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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. introduced in 0.19

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:

1. Uninstall with the Addon Manager.
2. Restart FreeCAD.
3. 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()
   

4. Execute the macro.
5. Restart FreeCAD.

Links

• FreeCAD Forum: https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=44937
• Report bugs: https://github.com/HakanSeven12/Modern-UI
• Patreon (to support the author): https://www.patreon.com/HakanSeven12