Getting Started with FreeCAD Development in Ubuntu 16.04

FreeCAD is a multi-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) open source parametric 3D CAD modeler, and can read and write many open file formats.

An explanation of the many virtues of open source software can be found at Open Source for America and elsewhere. To quote OSFA,

The Open Source model harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency to create high-quality, secure and easily integrated software at an accelerated pace and lower cost.

Commerical-grade CAD software, while incredibly useful, has several downsides including being locked behind 4 or 5 digit licensing costs, and its use in amateur projects or the developing world is often facilitated by piracy. FreeCAD, on the other hand, is free as in beer and free as in freedom, although it is currently under development. However, one of the benefits of the open source model is the ease with which interested people can contribute to the project and make better tools for all mankind.

While using FreeCAD, I noticed a few typos in the menus; although my first contribution to the project wasn't too significant, I documented the process of getting a development environment set up on my Ubuntu 16.04 desktop so that others could follow the same steps and begin contributing.

1. Pull down a copy of the code. (If you don't have a copy of git, run sudo apt-get install git.)

git clone https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD.git freecad-code
mkdir freecad-build

2. Install all dependencies.

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake python python-matplotlib libtool libcoin80-dev \
  libsoqt4-dev libxerces-c-dev libboost-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-regex-dev  \
  libboost-program-options-dev libboost-signals-dev libboost-thread-dev libboost-python-dev \
  libqt4-dev libqt4-opengl-dev qt4-dev-tools python-dev python-pyside pyside-tools 'liboce*-dev' \
  oce-draw libeigen3-dev libqtwebkit-dev libshiboken-dev libpyside-dev libode-dev swig libzipios++-dev \
  libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev

# Install optional packages
sudo apt-get install libsimage-dev checkinstall python-pivy python-qt4 doxygen \
  libcoin80-doc libspnav-dev

3. Move into build folder, make and compile the software. Use the -j $(nproc) flag to use all N of your CPU cores when compiling; some recommend using N + 1 CPU cores, which can be done by instead running make -j$(( $(nproc) + 1 )) .. Don't forget the period at the end of the make command, which tells it to put the compiled software in the current freecad-build directory; it's good to keep the source code and build directories separate.

cd freecad-build
cmake ../freecad-code
make -j$(nproc) .

4. Fix Ubuntu 64-bit issue. If you are using a 64-bit version of Ubuntu (hopefully), you may run in to the following error message, which occurs because the expected libfreeimage.so file was moved into a subdirectory of /usr/lib/.

make[2]: *** No rule to make target '/usr/lib/libfreeimage.so', needed by 'lib/libSMDS.so'.  Stop.

# Fix with this line.
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreeimage.so /usr/lib

Once the build is complete, a runnable copy of the FreeCAD executable will be in the freecad-build folder. Any changes made to the source code can be tested after re-compiling the executable.

Hopefully this post helps someone out there! Even if you are only contributing to the documentation as you learn FreeCAD, your contribution is valuable and can help tons of people across the globe.