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Face from Wires

In one sentence: Create a flat planar face from one or more closed wire profiles — the outer wire becomes the boundary and additional wires become holes.

Overview

Workbench: Part · Menu: Part → Make Face from Wires
Toolbar: Part Modeling · Shortcut: none

Face from Wires takes one or more coplanar closed wires and constructs a planar face from them. The first (outermost) wire defines the face boundary; additional wires inside it define holes. The resulting face can then be used for Extrude, Loft, or Sweep.

Intuition

A wire is just a chain of edges — it has no area. To extrude, revolve, or loft a 2-D profile, you need a face. Face from Wires bridges the gap: it fills in the region bounded by the wire.

With multiple wires: - The outer wire becomes the face boundary. - Each inner wire punches a hole in the face.

This lets you create complex profiles (a rectangular face with a round hole, for example) from simple wire primitives.

When to use it

  • You have a Primitives dialog circle or polygon and want to extrude it into a solid.
  • You constructed a custom wire from edges and want to turn it into a face.
  • You need a face with holes from separately constructed wires.

When NOT to use it

  • Sketcher sketch — a Sketcher sketch is already a face when closed; use Extrude directly.
  • Non-planar wires — Face from Wires requires all wires to be coplanar. Use Loft or Sweep for non-planar profiles.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Simple face from one wire

  1. Create a closed wire (e.g., from Shape Builder or Primitives).
  2. Select the wire.
  3. Part → Make Face from Wires.
  4. A planar face appears.
  5. Use Extrude on the face to get a solid.

Face with a hole (outer wire + inner wire)

  1. Create the outer closed wire (e.g., a rectangle wire).
  2. Create the inner closed wire (e.g., a circle wire positioned inside the rectangle).
  3. Ctrl+select both wires (outer first, then inner).
  4. Part → Make Face from Wires.
  5. A face with a hole appears — the rectangle with the circle cut out.

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Wires must be closed and coplanar

Any open wire or wire not in the same plane as the others causes an error. Ensure all edges in each wire share endpoints and all wires lie on the same plane.

Inner wire must be inside the outer wire

If the inner wire is outside the boundary of the outer wire, the result is invalid or undefined. Check the geometry before running the tool.

Python API

import FreeCAD as App
import Part

doc = App.newDocument()

# Outer rectangle wire
p1 = App.Vector(0, 0, 0)
p2 = App.Vector(30, 0, 0)
p3 = App.Vector(30, 20, 0)
p4 = App.Vector(0, 20, 0)
outer = Part.Wire([
    Part.makeLine(p1, p2),
    Part.makeLine(p2, p3),
    Part.makeLine(p3, p4),
    Part.makeLine(p4, p1),
])

# Inner circle wire (hole at centre)
circle_edge = Part.makeCircle(5.0, App.Vector(15, 10, 0), App.Vector(0, 0, 1))
inner = Part.Wire([circle_edge])

# Make face with hole
face = Part.Face([outer, inner])   # outer first, then holes
feat = doc.addObject("Part::Feature", "FaceWithHole")
feat.Shape = face
doc.recompute()

# Extrude to 10 mm solid
solid = face.extrude(App.Vector(0, 0, 10))
ext_feat = doc.addObject("Part::Feature", "ExtrudedPlate")
ext_feat.Shape = solid
doc.recompute()
print(f"Volume: {ext_feat.Shape.Volume:.2f} mm³")

See also