---
name: "freecad"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "freecad-common"
version: "1.0.0+dfsg-8+deb13u3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/freecad"
---

# freecad(1)

Extensible Open Source CAx program

## NAME

freecad - Extensible Open Source CAx program

## SYNOPSIS

**freecad** \[*options*\] *files*\
 **freecadcmd** \[*options*\] *files*

## DESCRIPTION

**FreeCAD** is an Open Source CAx RAD based on OpenCasCade, Qt and Python. It features  some key concepts like macro recording, workbenches, ability to run as a  server and dynamically loadable application extensions and it is designed  to be platform independent.

## USAGE

**freecad** starts with a GUI while **freecadcmd** is only a pure command line version that starts a Python interpreter.

## OPTIONS

These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (\`-'). A summary of the options supported by **freecad** is included below.

### Generic options

- **-c, --console**

  Starts in console mode.

- **--dump-config**

  Dumps configuration.

- **--get-config** *arg*

  Prints the value of the requested configuration key.

- **-h, --help**

  Prints help message.

- **--response-file** *arg*

  Can be specified with '@name', too.

- **-v, --version**

  Prints version string.

### Configuration

- **-l, --write-log**

  Writes a log file to $HOME/.FreeCAD/FreeCAD.log

- **--log-file** *arg*

  Unlike --write-log this allows logging to an arbitrary file.

- **-M, --module-path** *arg*

  Additional module paths.

- **-P, --python-path** *arg*

  Additional Python paths.

- **-s, --system-cfg** *arg*

  System config file to load/save system settings.

- **--single-instance**

  Allow one to run a single instance of the application.

- **-t, --run-test** *arg*

  Test case - or 0 for all.

- **-u, --user-cfg** *arg*

  User config file to load/save user settings.

## SEE ALSO

To get more information about **FreeCAD**, please visit *https://freecad.org*

## BUGS

To report a bug, please visit *https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/issue*

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Werner Mayer and Salman Mohammadi \<salman@smoha.org\>.