Skip to main content

Will this make FreeCAD Run Faster on Linux?

Boosting FreeCAD Performance with the Linux Nice Command

If you're a FreeCAD user frustrated with performance lags, especially during heavy modeling or rendering tasks, here's a trick that might help you push your CPU to prioritize FreeCAD.


The Terminal Snippet That Might Improve Performance

Buried in an obscure forum thread (unfortunately now lost to time), I found this little gem of terminal wisdom:

sudo nice -n -20 sudo -u yourusername ~/your/location/of/freecad.AppImage

This command sets FreeCAD to run with a niceness value of -20, which is the highest possible CPU priority for user-space processes.


Understanding the Nice Command in Linux

The nice command controls how the Linux scheduler prioritizes processes. Here’s a quick breakdown:

  • Niceness range: -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest)

  • Default niceness: 0

  • You can check process niceness using top or htop, look under the NI column.

For more technical depth, you can refer to:


Have I Tried It with FreeCAD?

Not yet, but I plan to. Some early feedback from Twitter (shoutout to FreeCADNews) suggests that while this helps in theory, CPU prioritization isn't the silver bullet for performance woes.

"This has been discussed on the forum but it's not the answer you're hoping for."
- FreeCADNews on Twitter


The Real Bottleneck: OpenCascade and Other Dependencies

One core issue isn't FreeCAD itself, it's the underlying dependencies:

  • OpenCascade CAD kernel (primary bottleneck)

  • Qt, Python, Coin3D, and others that may not be optimized for high performance.

So while tweaking the CPU priority may give slight improvements, real optimization needs collaboration and updates across all open-source components.


Community, Open Source, and Moving Forward

Open-source thrives on contributions. Even if you're not a developer, you can help:

  • Report bugs

  • Test nightly builds

  • Support community discussions

  • Share insights like this one!

It's not just about FreeCAD, it's about strengthening the entire ecosystem.


Final Thoughts

Playing with CPU priorities is a neat experiment — just don’t expect miracles. If you're committed to getting the best performance from FreeCAD:

  • Stay updated with the latest releases

  • Monitor your system resources

  • Get involved in the FreeCAD community

Have you tried this trick? Did it work for you? Share your experience in the comments below!

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2023 at 10:22 PM

    How do you locate the directory where the FreeCAD is located using terminal?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginners FreeCAD: Exercise 5.1 & 5.2 (Reference Images)

Welcome to the total beginners course to FreeCAD 0.20. In this is a two part lesson we will practice our tracing skill in the form of a mini project. Using the below reference photos we will create a more complex part which will consist of repeating features. We will utilise the symmetry tools to ease construction in both FreeCAD sketcher and Part Design workbench. This project work will help teach the fundamentals of freeCAD allowing a understanding of the basics but delivering this information via teaching you different workflows. In this tutorial we will be tracing photos imported into FreeCAD via the image workbench https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Image_Workbench JUMP TO IMAGES Do you want to purchase the complete series along with others and keep forever?  Check out my shop https://ko-fi.com/mang0/shop The story of this tutorial The idea and first attempt at creating this tutorial was back in FreeCAD 0.18.  The physical part itself, well, I have no idea what really it is, i...
5 comments
Read more

FreeCAD For Beginners: CAD Thinking Part 1

Step-by-Step CAD Thinking FreeCAD Tutorial: Modeling a Latch Part (Part 1) Learning how to turn real life objects into CAD Models. Using FreeCAD we explain at a beginner level how to break down a physical object into its primitive shapes to digitise it into a 3D model, with this episode we are looking at a multi-part assembly, modelling each piece individually. The series aims to open your eyes and mind giving you the ground skills to pick the correct profiles, geometry and workflow when it comes to modelling your parts. This is not just for FreeCAD but for all CAD packages out there. Introduction This tutorial is the first in a series guiding you through modeling a latch assembly in FreeCAD (version 0.21) using the Part Design and A2Plus workbenches. It focuses on modeling the first part (a slotted component) by selecting the top profile to create a slot and adding side arcs, emphasizing CAD thinking to break down complex shapes into primitives. The tutorial highlights model stability...
2 comments
Read more

Modeling Flowcharts For Basic Beginners FreeCAD v1

 Th following flowcharts are used in the Basic Beginners FreeCAD v1 course.  They consist of two flows, one for simplifying the model and one for identifying the individual features and how to model them.   The flowcharts can downloaded by clicking on them, they will then open in a new page, from there right click on the image and save as. Flowcharts can be found below.  Current flowchart version is version 1.0.0 Own my courses forever, check out my shop https://ko-fi.com/mang0/shop Own my courses forever,  check out my shop   https://ko-fi.com/mang0/shop
Post a Comment
Read more