibPack.

Programas opcionales

• A GUI frontend for Git. There are several frontends available, see this list. The main benefit of a frontend is that you don't have to learn the Git commands to get the source code of FreeCAD or to send patches to the GitHub repository of FreeCAD.

In the following we describe source code handling using the TortoiseGit frontend. This frontend integrates directly into Windows file explorer and has a large user community to get help in case you have problems.

• NSIS is used to generate the FreeCAD Windows installer.

Código fuente

Ahora puedes obtener el código fuente de FreeCAD:

Usando un frontend

When using the Git frontend TortoiseGit:

1. Create a new folder where the source code will be downloaded.
2. Right-click on this folder in the Windows file explorer and select Git Clone in the context menu.
3. A dialog will appear. In it, enter the URL for the FreeCAD Git repository

https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD.git

and click OK.

The latest source code will be downloaded from the FreeCAD Git repository and the folder will be tracked by Git.

Usando la línea de comando

To create a local tracking branch and download the source code, open a terminal (command prompt) and switch there to the directory you want the source, then type:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD.git

Compilador

The default (recommended) compiler is MS Visual Studio (MSVC). Though it may be possible to use other compilers, for example gcc via Cygwin or MinGW, it is not tested or covered here.

You can get a free version of MSVC (for individual usage) by downloading the Community edition of MS Visual Studio.

For those who want to avoid installing the huge MSVC for the mere purpose of having a compiler, see CompileOnWindows - Reducing Disk Footprint.

Note: Although the Community edition of MSVC is free, to use the IDE for more than a 30-day trial period you must create a Microsoft account. If you will only compile using the command line, you don't need the IDE and thus no Microsoft account.

As a free and OpenSource alternative IDE you can use KDevelop. You can use KDevelop to modify and write C++ code but must use the command line to compile.

Configuración opcional de la ruta del sistema

Optionally you can include the paths to some folders to the system PATH variable. This is helpful if you want to access programs in these folders from the command line/powershell or if you want special programs to be found by the compiler or CMake. Besides this, adding folders to the PATH might be necessary if you did not use the corresponding options when installing the program.

• You can include the folder of your LibPack in your system PATH variable. This is useful if you plan to build multiple configurations/versions of FreeCAD.
• If you did not use the option to add CMake to the PATH while installing it, add its installation folder

C:\Program Files\CMake\bin to the PATH.

• If you did not use the option to add TortoiseGit to the PATH while installing it, add its installation folder

C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin to the PATH.

To add folder paths to the PATH variable:

1. In the Windows Start menu Right click on Computer and choose Properties.
2. In the appearing dialog click on Advanced system settings.
3. Another dialog will open. Click there in the tab Advanced on Environment Variables.
4. Again another dialog will open. Select then the variable Path and click on Edit.
5. And again another dialog will open. Click there on New and add to path to the folder of Git or the LibPack.
6. Finally press OK and close all dialogs by pressing OK as well.

Configuración

Once you have all of the necessary tools, libraries, and FreeCAD source code, you are ready to begin the configuration and compilation process. This process will proceed in five steps:

1. Run CMake once to examine your system and begin the configuration progress (this will report that it failed).
2. Adjust necessary CMake settings to set the locations of the LibPack and enable Qt5.
3. Re-run CMake to finalize the configuration (this time it should succeed).
4. Use CMake to generate the Visual Studio build system.
5. Use Visual Studio to build FreeCAD.

CMake

First, configure the build environment using CMake:

1. Open the CMake GUI
2. Specify the source folder of FreeCAD.
3. Specify a build folder. This can be build in the folder you cloned the repo because this path is ignored by git. Do not use the source folder. CMake will create this folder if it does not exist.
4. Click Configure.
5. In the dialog that appears specify the generator you want to use: in most cases you will use the defaults in this dialog. For the standard MS Visual Studio use Visual Studio xx 2yyy where xx is the compiler version and 2yyy the year of its release. It is recommended to use the default option Use default native compilers.

Note: It is important to specify the correct bit variant. If you have the 64-bit variant of the LibPack you must also use the x64 compiler.

This will begin the configuration and will fail because of missing settings. This is normal, you have not yet specified the location of the LibPack. However, there are other failures that might occur that require some further action on your part.

