FreeCAD’s 26.3 Release Candidate 2 is available, with a November final release targeted if remaining blockers are cleared. The project has moved to three calendar-versioned releases each year. This is a meaningful opportunity to revisit a free, Mac-compatible parametric tool without changing your core Plasticity workflow.
FreeCAD can import and export STEP and supports dimension-driven modeling. That makes it potentially useful for editing a measured bracket or a vise part when the shape needs a history of constrained dimensions. It is not a magic conversion from any triangle mesh to a clean editable solid.
Use a duplicate file, not the only copy of a working CAD model. The release notes warn of behavior changes, and the project explicitly discourages production use of a release candidate. The experiment is successful only if the imported geometry stays valid and a round-trip STEP export behaves as expected.
Additional details — https://wiki.freecad.org/Release_notes_26.3 | Go to Source — https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases