ModernUI Workbench

Introduction

The ModernUI Workbench is an external workbench that replaces the standard user interface. It has modern features such as:

Each workbench has its ribbon tab.
Modern UI ribbon tab replaces the top-level menu.
Activating a workbench\'s ribbon tab shows groups of the workbench\'s tools.
Panels such as Combo View are collapsed/expanded upon mouse-over.

References

Author: Hakan Seven
Source code on github: Source code Modern-UI

Limitations and Troubleshooting

If you experience unexpected behavior, always first try to uninstall and then reinstall the ModernUI workbench.
The workbench is primarily tested with English and may exhibit unexpected behavior in other languages.
Installing more workbenches after installing ModernUI may cause problems.

Install

Install with the Addon Manager.

Note: To uninstall, you have to create a macro and execute it. If you do not feel confident about this, consider to not install.

Running Modern UI in a self-contained directory

To easily test Modern UI without interfering with your standard configuration, you can contain it in a separate directory. Uninstalling Modern UI is then simply accomplished by deleting the directory. (v0.19)

Linux

For example:

$ mkdir modernUI  # new directory that contains Modern UI
$ cd modernUI
$ HOME="$PWD" FREECAD_USER_HOME="$PWD" FreeCAD_0.19.AppImage

When starting FreeCAD like this for the first time, you have a new default configuration. Now install (and configure) Modern UI. This is essentially a portable FreeCAD version.

Instead of using the command line, you can also create a dedicated desktop icon.

Windows

There are not dedicated instructions for Windows yet, however, it is very similar to creating a portable version of FreeCAD on a USB medium.

Uninstall

Detailed instructions can be found on GitHub.

The uninstall sequence is as follows:

Uninstall with the Addon Manager.
Restart FreeCAD.
Create a macro with this code:

from PySide2 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets
mw = FreeCADGui.getMainWindow()
mw.menuBar().show()

WBList = FreeCADGui.listWorkbenches()
for WB in WBList:
    FreeCADGui.activateWorkbench(WB)
    for tb in mw.findChildren(QtWidgets.QToolBar):
        tb.show()

Execute the macro.
Restart FreeCAD.

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