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FreeCAD Companion for macOS

Modern Quick Look extensions to preview FreeCAD *.FCStd files in Finder. This replaces the legacy qlgenerator and uses current macOS APIs to show the PNG thumbnail embedded in FreeCAD documents.

  • Quick Look preview (press Space) shows the embedded Thumbnail.png.
  • Finder thumbnails use the same embedded image.

Preview examples

Quick Look preview:

QuickLook Preview

Finder thumbnails:

Thumbnail

Thumbnail 2


Build & install

  1. Open the project in Xcode.
  2. Select the FreeCAD Companion target and build/run (⌘R) to test.
  3. To install for all users:
    • Archive (Product > Archive), export the app, and move it to /Applications.
  4. Launch the app once to register the extension.
  5. If thumbnails or previews do not appear, refresh Quick Look:
qlmanage -r
killall Finder

Enable the extension

Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Extensions > Quick Look and enable FreeCAD Companion.

QuickLook Extensions List


How it works

  • A .FCStd file is a ZIP archive. The extension opens the archive, extracts Thumbnail.png, and renders that image for previews and thumbnails.
  • No model parsing — only the embedded PNG is used.

For best results, configure FreeCAD to save a larger thumbnail (256×256 or 512×512): Edit > Preferences > General > Document → Thumbnail size.

FreeCAD Thumbnail Settings


Troubleshooting

  • Ensure FreeCAD Companion is enabled in System Settings.
  • Run qlmanage -r to reload Quick Look plugins.
  • Verify your .FCStd files contain Thumbnail.png (check FreeCAD thumbnail settings).

Goal & License

This project aims to provide a native, future-proof preview experience and is intended for integration into FreeCAD. Licensed under MIT — see LICENSE.

About

A simple macOS 15+ QuickLook Extension Plugin for FreeCAD FCStd files, meant for inclusion in FreeCAD

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