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Description

The Std ViewScreenShot command opens a dialog box to create an image file, a screenshot, from the active 3D View.

The Save image dialog box after pressing the Extended button

Usage

1. Select the Tools → Save Image… option from the menu.
2. The Save Image dialog box opens.
3. Optionally press the Extended button to reveal an additional panel in the dialog box. For more information see Options.
4. Optionally browse to the correct folder.
5. Enter a filename and select the file type.
6. Press the Save button to create the image file and close the dialog box.

Options

Image Dimensions

1. Select a standard size from the Standard sizes dropdown list. Or specify the Width and Height for a custom size.
2. Optionally press an Aspect ratio button to set the width-to-height ratio of the image. If the Width input box has the focus the height of the image will change and vice versa.

Image Properties

1. Select an option from the Background dropdown list:
   • Current This option uses the background of the 3D View.
   • White
   • Black
   • Transparent Not all image formats support transparency.
2. Select an option from the Creation method dropdown list:
   • Offscreen (New) This is the default method. This method supports anti-aliasing. Technical information: The most important classes for this method are Qt's QOffscreenSurface and QOpenGLFramebufferObject.
   • Offscreen (Old) This method does not work on many modern Linux systems as it relies on the graphics driver. This method does not support anti-aliasing. Technical information: This is a real off-screen rendering method that only uses functions from the Coin3d library.
   • Framebuffer (custom) This method supports anti-aliasing. Technical information: If anti-aliasing is off, this method reads the image directly from the graphics renderer, else it renders to a framebuffer and gets the image from there. The key part of this method is Qt's QOpenGLFramebufferObject class.
   • Framebuffer (as is) This method uses the same techniques as Framebuffer (custom). It also supports anti-aliasing but has some limitations related to custom sizes and always uses the current background of the 3D View.

Image Comment

1. Select the Insert MIBA option to add MIBA information to the file. Not all image formats support this.
2. Or select the Insert comment option and type a comment in the text field to embed a comment in the file. Not all image formats support this.
3. Check the Add watermark checkbox to add a watermark. The watermark is placed in the lower left corner of the image and consists of the FreeCAD logo and name above the main FreeCAD URL: freecad.org.

Notes

• The number of available image file formats may vary depending on your OS.
• Some OpenGL drivers don't allow renderings above a certain maximum size.

Preferences

See also: Preferences Editor.

• The 3D View background can be changed in the preferences: Edit → Preferences → Display → Colors → Background Color.
• To change the 3D View anti-aliasing: Edit → Preferences → Display → 3D View → Rendering → Anti-aliasing.

Scripting

See also: Autogenerated API documentation and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

It is possible to create screenshots with Python code.

This script saves a series of screenshots of different sizes and from different directions. The camera type, orthographic or perspective, is also changed.