Fill any sketch with a honeycomb pattern in one click.
Drawing a honeycomb by hand in FreeCAD is slow and tedious. HexFill does it for you: pick a sketch, choose how big the cells should be, and it builds the whole hexagonal grid for you. The result is an ordinary sketch — so you can Pocket it to make a perforated panel, or Pad it into a honeycomb solid.
- Lightweight panels and grilles (pocket the honeycomb through a plate)
- Honeycomb infill for 3D-printed or machined parts
- Decorative hex patterns on any flat face
- Make a sketch with a closed outline (rectangle, circle, any shape) and Pad it.
- Select that sketch in the model tree.
- Click HexFill (in the Sketcher toolbar or the Tools menu).
- Adjust the cell size in the side panel — you see a live preview as you type.
- Press OK. A new
HexGridsketch appears. - Select
HexGridand use Pocket (cut the holes) or Pad (raise the walls).
Version 1.2 makes HexFill aware of the part the sketch sits on, so the honeycomb fits real geometry instead of just the sketch outline.
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- Fill: Outer / Inner — the sketch contour now splits the part. Inner fills inside the contour, Outer fills the material outside it (up to the physical edge). Both modes automatically avoid every existing cutout and hole in the part (rectangular windows, round mounting holes, etc.) — you don't have to select them.
- Margin (experimental) — keep a clean frame between the honeycomb and the
surrounding boundaries. Turn it on with the Margin checkbox in the
Experimental group, then choose:
- Mode — where the gap is kept: From contour (fill reaches the part edge, stops short of your contour), From edge (fill reaches the contour, stops short of the part edge), or Contour + edge (both). Cutouts always keep a gap.
- Value — the clearance distance in mm. The white outline in the live preview shows exactly where the honeycomb will stop.
Plus a more robust live preview and faster, freeze-free parameter editing.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mode: Manual | You set the cell diameter and the wall thickness (gap). |
| Mode: Auto | Picks a strong, light honeycomb automatically from the sketch size. |
| Fill: Outer / Inner | Fill the part material outside the sketch contour, or inside it. Existing cutouts are always avoided. |
| Outfill | Trims the edge cells to the outline so the pattern fills right to the border. |
| Anchor (3×3) | Chooses where the grid starts — centered, from a corner, etc. |
| Margin (experimental) | Keeps a clean frame around cutouts / the contour / the part edge (see What's new in 1.2). |
| Live preview | Shows the grid in the 3D view while you tune the numbers. |
Addon Manager (recommended): Tools → Addon manager, find HexFill, click Install, restart FreeCAD.
Manual: copy this folder into your FreeCAD Mod directory and restart:
| OS | Path |
|---|---|
| Windows | %APPDATA%\FreeCAD\Mod\ |
| Linux | ~/.local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/ |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/FreeCAD/Mod/ |
FreeCAD 1.0 or newer.
MIT — see LICENSE.