Installation

Requirements

• FreeCAD 1.0 or later: the addon uses the included Assembly workbench.
• Python 3.11: FreeCAD includes it. You do not install it.
• Kinematics backend: the default backend (numpy_dls) has no external dependency. The other backends are optional, see below.

Find your Mod folder

Put the addon in the FreeCAD user Mod folder. To find the folder:

• Menu: Edit → Preferences → General shows the user directory, or
• Python console:

App.getUserAppDataDir()

Usual Windows path: %APPDATA%\FreeCAD\Mod.

Option A: stable release [tbd in future, use dev version for now]

1. Download the last release zip from the releases page.
2. Extract it into the Mod folder. Make sure that this path exists: .../Mod/Robotics/freecad/robotics
3. Start FreeCAD again.

Option B: development version

Clone the repository into the Mod folder:

cd <your Mod folder>
git clone https://github.com/nishendra3/RobotWB.git Robotics

Start FreeCAD again.

Make sure that the install is correct

After the restart, the Robot Tools Toolbar shows in the GUI. The toolbar is global. It shows in all workbenches. If it does not show, right-click the toolbar area. Then set Robot Tools Toolbar to on.

Optional kinematics backends

The robot's KinematicsLib property selects the backend. If the selected library is not installed, the addon uses numpy_dls and writes an install hint to the report view.

Backend	Dependency	Note
numpy_dls	none	Default. Damped least squares, full 6D
pinocchio	pin	Fast rigid-body dynamics library
tesseract	tesseract-robotics	Tesseract planning stack
ikpy	ikpy	Position-only IK

Install a backend into FreeCAD's own Python, not into your system Python. Example from the FreeCAD Python console:

import subprocess, sys
subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", "pin"])

Next: Quick Start