If it fails with the message that Visual Studio could not be found, the CMake support in MSVC is not yet installed. To do this:

1. Open the MSVC IDE
2. Use the menu Tools → Get Tools and Features
3. In the Workloads tab enable Desktop development with C++
4. On the right side you should now see that the component Visual C++ tools for CMake will be installed.
5. Install it.

If it fails with a message about the wrong Python version or missing Python, then:

1. Use the "Search:" box in CMake to search for the string "Python"
2. If you see there a path like C:/Program Files/Python38/python.exe, CMake recognized the Python that is already installed on your PC, but that version is not compatible with the LibPack. Since the LibPack includes a compatible version of Python, modify the following Python settings in CMake to its paths (assuming the LibPack is in the folder D:/FreeCAD-build/FreeCADLibs_2_8_x64_VC2019):

If there is no error about Visual Studio or Python, everything is fine, but CMake does not yet know all necessary settings. Therefore now:

1. Search in CMake for the variable FREECAD_LIBPACK_DIR and specify the location of the LibPack folder you downloaded earlier.
2. (If building FreeCAD 0.19) Search for the variable BUILD_QT5 and enable this option.
3. (If planning on running directly from the build folder such as for debugging) Search for and enable the following options:
   • FREECAD_COPY_DEPEND_DIRS_TO_BUILD
   • FREECAD_COPY_LIBPACK_BIN_TO_BUILD
   • FREECAD_COPY_PLUGINS_BIN_TO_BUILD
4. Click Configure again.

There should now be no errors. If you continue to encounter errors that you cannot diagnose, visit the Install/Compile forum on the FreeCAD forum website. If CMake proceeded correctly, click on Generate. After this is done you can close CMake and start the compilation of FreeCAD using Visual Studio. However, for the first compilation keep it open in case you want or need to change some options for the build process.

Opciones para el proceso de construcción

The CMake build system gives you control over some aspects of the build process. In particular, you can switch on and off some features or modules using CMake variables.

Here is a description of some of these variables:

Construyendo FreeCAD

Depending on your compiler, the process for building FreeCAD will be slightly different. In the following sections known workflows are described. If you are building with Qt Creator, jump to Building with Qt Creator (outdated), otherwise proceed directly:

Building from cmd.exe command line

If you want build from the command line, CMake output will show you the proper command to run (which depends on the configured release directory). But this command will produce a Debug build which does not work on Windows and results in a Numpy import error in FreeCAD (which is a known issue but hard to fix). You need to specify the --config Release option to force a Release build:

cmake --build E:/release --config Release

Please note that setting CMake variables like CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE does not have any effect, only specifying the --config option as shown above works.

msbuild ALL_BUILD.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release

msbuild INSTALL.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release

compile-FC install

Running and installing FreeCAD

There are 2 methods to run the compiled FreeCAD:

Method 1: You execute the FreeCAD.exe that you find in your build folder in the subfolder bin

Method 2: You build the target INSTALL

Method 2 is the simpler one because it automatically assures that all libraries needed to run the FreeCAD.exe are in the correct folder. The FreeCAD.exe and the libraries will be output in the folder you specified in the CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.

For Method 1 you need to enable the FREECAD_COPY_* options mentioned in the CMake Configuration step above.

Troubleshooting

When running FreeCAD you may encounter missing DLLs when using certain workbenches or features of workbenches. The error message in FreeCAD's console will not tell you what DLL is missing. To find this out you must use an external tool:

• Download the latest release of the program Dependencies: https://github.com/lucasg/Dependencies/releases (choose the file Dependencies_x64_Release.zip)
• In the FreeCAD Python console execute these commands:

import os
os.system(r"~\DependenciesGui.exe")

Note: Instead of the ~ you must specify the full path to the DependenciesGui.exe on your system.

• Now drag in the *.pyd file of the workbench with which you get missing DLLs reported.

