FreeCAD MCP

Overview

The FreeCAD MCP server bridges the gap between a powerful 3‑D CAD engine and AI assistants such as Claude Desktop. By exposing FreeCAD’s full modeling capabilities through a lightweight RPC interface, it lets developers orchestrate complex design tasks purely from natural language or programmatic prompts. This eliminates the need for manual interaction with FreeCAD’s GUI, enabling rapid prototyping, batch generation of parts, or integration into larger AI‑driven workflows.

At its core, the server offers a suite of high‑level tools that mirror common CAD operations: creating documents and objects, editing parameters, deleting entities, and executing arbitrary Python scripts. In addition, it provides helper utilities for importing standard parts from the FreeCAD library and capturing view screenshots. These capabilities are surfaced as MCP tools, making them discoverable by the AI assistant and allowing seamless invocation within a conversation. The “only‑text‑feedback” mode further streamlines the experience by returning concise textual confirmations instead of graphical overlays, which is especially useful in headless or remote scenarios.

Developers can harness this server for a range of real‑world use cases. For instance, an AI assistant could receive a textual specification for a flange or toy car and automatically generate the corresponding 3‑D model, as demonstrated in the provided GIFs. It can also transform a 2‑D drawing into a fully extruded part, enabling rapid conversion of legacy designs. In production environments, the ability to script arbitrary Python code opens doors to custom feature creation, automated quality checks, or integration with downstream manufacturing pipelines.

Integration into AI workflows is straightforward: the MCP server is launched via a simple command (e.g., ) and registered in Claude Desktop’s configuration. Once active, the assistant can call tools like or , receive immediate feedback, and even request visual snapshots with . The server’s design emphasizes minimal friction—no need to touch FreeCAD directly, no manual installation of complex dependencies, and a clear separation between the AI client and the CAD engine.

Unique advantages of this MCP include its native support for FreeCAD’s Python API, allowing developers to write custom scripts that run inside the same process as the assistant. This eliminates latency associated with external scripting and ensures consistent state management. Moreover, by leveraging FreeCAD’s extensive parts library, the server can pull ready‑made components on demand, vastly speeding up design cycles. In summary, FreeCAD MCP transforms a traditional CAD application into an AI‑friendly service, empowering developers to embed sophisticated 3‑D modeling directly into conversational or automated workflows.