FreeCAD 0.19: macOS Big Sur

[kisolre]

Maybe a silly question and already answered but how much HDD space does it take to install conda build environment, required dependencies, freeCAD git repo, build folders - everything from Mac OS without build environment to running locally built FreeCAD?
Here (Windows 8.1) it takes 25.5GB (12.7 on disk - compressed NTFS) for the source and build /install folders and about 5GB in tools (Visual studio, Git, CMAke, ...)

[SNicker317]

updated:

>conda create -n fcenv freecad
>conda activate fcenv
>conda config --add channels freecad/label/dev
>conda install freecad=0.19.pre=py38hdc3156c_166

then you will get 0.19R23721, the latest version which can work well under macOS Big Sur.

I'm still getting the "stuck at launch issue" after this...

[drvax]

Unfortunately, something has changed again. The Conda installation is now hanging. I am researching options and will report back as soon as I have more information.

[chrisb]

This topic is listed as one of the release blockers and we have rather frequently changes, so I make it sticky until things have settled.

[drvax]

Folks, SNicker317 has identified a workaround and posted it earlier in this thread. I will add a bit of clarifying information and report here but credit is due to SNicker317 for the solution. Also as indicated earlier this has been identified by the core FreeCAD developers.

macOS Big Sur changed how programs "link" with some of the "c" compatibility libraries. Apple recommended a new procedure for linking programs a number of years ago and Big Sur finally broke the legacy approach. Without going into details this change is what is breaking current versions of FreeCAD.

You can learn more about the details here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/669094

You can correct this problem by installing an earlier version of libclang with the following Conda commands:

conda activate fcenv
conda install libclang=9.0.1

I have updated the documentation on the DrVAX blog located here:

https://drvax.com/freecad-pre-releases-on-macos/

[qwerty_f]

Regarding the homebrew installation: How can I tell there's an update for the head and how can I do the update? Is brew update sufficient?

[SNicker317]

Regarding the homebrew installation: How can I tell there's an update for the head and how can I do the update? Is brew update sufficient?

That is certainly the easiest way, homebrew will just bypass the update if the versions match...

[qwerty_f]

Hmm. It just told me that everything is up to date. Only a brew resinstall freecad made it update the git source as well.

[drvax]

Great News.

I just tried the https://github.com/realthunder FreeCAD fork and it works without any special handling on Big Sur. Just head over to https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_ ... 3/releases and download the daily build. I have not tried any of the earlier releases so I can not speak to their ability to work on Big Sur.

Realthunder is a freelance developer who is the driving force behind the new Assembly 3 capabilities in FreeCAD. There is a Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/thundereal/posts for this developer.

[chrisb]

Realthunder's branch is partially far ahead of master, e.g. concerning topological naming, and partially behind. So I'm afraid that this branch still works due to the same reason why 0.18 still works on Big Sur. Do you have more insight into this?