Useful Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts for working with FreeCAD

Common tasks

note

Denominations for used solutions:

• Blue for workbench selection (e.g. Part)
• Green for toolbar selection (e.g. View)
• Orange for shortcut icons (e.g. Create a Cylinder)

Task	Solution	Icon
Move object	Left-click in tree view on object → Transform
Move sketch	Sketch Properties → Attachment/Base → Placement → Position
Create a face from edges	Part → Advanced Utility → Face from edges
Create an array from objects	Draft → Modification → Array Tools
Create an array in a sketch	Sketcher → Sketch → Sketcher tools → Rectangular array
Turn compound into multiple solids	Part → Select your compound → Explode Compound
Position one object next to another	Select the first object, click Part → Attachment, select the second object's face, set mode to "XY on plane"
Change unit system or number of decimals	Edit → Preferences → General → Units
Turn edge into wire with thickness	Select your edge/wire and click Apply a thickness to a 1D wire
Toggle object visibility	Right-click on the object in tree view and click Show/Hide selection.
Toggle grid visibility	Draft → Utilities → Toggle Grid

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Useful shortcuts

Function	Shortcut
Toggle object visibility	Space
Set camera rotation center	Middle-click
Pan camera	Left-click
Rectangle select objects	Shift+B
Rectangle select elements	Shift+E
Import File	Drag&drop

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Problems

Problem	Solution
Extrusion does not work	Double-check that you use a sketch which is closed, without holes or branching wires
	This can occur when creating wire geometries. This is just a visualization problem and in no way affect the geometry - you can still use it!