# FreeCAD: two release tracks on one page, and a bug report checklist that starts with safe mode > FreeCAD is a free LGPL-2.1 parametric 3D modeler built on the OpenCASCADE geometry kernel with a Python API and a Qt interface, and the README is unusually useful in two places: the release list, where a stable 1.1.4 and a weekly development build sit side by side, and the reporting-issues checklist, which asks for a version string, a safe mode retry, a recorded macro and the file as a ZIP before anyone looks at the tracker. **FreeCAD/FreeCAD** — GitHub describes it as Official source code of FreeCAD, a free and opensource multiplatform 3D parametric modeler.. The repository metadata lists C++ as its primary language. The metadata lists the LGPL-2.1 license. This article stays within the project description and details documented in the GitHub repository README. - Repository: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD - Website: https://www.freecad.org - Stars: 33,879 · Forks: 6,110 - Language: C++ - License: LGPL-2.1 - Published: 2026-08-13 · Updated: 2026-08-18 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/freecad-freecad ## The newest release is a weekly build, and the newest stable is 1.1.4 Look at the release list before you download anything. The three most recent entries are weekly-2026.09.30, titled a Development Build and published on 2026-09-30, then 1.1.4 titled FreeCAD 1.1.4 and published on 2026-09-28, then weekly-2026.09.23 on 2026-09-23. The last push to the repository was 2026-09-22. So both tracks are live and they alternate in the same list. A weekly build is what the development branch produced that week, and a numbered release is the stable one. There is no separate page to look at and no suffix that reliably identifies which is which beyond reading the title. That matters because the installing section points at the latest releases page for precompiled packages of stable releases, and a separate mention for weekly development releases on the same releases page. In practice, take 1.1.4 unless you have a specific reason to be on a development build, and if you are, be aware that the difference between the newest tag and the newest stable version is two days of commits, not a feature release. The wiki download page is named as the place for other options, including the packaged builds most Linux distributions ship. ## The bug report checklist asks for a macro before it asks for your model The reporting-issues section is the most operationally useful part of this README, and it is a list of eight things rather than a link to a template. Verify the issue in the forum, on Discord or on Reddit first. Search the existing issues for duplicates. Use the most up to date stable or development version. Post the version info from the About dialog. Then reproduce the problem in safe mode. Then record a macro while you repeat every step, stop recording after the failure happens, and attach the saved macro or paste the macro code into the issue. Then write a step-by-step explanation, and finally upload an example file, with the FCStd file sent as a ZIP. The order is the instruction. A forum post or a duplicate search comes before a new issue, which means the project would rather you confirm the problem with a human than file noise. The macro comes before the model file, which means they want the sequence of operations rather than the artefact it produced. That is a reasonable triage policy and it changes what you should prepare. A screenshot is not on the list. A recorded macro and a reproducible file are. ## Your settings live outside your document, and safe mode proves it One item on that checklist deserves its own reading. You are asked to restart FreeCAD in safe mode and try to reproduce the issue again, and the README says that if the issue is resolved it can be fixed by deleting the FreeCAD configuration files. That is a diagnostic with teeth. It says the behaviour you are investigating may live in your user configuration rather than in the document you are working on, and that removing that configuration is a legitimate fix rather than a last resort. The menu path is Help, then Restart in safe mode. The general lesson is about where FreeCAD keeps state. The document is an FCStd file, and the settings that control how the application behaves, which workbenches are loaded, which preferences are set, live in a separate configuration directory outside it. So a file that behaves correctly on a colleague's machine and badly on yours is not necessarily corrupt, and copying the file across will not carry the problem with it. That is also why the issue template asks for an FCStd sent as a ZIP: a ZIP is the container that preserves the internal structure, so it can be opened and inspected without FreeCAD having to extract anything. ## Parametric means the model history is the model The first feature is freedom to build what you want, and the sentence that defines the whole application is that parametric modeling lets you modify a design by changing parameters in its model history. That has a consequence people meet the first time they open the program. A parametric model is not a shape, it is a recorded sequence of operations plus the numbers that drove them. Change a dimension and the shape follows because the history re-evaluates. There is nothing to change if the history is not there, which is why a file that arrives from elsewhere, however detailed its geometry, does not become editable in the parametric sense just by being opened. The second feature follows the same logic in the other direction. You sketch geometry-constrained 2D shapes and use them as a base to build other objects, and FreeCAD also provides tools to adjust dimensions and create high-quality production drawings from 3D models. So the same history that generates the solid also generates the drawing, which is why a dimension changed in the sketch shows up on the drawing sheet. Both halves are the same idea seen from two ends. ## OpenCASCADE is the component, and the other three are the interface The underlying technology list is short enough to read as an architecture. OpenCASCADE is a powerful geometry kernel and is described as the most important component of FreeCAD. The Coin3D library provides an Open Inventor-compliant 3D scene representation model. Python gives FreeCAD a broad Python API. Qt is the graphical user interface it is built with. The ranking matters. If you are evaluating FreeCAD for a geometry-heavy job, OpenCASCADE is the thing to research, because it is the part that decides what shapes can be represented and how robustly