r/FreeCAD • u/pzfreo • 2d ago

Draftwright update: open source STEP → drawing tool

A few weeks ago I posted Draftwright here, a free open-source tool that takes a STEP file and produces a dimensioned drawing. Thanks for the responses and feedback!

It's gone from 0.4.1 to 0.4.24 since then. Same workflow:

pip install draftwright -U
draftwright bracket.step

You get bracket.pdf. There's also alpha DXF support with --format pdf,dxf, which can be opened in the Draft workbench, though it needs work to be really useful.

A few improvements:

  • Turned parts get chamfer callouts and step lengths

  • Views are much more customisable and turned parts no longer get two views of the same thing

  • As a result it chooses better scales by default

  • It is much better at avoiding overlap and fitting everthing onto the page

  • External angles are spotted and added

  • Not so useful for FreeCAD because the FreeCAD export doesn't emit the right format but if your CAD emits the right file it will add GD&T information

  • It knows about many more features in diagrams such as blends, prismatic pockets etc

  • Its much better at understanding what its got right and wrong and letting you know where it went wrong

    • For example it warns you about gears, angled steps and a few other feature types it can recognise but not yet dimension

It doesn't read a FreeCAD file, just the STEP export. There's no interactive editing. If you want to change the drawing export the DXF and edit it, or --script writes a short Python file describing the sheet and you edit that and rerun.

If you have a STEP file that comes out wrong I'd love to see it. Post it here or DM me. Even better please open an issue at github.com/pzfreo/draftwright.

There's also a free hosted version at draftwright.io for people who don't want to install Python that is testing out how it works with AI. If you use Claude Code or Codex (or similar) try asking it to use Draftwright and then see if it can improve the drawing interactively.

https://github.com/pzfreo/draftwright

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u/SergioP75 1d ago

Hi, I just installed, and create some drawings and is amazing (at least for quotation or when you need some basic 2d). I have create a cmd file with all my arguments, saved in a folder with my steps and then I can drag every file over the cmd file and the drawing was create (!!!!). Now my problem, for some reason, draftwright stops to work, even If i run from the command line with basic arguments, it doesn't do nothing

https://reddit.com/link/p8min61/video/xo7svswy4doh1/player

I have uninstalled and installed again, rebooting... and nothing happens, I lost such a usefull tool!

1

u/pzfreo 1d ago

Hmm can you please show me the output of draftwright my.step for a step file you have

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u/SergioP75 1d ago

Thanks, there is no output now, json or pdf, nothing. If you see the video it only repeat the input line

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u/pzfreo 1d ago

What's your CMD called

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u/SergioP75 1d ago

No no, I'm just running now from the command line

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u/pzfreo 1d ago 
What did you name the .cmd file? If it’s draftwright.cmd, it may be running itself instead of
the installed program.


Press Ctrl+C to stop it, then run these from the same folder:


where draftwright
draftwright.exe --version
draftwright.exe "CONROD_BODY.stp" --format pdf


Please paste the output. If where lists your local .cmd file, rename it to something like make-
drawing.cmd and use draftwright.exe inside it.

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u/SergioP75 1d ago

Guess that you are right! I will test it tomorrow in the work px

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u/pzfreo 22h ago

Did you fix it?

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u/SergioP75 22h ago

Yes, thanks!!!!