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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!

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Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2023 at 10:22 PM

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

    ReplyDelete

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