they are. Coin3D is the scene graph, so it is the part that decides how your model is displayed and navigated. Python is the automation surface, and the wiki's scripting documentation sits under the power users hub. Qt is the widget toolkit, which is why the interface looks the way every other Qt application looks. So the dependency chain explains both the strengths and the limitations. A strong geometry kernel plus a scriptable API is a good combination for parametric work, and a desktop GUI built on a general-purpose toolkit is a good combination for an application that has to run identically on three operating systems. ## The build environment is Pixi, the presets are CMake, and RPMs go through Packit The repository is a C++ project and its build tooling is visible at the root. There is a CMakeLists.txt and a CMakePresets.json, so the build is configured through CMake presets rather than a hand-written invocation, and there is a pixi.toml with a pixi.lock, which means the dependency environment is managed with Pixi rather than by a system-wide install. A cMake/ directory sits alongside src/, and contrib/, data/, package/, tools/ and tests/ hold the supporting material. Two files explain distribution. There is a .packit.yaml, and Packit is the service that builds packages for Fedora and the RPM distributions, so that file is how a FreeCAD package reaches those systems. And there is no single build command in the README: compiling is delegated to the Developers Handbook, under Getting Started. That is the honest position. Building FreeCAD from source is a documented path rather than a one-liner, which suits a project whose stable binaries already exist for all three platforms. The two linting configurations in the root, a .clang-format and a .clang-tidy, plus a .pylintrc for the Python side, tell you what a contribution is expected to satisfy. ## An AI policy, a privacy policy and a grant fund sit in the root Four files in the root are about the project rather than the code, and they are worth reading before you contribute. There is an AI_POLICY.md, which means the project has a stated position on code generated by models and on contributions that involve them. There is a PRIVACY_POLICY.md, alongside a SECURITY.md, a CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md and a CONTRIBUTING.md. There is also a funding route that is not a sponsor button. A note in the README says the FPA, at fpa.freecad.org, offers developers the opportunity to apply for a grant to work on projects of their choosing, with jobs and funding details on the project blog. That is a different kind of sustainability from donations: it pays for work rather than supporting infrastructure. And at the end of the file, the infrastructure sponsors are named, DigitalOcean and KiCad Services Corp. A project of this size needs continuous integration, a forum, a wiki and a download mirror, and those are the costs the named support is covering. The Crowdin badge in the header is the fourth leg: translations are crowdsourced, which is also why the interface is available in languages that a small core team could not maintain. ## Conclusion Use FreeCAD if you want a parametric 3D modeler you can install from a package, script through Python, and run on Windows, macOS or Linux without a licence conversation, and if your work is product design, mechanical engineering or architecture rather than a specific industry format. Do not expect an industry-standard file exchange story from the README, because it describes sketches, parameters and production drawings and says nothing about importers. Before you install: check the release name, since the newest tag is a weekly development build and the newest stable is 1.1.4 from 2026-09-28; on Linux use the software centre, which the README says works on most distributions; and if you are about to file a bug, work through the checklist first, because deleting the configuration files in safe mode resolves what looks like a modelling problem more often than not. ## FAQ ### Is FreeCAD actually free to use? Yes. It is an open-source parametric 3D modeler licensed LGPL-2.1, distributed under that licence, with precompiled packages for stable releases on Windows, macOS and Linux and no paid edition mentioned anywhere in the README. The funding it does ask for is sponsorship for infrastructure and an FPA grant programme for developers working on projects of their choosing. ### how to install freecad Precompiled packages for stable releases are available for Windows, macOS and Linux on the repository's latest releases page, and weekly development builds are on the same releases page. Other options are described on the wiki download page, and compiling from source is covered by the Developers Handbook under Getting Started rather than by a command in the README. ### how to install freecad on ubuntu The README says that on most Linux distributions FreeCAD is directly installable from the software center application, which is the route it describes for Linux generally. The alternative is a precompiled package from the latest releases page, or a build from source using the Developers Handbook instructions. ### how to use freecad The wiki holds the documentation: a getting started page, a features list, a frequent questions page, a page on workbenches, and scripting documentation under the power users hub. The README also describes the underlying technology, which is the OpenCASCADE geometry kernel with a broad Python API and a Qt interface, and the forum is named as the place to get help with specific problems. ### how to use freecad for 2d drawing FreeCAD lets you sketch geometry-constrained 2D shapes and use them as a base to build 3D objects, and it provides tools to adjust dimensions and create high-quality production drawings from 3D models. Because the model is parametric, a dimension changed in the sketch changes the solid and the drawing together. ### how to use freecad 1.1.1 That version is behind the current one. The newest stable release listed is 1.1.4, published on 2026-09-28, and the newest tag of any kind is a weekly development build, weekly-2026.09.30. When reporting an issue the README asks you to use the most up to date stable or development version, so an older 1.1.x is the wrong base for a bug report. ## Sources - [Official documentation](https://www.freecad.org) - [Official README](https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD#readme) - [Project repository](https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD) - [Release notes](https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/freecad-freecad