DWG NO. PC-006 · Release notes
What's new.
Every PhysCAD release, newest first. Updates install from inside the app.
- Welcome window: the first time PhysCAD opens, pick your language, light or dark, high contrast, units, interface size, shortcuts and mouse style in one place (Help, Welcome opens it again)
- Delete Face: click a hole, fillet, chamfer or pocket and press Delete, and the part closes up as if it was never there. Works on imported STEP parts too. Click a chamfer to remove just the chamfer, or the hole's wall for the whole hole
- Threads:
- Modeled threads are built in one piece: much faster, smoother and lighter, with no seam lines
- Start angle, partial threads with drag handles, left hand, multi-start, blunt start, and fit classes (6g/6H, 2A/2B) so diameters follow the standard
- New profiles: metric trapezoidal, square, buttress, Stub ACME and Whitworth
- Drawings show threads the standard simplified way, and draw in about a second instead of half a minute (Detailed is still there)
- Drawings: angle dimensions, section and detail views, first angle projection, centerlines and center marks, baseline and ordinate dimensions, arrows, balloons, a parts list, notes typed in place, panning, thinner lines, and the toolbar shrinks to icons on small windows. Circles default to diameter and arcs to radius, and radius arrows always land on the arc
- Extrude: start from an offset or from a face, Up to works on any component, and Auto joins the body it goes up to. Revolve: Symmetric and Two sided. Cuts: untick any body you want left whole
- Sketch: fillets keep the dimensions, constraints light up what they hold, a coincident mark, Show Dimensions on sketches you aren't editing, single-line fonts for engraving, and a decimal comma option
- Parameters: import and export, suggestions while typing, and type width = 10 mm in any box to make one
- Sheet metal: cuts through bends show in the flat, corner reliefs in the right place, DIN 6935 bend allowance, Push/Pull on flanges keeps the flat and DXF right, and Push/Pull works on the unfolded part
- Holes: ISO 273 and ASME clearance fits, with the standard shown
- CAM:
- Plasma and laser: real cut speeds and times, a No Z moves option for torch height control, and kerf checks instead of depth checks
- Copy or move operations between setups, and copying a setup copies its operations
- Silhouette contours keep round ends round, box stock keeps the part's height, and progress shows on long 3D toolpaths
- A toolpath with a bad number is refused instead of posted
- Move: plane squares on the gizmo move along two axes at once
- Sweep: corners too tight for the profile are mitered, and errors are plain sentences
- View: high contrast mode, body opacity, separate mouse and trackpad settings, FreeCAD Touchpad navigation, undo and redo history lists, and the window opens where you left it
- Thumbnails of .physcad files in Finder, Explorer and Linux file managers
- Linux: the AppImage adds itself to the applications menu, sharper on 4K screens, and no extra menu bar (Windows too)
- AI (MCP): folder approval asked in the main window, much shorter answers, and body inspection filters
- Fixes: fillets on lofted parts and on bodies with small flaws, big STEP files that got stuck on import, solid wireframe lines showing through, rubber shading, Extrude Up to a wider body, construction planes duplicating when edited, and many more
- Labs: Parallel and Tangent joints
- View cube: sorry, clicking the cube's corners and edges is gone for now, because another company holds a patent on it. The isometric (home) view is still one click away on the house button next to the cube, or press 0 or 7. Corner and edge clicks will come back in 2029, when the patent runs out. Clicking a face and dragging the cube work as before
- Extrude: a Flip button that stays flipped while you type, Two sided, and Symmetric now means the whole thickness (10 mm is 10 mm thick). Files made before open the same shape
- Parameters: type a parameter into almost any number box (mm and inches both work) and it follows when you change it. The parameter list can be reordered, grouped under headings, sorted and filtered
- Threads: ACME, NPT, BSPT and BSPP, with tapered pipe threads modeled on the taper
- Drawings: radius or diameter on circles, arrows outside on narrow dimensions, notes, full hole callouts (THRU, depth, counterbore, countersink, tapped), surface finish symbols, and dimensions move live as you drag them
- Sheet metal: flanges miter automatically where they meet, sketches on the flat pattern lie flat, and many corner fixes
- Sketch: Cancel next to Finish Sketch, right-click a sketch to export it as DXF or SVG, and bring DXF files into a sketch with the image tool
- Move: pick the point it turns around. Press V to hide or show what's selected
- CAM: cut each pocket or counterbore to full depth before the next (Order: One at a time), Post anyway when a job is past the machine's travel, 2D Chamfer runs to the ends with working leads, sheet metal unfolds onto the table for plasma and laser, PathPilot tool table import and export, and UCCNC and others leave out T M6 and G43 when you turn them off
- STEP: assemblies come in with their components, names, colors and materials, and exported STEP files name each part
- Preferences: a search box, and your own keyboard shortcuts saved as presets. New shortcut profiles for Creo and NX, and a choice to always stay orthographic or perspective
- AI (MCP): runs without a window (--headless), only uses folders you approve, needs a license, and its port can be set in Preferences
- McMaster-Carr: a one-time note on McMaster-Carr's terms for its models
- Fixes: the material list in other languages, coils that wouldn't change direction, holes cutting into other components, fillets right at the size limit, the SpaceMouse after unplugging, panels at larger interface sizes, the mid plane between angled faces, and faster drawings of threaded parts
- Labs: 4th axis machining (rotary setups with chucks, PathPilot first) and rip corners for sheet metal, to try before they're finished