All workbenches at a glance

One of the biggest difficulty for new users of FreeCAD is to know in which workbench to find a specific tool. The table below will give you an overview of the most important workbenches and their tools. It does not cover all the tools nor all the workbenches available in FreeCAD, the idea here is only to provide you a general map. Refer to the workbench page in the FreeCAD documentation for a more complete list. Browse each specific workbench page for a list of the their tools with a short description.

Four workbenches are also designed to work in pairs, and one of them is fully included into the other: Arch contains all the Draft tools, and PartDesign all the Sketcher tools. However, for clarity, they are separated below.

Part

The Part workbench provides basic tools for working with solid geometry: primitives, such as cube and sphere, and simple geometric operations and boolean operations. Being the main anchor point with OpenCasCade, the Part workbench provides the foundation of FreeCAD’s geometry system, and almost all other workbenches produce Part-based geometry.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Box	Draws a box	Cone	Draws a cone
Cylinder	Draws a cylinder	Sphere	Draws a sphere
Torus	Draws a torus (ring)	Create Primitives	Creates various other parametric geometric primitives such as lines or planes
Shape Builder	Create other shapes from edges or faces of existing objects	Fuse	Fuses (unions) two objects
Common	Extracts the common (intersection) part of two objects	Cut	Cuts (subtracts) one object from another
Thickness	Assign a thickness to the faces of a shape	Extrude	Extrudes planar faces of an object
Fillet	Fillets (rounds) edges of an object	Revolve	Creates a solid by revolving another object (not solid) around an axis
Section	Creates a section by intersecting an object with a section plane	Section Cross	Creates multiple cross sections along an object
Chamfer	Chamfers edges of an object	Mirror	Mirrors the selected object on a given mirror plane
Ruled Surface	Create a ruled surface between selected curves	Sweep	Sweeps one or more profiles along a path
Loft	Lofts from one profile to another	Offset	Creates a scaled copy of the original object

Draft

The Draft workbench provides tools to do basic 2D CAD drafting tasks: lines, circles, etc… and a series of generic handy tools such as move, rotate or scale. It also provides several drawing aids, such as grid and snapping. It is principally meant to draw the guidelines for Arch objects, but also serves as FreeCAD’s “swiss army knife”.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Line	Draws a line segment between 2 points	Wire	Draws a line made of multiple line segments (polyline)
Circle	Draws a circle from center and radius	Arc	Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle
Ellipse	Draws an ellipse from two corner points	Polygon	Draws a regular polygon from a center and a radius
Rectangle	Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points	Text	Draws a multi-line text annotation
Dimension	Draws a dimension annotation	BSpline	Draws a B-Spline from a series of points
Point	Inserts a single point	Shape String	The ShapeString tool inserts a compound shape representing a text string at a given point in the current document
Move	Moves or copies objects from one location to another	Rotate	Rotates objects by a certain angle around a point
Offset	Offsets an object to a certain distance	Trimex	Trims, extends or extrudes an object
Upgrade	Turns or joins objects into a higher-level object	Downgrade	Turns or separates objects into lower-level objects
Scale	Scales objects in relation to a point	Shape2D View	Creates a 2D object which is a flattened view of another object
Draft2Sketch	Converts a Draft object to a Sketch and vice-versa	Array	Creates a polar or rectangular array from an object
PathArray	Creates an array from an object by placing copies along a path	Clone	Creates linked copies of objects
Mirror	Mirrors objects across a line

