Application Note #11 - Installing Freecad

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Objectives

  • install Freecad using four methods
  1. Install on Arch linux using AUR…
  2. Download and Install the precompiled Freecad Appimage (recommended- easier)
  3. Download and build the latest Freecad image (docker image- you compile latest version from github)
  4. Linkstage 3/Assembly 3 - realthunders fork for bleeding edge Freecad with lotsa fixes…

Description

  • download and install Freecad

Platform

  • arch
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    uname -a

    Linux archy 5.9.13-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue, 08 Dec 2020 12:09:55 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

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References

  1. Freecad Appimage on freecadweb.org…
  2. Install docker on arch…
  3. Compile on docker
  4. Freecad releases on github…
  5. Realthunders github repo: Assembly3/Linkstage 3…
  6. Realthunders fork: Download releases…
  7. Install on Arch: “installing and running the aur git package works. Thanks…”

Procedures

Method 0 (installing on arch linux)

NOTES**
Method 1 works on arch linux but sometimes it breaks after a “pacman -Syu”. For example you’l get an error like this

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libGL error: MESA-LOADER: failed to open iris: /tmp/.mount_FreeCAgkhRtt/usr/bin/../lib/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.29' not found (required by /usr/lib/dri/iris_dri.so) (search paths /usr/lib/dri)

So, on arch linux its recommended to use the steps outlines in Reference 7.
In short, “install the aur git package”. This builds and installs the most recent version of Freecad

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yay -Syu freecad-git
  • in then appears in your gnome menus (Activities\Search"Freecad”)

Method 1 (Recommended)

Download and Install a prebuilt Appimage

Step 1

download it

NOTES**
freecadweb.org… describes various methods of installing freecad
DOWNLOAD LATEST……!! from all Freecad releases on github…

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# make it executable
cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x FreeCAD_0.19-24276-Linux-Conda_glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage

Step 2

Create a desktop entry

NOTE**
Instructions to create a gnome desktop entry in Arch Linux…

Assume home folder == /home/fcarella

  1. First download a Freecad ICON (from here for example) to /home/fcarella/.local/share/freecad/

  2. Then create a desktop entry (make sure the paths are correct)
    Create the file ~/.local/share/applications/freecad19.desktop

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    cat >> /home/fcarella/.local/share/applications/freecad19.desktop << EOF
    [Desktop Entry]
    Type=Application
    Name=Freecad.19
    Comment=3d cad
    Exec=/home/fcarella/Downloads/FreeCAD_0.19-24276-Linux-Conda_glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage %f 
    Icon=/home/fcarella/.local/share/freecad/freecad-icon.png
    Terminal=false
    StartupNotify=true
    Categories=Engineering;Graphics;3DGraphics;
    StartupWMClass=Freecad
    X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.26
    EOF

    The desktop entry should now appear in your gnome menus

Method 2

Download and Build docker image

Step 1

Install docker on arch See…

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# install docker
sudo pacman -Syu docker
# start docker
sudo systemctl restart docker
#  verify that you can run containers, should echo "hello world"
sudo docker run -it --rm archlinux bash -c "echo hello world"

Step 2

clone and build latest freecad

  • Clone it
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    git clone https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD.git ~/freecad_source
  • Create build directory
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    mkdir ~/freecad_build
  • Pull Docker image
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    sudo docker pull registry.gitlab.com/daviddaish/freecad_docker_env:latest
    sudo docker info
    # ...
  • Allow access to your window manager
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    xhost +
  • Configure environment variables
    • the source code folder and build folders are stored outside of the docker image. This gives you control/access to that data without going into the container. It allows you to run the newly compiled freecad in your local system.
    • the folder locations are passed to the docker image through the following environment variables.
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      fc_source=~/freecad_source
      fc_build=~/freecad_build
      other_files=~/
  • Launch the docker image
    • NOTE ** you will be presented with a bash terminal logged in to the docker image
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      sudo docker run -it --rm \
      -v $fc_source:/mnt/source \
      -v $fc_build:/mnt/build \
      -v $other_files:/mnt/files \
      -e "DISPLAY" -e "QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1" -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:ro \
      registry.gitlab.com/daviddaish/freecad_docker_env:latest
  • Build FreeCAD
    • NOTE** this command is run in the docker image bash terminal
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      /root/build_script.sh
  • Run freecad
    • NOTE** this command is run in the docker image bash terminal
    • you have access to your local file system through these docker image folders

      /mnt/source
      /mnt/build
      /mnt/files (store the files you create in Freecad somehwere in here…)

    • Run it 
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      /mnt/build/bin/FreeCAD

Method 3

Linkstage 3/Assembly 3 - realthunders fork for bleeding edge Freecad with lotsa fixes…

Step 1

Download current release of Realthunder fork…

For example, assuming URL of the latest release is:
https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases/download/0.11/FreeCAD-asm3-Daily-Conda-Py3-Qt5-20210307-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage

then use your favourite download technique to get it…

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wget https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_assembly3/releases/download/0.11/FreeCAD-asm3-Daily-Conda-Py3-Qt5-20210307-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage
# rename it to FreeCAD_assembly3-current-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage
mv FreeCAD-asm3-Daily-Conda-Py3-Qt5-20210307-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage FreeCAD_assembly3-current-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage

Step 2

make it executable

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chmod +x FreeCAD_assembly3-current-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage

Step 3

execute it

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./FreeCAD_assembly3-current-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage

Step 4

Create a desktop entry

NOTE**
Instructions to create a gnome desktop entry in Arch Linux…

Assume home folder == /home/fcarella

  1. First download a Freecad ICON (from here for example) to /home/fcarella/.local/share/freecad/

  2. Then create a desktop entry (make sure the paths are correct)
    Create the file ~/.local/share/applications/FreeCAD_assembly3-current.desktop

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    cat > /home/fcarella/.local/share/applications/FreeCAD_assembly3-current.desktop << EOF
    [Desktop Entry]
    Type=Application
    Name=FreeCAD.19_assembly3-current
    Comment=3d cad
    Exec=/home/fcarella/Downloads/FreeCAD_assembly3-current-glibc2.12-x86_64.AppImage %f 
    Icon=/home/fcarella/.local/share/freecad/freecad-icon.png
    Terminal=false
    StartupNotify=true
    Categories=Engineering;Graphics;3DGraphics;
    StartupWMClass=Freecad
    X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.26
    EOF

    The desktop entry should now appear in your gnome menus

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