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TechDraw Workbench

The TechDraw workbench creates traditional 2-D engineering drawings from 3-D models. It is the standard way to produce dimensioned, annotated, title-block drawings in FreeCAD — the deliverable that goes to a machinist, fabricator, or archive.

What TechDraw is for

A 3-D model captures the geometry; a TechDraw drawing captures the communication — which dimensions matter, what tolerances apply, which surfaces need a finish, how the parts go together. TechDraw answers:

  1. How do I lay out views on a drawing sheet? — front, top, right, section, detail.
  2. How do I add dimensions that stay linked to the model? — change the model, the dimension updates.
  3. How do I annotate with notes, balloons, surface finish, and weld symbols?
  4. How do I export to SVG, DXF, or PDF?

Key concepts

Page and template

A TechDraw Page is the drawing sheet. Every page is based on a Template — an SVG file that provides the border, title block, and any fixed text. FreeCAD ships with ISO and ANSI templates in A0–A4 / A–E sizes. You can create custom templates in Inkscape.

The template has editable fields (title, author, date, drawing number) that you fill in via the Fill Template Fields tool without editing the SVG directly.

Views

A View is a 2-D projection of a 3-D object onto the drawing page. Views are always live — they update automatically when the 3-D model changes. The main view types are:

View type Description
Orthographic View Standard front/top/right projection
Section View Cross-section cut by a plane
Detail View Magnified inset of a region
Projection Group Sets of related orthographic views (first or third angle)
Broken View Elongated part with middle section removed

Dimensions

Dimensions in TechDraw are placed on views and can be linked to 3-D geometry so they read the true model dimension rather than the projected length. A dimension linked to a Part Design pad length updates when the pad length changes.

The extension pack

TechDraw includes an Extension Pack — a large set of additional tools for formatting dimensions, drawing centerlines, thread representations, cosmetic geometry, and prefix/suffix manipulation. These are covered in the Extensions reference page.

Typical workflow

1. Create a Page          ← TechDraw → Page → Insert Default Page
2. Insert views           ← TechDraw → Views → Insert View (repeat)
3. Add a section view     ← TechDraw → Views → Insert Section View
4. Add dimensions         ← TechDraw → Dimensions menu (repeat)
5. Add annotations        ← TechDraw → Annotations menu
6. Fill title block       ← TechDraw → Page → Fill Template Fields
7. Export                 ← TechDraw → Page → Export Page as SVG / DXF

Relationship to other workbenches

Workbench Relationship
Part Design Bodies are the most common objects projected into TechDraw views.
Part Part shapes and compounds can also be projected.
Assembly Assembly views and exploded views project the full assembly.
Spreadsheet A spreadsheet can be embedded as a table in a drawing.
Draft Draft objects (2-D drawings) can be inserted as Draft Views.

See the Tools index for a complete reference.