Sketcher

The Sketcher workbench contains tools to build and edit complex 2D objects, called sketches. The geometry inside these sketches can be precisely positioned and bound by the use of constraints. They are meant primarily to be the building blocks of PartDesign geometry, but are useful everywhere in FreeCAD.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Point	Draws a point	Line by 2 points	Draws a line segment from 2 points
Arc	Draws an arc segment from center, radius, start angle and end angle	Arc by 3 points	Draws an arc segment from two endpoints and another point on the circumference
Circle	Draws a circle from center and radius	Circle by 3 points	Draws a circle from three points on the circumference
Ellipse by center	Draws an ellipse by center point, major radius point and minor radius point	Ellipse by 3 points	Draws an ellipse by major diameter (2 points) and minor radius point
Arc of ellipse	Draws an arc of ellipse by center point, major radius point, starting point and ending point	Polyline	Draws a line made of multiple line segments. Several drawing modes available
Rectangle	Draws a rectangle from 2 opposite points	Triangle	Draws a regular triangle inscribed in a construction geometry circle
Square	Draws a regular square inscribed in a construction geometry circle	Pentagon	Draws a regular pentagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle
Hexagon	Draws a regular hexagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle	Heptagon	Draws a regular heptagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle
Octagon	Draws a regular octagon inscribed in a construction geometry circle	Slot	Draws an oval by selecting the center of one semicircle and an endpoint of the other semicircle
Fillet	Makes a fillet between two lines joined at one point	Trim	Trims a line, circle or arc with respect to a clicked point
External Geometry	Creates an edge linked to external geometry	Construction Mode	Toggles an element to/from construction mode. A construction object will not be used in a 3D geometry operation and is only visible while editing the Sketch that contains it
Coincident constraint	Affixes a point onto (coincident with) one or more other points.	Point On Object constraint	Affixes a point onto another object such as a line, arc, or axis.
Vertical constraint	Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true vertical orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint.	Horizontal constraint	Constrains the selected lines or polyline elements to a true horizontal orientation. More than one object can be selected before applying this constraint.
Parallel constraint	Constrains two or more lines parallel to one another.	Perpendicular constraint	Constrains two lines perpendicular to one another, or constrains a line perpendicular to an arc endpoint.
Tangent constraint	Creates a tangent constraint between two selected entities, or a co-linear constraint between two line segments.	Equal Length constraint	Constrains two selected entities equal to one another. If used on circles or arcs their radii will be set equal.
Symmetric constraint	Constrains two points symmetrically about a line, or constrains the first two selected points symmetrically about a third selected point.	Lock constraint	Constrains the selected item by setting vertical and horizontal distances relative to the origin, thereby locking the location of that item
Horizontal Distance constraint	Fixes the horizontal distance between two points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin.	Vertical Distance constraint	Fixes the vertical distance between 2 points or line endpoints. If only one item is selected, the distance is set to the origin.
Length constraint	Defines the distance of a selected line by constraining its length, or defines the distance between two points by constraining the distance between them.	Radius constraint	Defines the radius of a selected arc or circle by constraining the radius.
Internal Angle constraint	Defines the internal angle between two selected lines.	Snell’s Law constraint	Constrains two lines to obey a refraction law to simulate the light going through an interface

Part Design

The Part Design workbench contains advanced tools to build solid parts. It also contains all the tools from the sketcher. Since it can only produces solid shapes (the rule number one of Part Design), it is the main workbench to use when designing pieces (parts) to be manufactured or 3D-printed, as you will always obtain a printable object.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Pad	Extrudes a solid object from a selected sketch	Pocket	Creates a pocket from a selected sketch. The sketch must be mapped to an existing solid object’s face
Revolution	Creates a solid by revolving a sketch around an axis	Groove	Creates a groove by revolving a sketch around an axis
Fillet	Fillets (rounds) edges of an object	Chamfer	Chamfers edges of an object
Draft	Applies angular draft to faces of an object	Mirrored	Mirrors features on a plane or face
Linear Pattern	Creates a linear pattern of features	Polar Pattern	Creates a polar pattern of features
Scaled	Scales features to a different size	MultiTransform	Allows creating a pattern with any combination of the other transformations
Shaft wizard	Generates a shaft from a table of values and allows to analyze forces and moments	Involute Gear wizard	Allows you to create several types of gears

