It is suitable for anyone interested in learning 3D CAD and Motion Simulation for free before using more sophisticated packages. Hidden parts will now appear greyed out as seen in the above picture.Free Download FreeCAD for Windows PC is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. This makes it easier to see the newly made shape. Quick Tip: Selecting a part in the model tree and pressing space will hide that selected part. Select your now simplified part and go again to the Part menu, this time selecting 'Convert to solid'Īnd one more time a new solid will show up in your model tree Now, to convert the shape to a solid that Boolean operations can be performed on.

Yet another part will be added to your model tree, now simpler! To simplify this part, now select the shape and go to Part / Refine shape So you now have a shape to work with but as you can see there's still allot of triangulated faces

However, if you want a less triangulated solid or Boolean operations performed, then follow these next steps. If you're looking for a fast solution to get a Step exported now would be the time to export it. Appropriate tools are available in the Mesh Workbench.Analyzing and repairing of the mesh (if needed) should be done manually before conversion.There will be no analyzing or validating of the mesh object.Set your mesh sewing tolerance in the pop up windowįreeCAD will now create a new shape in the model tree Now, select the imported STL part in main view or the model tree. To start off, make sure you have FreeCAD downloaded and installed Note: Since STLs are meshes, the resulting model won't be as precise as parts originally made as solids. This tutorial covers how to convert an STL to a STEP using FreeCAD.

FreeCAD 0.21.1 free