FreeCAD Hotkeys · Stream Deck plugin

What it does

The largest catalog in the line, spanning sketching, part design, assembly, FEM, and CAM.
Dials for history, zoom, view roll, selection, workbenches, documents, standard views, and draw styles. The Workbench dial chooses on turn and switches on press, so a knocked dial costs nothing.
A Status key that reflects the active document state read from FreeCAD.
Run the bundled FreeCADHotkeysBridge macro once and the dial faces go live: true undo depth with the next step's name, the document starred while unsaved, and real workbench, view, and draw style names. On a Mac every live reading comes from this macro.
The theme key: one press restyles FreeCAD's windows, panels and 3D view live. Void, Graphite and Neon Grid are three dark colour ways, My theme puts your own look back, and Cycle steps through all four. It ships on every bundled profile, and its first press installs the theme packs and the PathfinderTheme.FCMacro macro into your FreeCAD 1.1 settings folder, never into the install folder. Needs FreeCAD 1.1 running.
A 14-key number pad on the Stream Deck + XL and 32-key Stream Deck XL hubs that stays put while you page, so a length value goes in without reaching for the keyboard.

What you need

Windows 10 or later or macOS 13 or later, Stream Deck software 6.9 or newer, and FreeCAD 1.1 (tested on 1.1.4 on Windows and 1.1.3 on macOS).

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Support

Good to know

Built for FreeCAD 1.1 on Windows 10 or later and on macOS 13 or later, tested on FreeCAD 1.1.4 on Windows and 1.1.3 on macOS. Requires the Stream Deck app 6.9 or newer. Profiles are bundled for six decks: the 15-key Stream Deck, the Stream Deck +, the Stream Deck + XL, the 32-key Stream Deck XL, the Stream Deck Mini and the Stream Deck Neo.
On a Mac, two permissions. Elgato Stream Deck needs both in System Settings, Privacy & Security. Accessibility: if a key reads Allow Accessibility, turn Elgato Stream Deck on there, then restart the Stream Deck app. Automation: if keys only alert, allow Elgato Stream Deck to control System Events there. Keys send FreeCAD's macOS shortcuts, Command for Ctrl; six that cannot be sent safely, F11 and Cmd+Space among them, alert instead.
Commands are grouped by workbench; a command does nothing if its workbench is not active in FreeCAD.
The Status key reflects the active document state read from FreeCAD itself.
FreeCAD's 3D view needs keyboard focus (one click inside it) before single-letter shortcuts register, and an active tool captures the keyboard until you press Esc. Both are FreeCAD behaviors that apply to a physical keyboard too.
The FreeCADHotkeysBridge macro is optional. Install it from the plugin's macro folder for live dial faces. Without it every face falls back to an honest blind receipt rather than a guessed value. On a Mac every live reading comes from it.

True of every plugin we make

Every key carries the app's own shortcut for that command, and every key is remappable. Type your combination into the key's property inspector (its settings panel in the Stream Deck app) or click Capture and press it once. Where an app leaves a command unbound, the key still reaches it by the route that app exposes.
Keystrokes go to the front window and nothing steals focus, so keep the target app in front when you press.
Every command has its own drawn key art, so the deck reads at a glance instead of listing shortcuts.

Read the full quick fixes, or see this plugin on the support hub.

Still stuck? Email tony@pathfinderprototyping.com with the plugin name, your Stream Deck software version, and what you pressed versus what happened. A human answers.