Updating the build

FreeCAD is very actively developed. Therefore its source code changes almost daily. New features are added and bugs are fixed. To benefit from these source code changes, you must rebuild your FreeCAD. This is done in two steps:

1. Updating the source code
2. Recompilation

Updating the source code

Using a frontend

When using the Git frontend TortoiseGit:

1. Right-click on your FreeCAD source code folder in the Windows file explorer and select Pull in the context menu.
2. A dialog will appear. Select there what development branch you want to get. master is the main branch. Therefore use this unless you want to compile a special new feature from a branch that has not yet been merged to master. (For more about Git branches, see Git development process.)

Finally click OK.

Using the command line

Open a terminal (command prompt) and switch there to your source directory. Then type:

git pull https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD.git master

where master the the name of the main development branch. If you want to get code from another branch, use its name instead of master.

Recompilation

1. Open the MSVC IDE by double-clicking either on the file FreeCAD.sln or on the file ALL_BUILD.vcxproj in your build folder.
2. Continue with step 2 from the section Building with Visual Studio 15 2017.

Updating the LibPack

If a new major version of a third-party dependency like Open Cascade is released, or if a third-party dependency has important bug fixes, a new LibPack is released. You can find the latest version here.

To update your LibPack the following recipe is best practice:

1. Delete the bin folder in your build folder.
2. Switch to your local LibPack folder and delete everything there.
3. Extract the content of the new LibPack ZIP file into the existing, but now empty, local LibPack folder.
4. Open CMake and there press the button Configure and then the button Generate. This recreates the bin folder you just deleted and also copies the new LibPack files into it.
5. In CMake click the button Open Project and the MSVC IDE will open.
6. In the MSVC IDE build the target INSTALL.

Tools

In order to join the FreeCAD development you should compile and install the following tools:

Qt Designer plugin

FreeCAD uses Qt as toolkit for its user interface. All dialogs are setup in UI-files that can be edited using the program Qt Designer that is part of any Qt installation and also included in the LibPack. FreeCAD has its own set of Qt widgets to provide special features like adding a unit to input fields and to set preferences properties.

Compilation

The plugin cannot be loaded by the Qt Designer if it was compiled using another Qt version than the one your Qt Designer/Qt Creator is based on. Therefore the plugin must be compiled together with FreeCAD:

• In the CMake options (see this section above) enable the option BUILD_DESIGNER_PLUGIN and reconfigure.
• open MSVC and build the target FreeCAD_widgets

As result you will get the plugin file 'FreeCAD_widgets.dll in the folder
~\src\Tools\plugins\widget\Release

Installation

To install the plugin, copy the DLL either to:

• If you use the LibPack: to the folder
  ~\FreeCADLibs_2_8_x64_VC2019\plugins\designer
• If you have a full Qt installation: you can choose between the folder
  C:\Qt\5.15.2\msvc2019_64\plugins\designer
  or
  C:\Qt\5.15.2\msvc2019_64\bin\designer (you must first create the designer subfolder.)
  (adapt the paths to your installation!).

Finally (re)start Qt Designer and check its menu Help → Plugins. If the plugin FreeCAD_widgets.dll is listed as being loaded, you can now design and change FreeCAD's .ui files. If not, you must compile the DLL by yourself.

If you prefer using Qt Creator instead of Qt Designer, the plugin file must be placed in this folder:
C:\Qt\Qt5.15.2\Tools\QtCreator\bin\plugins\designer
Then (re)start Qt Creator, switch to the mode Design and then check the menu Tools → Form Editor → About Qt Designer Plugins. If the plugin FreeCAD_widgets.dll is listed as being loaded, you can now design and change FreeCAD's .ui files. If not, you must compile the DLL by yourself.

Thumbnail Provider

FreeCAD has the feature to provide preview thumbnails for *.FCStd files. That means that in the Windows file explorer *.FCStd files are shown with a screenshot of the model it contains. To provide this feature, FreeCAD needs to have the file FCStdThumbnail.dll installed to Windows.

Installation

The DLL is installed this way:

1. Download this ZIP file and extract it.
2. Open a Windows command prompt with administrator privileges (these privileges are a requirement).
3. Change to the folder where the DLL is.
4. Execute this command

   regsvr32 FCStdThumbnail.dll
   

So check if it works, assure that in FreeCAD the preferences option Save thumbnail into project file when saving document is enabled and save a model. Then view in Windows Explorer the folder of the saved model using a symbol view. You should now see a screenshot of the model in the folder view.