Arch

The Arch workbench contains tools to work with BIM (Building Information Modeling) projects (civil engineering and architecture). It also contains all the tools from the Draft workbench. The main use of the Arch Workbench is to create BIM objects or give BIM attributes to objects built with other workbenches, in order to export them to IFC.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Wall	Creates a wall from scratch or using a selected object as a base	Structure	Creates a structural element from scratch or using a selected object as a base
Reinforcement Bar	Creates a reinforcement bar in a selected structural element	Floor	Creates a floor including selected objects
Building	Creates a building including selected objects	Site	Creates a site including selected objects
Window	Creates a window using a selected object as a base	Section Plane	Adds a section plane object to the document
Axes	Adds an axes system to the document	Roof	Creates a sloped roof from a selected face
Space	Creates a space object in the document	Stairs	Creates a stairs object in the document
Panel	Creates a panel object from a selected 2D object	Frame	Creates a frame object from a selected layout
Equipment	Creates an equipment or furniture object	Set Material	Attributes a material to selected objects
Schedule	Creates different types of schedules	Cut Plane	Cut an object according to a plan.
Add Component	Adds objects to a component	Remove Component	Subtracts or removes objects from a component

TechDraw

The TechDraw workbench handles the creation and manipulation of 2D drawing sheets, used for displaying views of your 3D work in 2D. You can then add additional features like annotations, dimensions, symbols or hatching on those views. These sheets can then be printed or exported to SVG, DXF or PDF files.

Tool	Description	Tool	Description
Page	Creates a new page using a default template	Object view	Inserts a 2D projection view of an object
Projection group	Creates many views of an object from multiple directions	Section view	Inserts a cross-section view of an object view
Detail view	Inserts a view of a portion of an object view	Draft View	inserts a view of a Draft object
Section plane view	inserts a view of an Arch section plane	Spreadsheet view	Inserts a view of a spreadsheet
Clip group	Creates a clip group	Add to clip group	Adds a view to a clip group
Remove from clip group	Removes a view from a clip group	Length dimension	Adds a length dimension
Horizontal dimension	Adds a horizontal length dimension	Vertical dimension	Adds a vertical length dimension
Radius dimension	Adds a radius dimension to a circle or circular arc	Diameter dimension	Adds a diameter dimension to a circle or a circular arc
Angle dimension	Adds an angle dimension between two straight edges	New Links	Links an existing dimension to the 3D geometry

Other built-in workbenches

Many more workbenches are available by default in FreeCAD, among them:

The Mesh workbench allows to work with polygon meshes. Although meshes are not the preferred type of geometry to work with in FreeCAD, because of their lack of precision and support for curves, meshes still have a lot of uses, and are fully supported in FreeCAD. The Mesh Workbench also offers a number of Part-to-Mesh and Mesh-to-Part tools
The Path workbench handles CAM (Computer-Aided Machining) operations in FreeCAD. It allows you to define paths to be followed and operations to be performed by CNC machines in order to cut objects out of a block of material. It also contains useful tools for 3D printing
The Spreadsheet workbench permits the creation and manipulation of spreadsheet data, that can be extracted from FreeCAD models. Spreadsheet cells can also be referenced in many areas of FreeCAD, allowing to use them as master data structures
The FEM workbench deals with Finite Elements Analysis, and permits the performing of pre- and post-processing FEM calculations and to display the results graphically

External workbenches

FreeCAD also features a number of very useful other workbenches produced by community members. Although they are not included in a standard FreeCAD installation, they are easy to install right from within FreeCAD with the Addons manager found under menu Tools. Among them are:

The Fasteners workbench offers a wide range of ready-to-insert fasteners objects like screws, bolts, rods, washers and nuts. Many options and settings are available
The Dodo workbench offers tools to work with metallic structures such as beams and columns
The BIM workbench is an experimental, advanced version of the Arch workbench, with a friendlier interface
The Render workbench allows to produce rendered images using several external rendering applications such as Povray or Luxrender
The Assembly3 and Assembly4 workbenches allow to perform constrained assemblies of parts from other files

Read more

The complete list of workbenches: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/Workbenches
The Part Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/Part_Module
The Draft Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/Draft_Module
The Sketcher and Part Design Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/PartDesign_Workbench
The Arch Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/Arch_Module
The TechDraw Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/TechDraw_Module
The FEM Workbench: http://wiki.freecadweb.org/Fem_Workbench
External FreeCAD workbenches: https://wiki.freecadweb.org/External_workbenches