Step-Export

FreeCAD’s PartDesign workbench is the closest equivalent to SolidWorks’ Part environment. It uses a feature-based, parametric modeling approach built on OpenCASCADE Technology (OCCT) — the same geometry kernel that powers CATIA and Salome. If you’re coming from SolidWorks, Inventor, or any history-based modeler, you’ll recognize the concepts but encounter a few structural differences that aren’t obvious from the UI. This guide covers what actually matters for getting productive: the Body container model, how the Sketcher’s constraint system differs from what you’re used to, the core PartDesign features and their underlying OCCT operations, the topological naming problem that plagued earlier versions (and the fix in FreeCAD 1.0), and how to export finished geometry to STEP, DXF, and STL using FreeCAD’s import/export pipeline. ...

You have an assembly with 40 sheet metal parts and 15 structural components. You need STEP files for each part for your supplier, and DXF flat patterns for your laser subcontractor. SolidWorks has no built-in “batch export as individual STEP/DXF files” command. You have two approaches: the system options SaveAs at the assembly level, or a macro that loops over components with OpenDoc6 and SaveAs. They produce different outputs and serve different use cases. ...