Compilation

To compile the FCStdThumbnail.dll

1. Change to the FreeCAD source folder
   ~\src\Tools\thumbs\ThumbnailProvider
2. Open the CMake GUI
3. Specify there as source folder the one you are currently in.
4. Use the same folder as build folder.
5. Click Configure
6. In the appearing dialog, specify the generator according to the one you want to use. For the standard MS Visual Studio use Visual Studio xx 2yyy where xx is the compiler version and 2yyy the year of its release. It is recommended to use the default option Use default native compilers.
   Note: It is important to specify the correct bit variant. If you have the 64bit variant of LibPack you must also use the x64 compiler.
7. Click on Generate.
8. You should now have the file ALL_BUILD.vcxproj in the folder ~\src\Tools\thumbs\ThumbnailProvider. Double-click on it and the MSVC IDE will open.
9. In the toolbar of the MSVC IDE assure that you use the compilation target Release.
10. There is a window called Solution Explorer. Right-click there on ALL_BUILD and then choose Build.
11. As result you should now have a FCStdThumbnail.dll in the folder ~\src\Tools\thumbs\ThumbnailProvider\release that you can install as described above.

Compiling Open Cascade

The LibPack comes with a version of Open Cascade that is suitable for general use. However, under some circumstances you may wish to compile against an alternate version of Open Cascade, such as one of their official releases, or a patched fork.

When compiling Open Cascade for FreeCAD note that there is no guarantee that FreeCAD will work with all versions of Open Cascade. Note also that when you are using the Netgen library, you must use the a NetGen version that it approved to compile with the Open Cascade version you like to compile.

To compile:

• First obtain the Open Cascade source code, either directly from Open Cascade's git repository or by cloning someone else's fork, such as the "blobfish" fork maintained by FreeCAD forum member tanderson69.

• Then open the CMake GUI to configure the build system in a similar manner to building FreeCAD. These CMake options have to be set (or explicitly not set):

• Open the project in Visual Studio and first build the ALL_BUILD and then INSTALL targets in the Release mode.
• Repeat building the two targets in the Debug mode.

To build FreeCAD using the self-compiled Open Cascade, you must do the following:

• Copy all folders from the INSTALL_DIR to your LibPack folder (overwrite the existing files)
• Switch to the LibPack folder and go there to the subfolder cmake
• Open there the file OpenCASCADEDrawTargets.cmake with a text editor
• Search there for absolute paths to your LibPack folder and remove them. So e.g. the absolute path
  D:/FreeCADLibs_12.5.4_x64_VC17/lib/freetype.lib
  becomes just
  freetype.lib
  
• Do the same for the file OpenCASCADEVisualizationTargets.cmake

Compiling Netgen

The LibPack comes with a version of Netgen that will was tested to be build with the Open Cascade version of the LibPack. The problem is that every new release of Netgen changes the API. Also every new release of Open Cascade does the same. Therefore one cannot just easily change the Netgen version.

However, you might build Netgen nevertheless. This is an easy task:

• First obtain the Netgen source code, either directly from Netgen 's git repository.
• Then open the CMake GUI to configure the build system in a similar manner to building FreeCAD. These CMake options have to be set:

• Additionally you need to add a new CMake entry:

name: CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX, type: string, content: _d
This assures that he file names of the debug libraries get another name than the release libraries and can later not be accidentally exchanged.

• Press the Configure button in CMake to generate the *.cmake files.
• Only necessary if older CPU should be supported that don't have the AVX2 instruction set:
  • Search your Netgen build folder for the file netgen-targets.cmake and open it with a text editor. Remove the setting ;/arch:AVX2 in the Option INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS.
  • Press the Configure button in CMake again.
• Press the Generate button in CMake.
• Open the project in Visual Studio and first build the ALL_BUILD and then INSTALL targets in the Release mode.
• Repeat building the two targets in the Debug mode.

To build FreeCAD using the self-compiled Netgen, you must do the following:

• Copy all folders from the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to your LibPack folder (overwrite the existing files)

References

See also

• Compiling - Speeding up

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Compilar en Linux

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User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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