The Manipulator Workbench is an external workbench aimed to help FreeCAD users with Aligning, Moving, Rotating and Measuring 3D objects through a friendly GUI. These series of tools help to Transform the placement and Measure objects and STEP models in FreeCAD.
Aligner: a set of tools to move and align 3D parts; it can also align an object (face, edge, point) to the origin in FreeCAD.
Mover: a set of tools to move and rotate 3D parts on different Axis
Caliper: a set of tools to measure 3D parts, with some Snap facility and Radius, Length, Angle measurements.
These helpers work with Part, App::Part and Body objects.
The Tools can be Floating or Docked Left or Right.
Each Tool has a Help Button 
to get some useful tips
- Author on github: @easyw
- FreeCAD Forums: easyw-fc
- Source code on github: https://github.com/easyw/Manipulator
- Forum announcements/discussion: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=24742
YouTube Tutorial [https://youtu.be/owGzsd1fyZc Manipulator WorkBench @Work]
Above: Manipulator workbench dialog. For a more detailed description see [https://github.com/easyw/Manipulator/blob/master/README.md README.md] on Github.
Aligner: set of tools to move and align 3D parts; it can also align an object (face, edge, point) to the origin in FreeCAD
Mover: set of tools to move and rotate 3D parts on different Axis
Mover: Using App:Part and Body
Mover: with External Reference
Caliper: measuring Radius
Caliper: measuring Angles
Caliper: measuring Dimensions
Caliper: measuring Dimensions (cont.)
Caliper: parallel planes distance
The recommended way to install the Manipulator Workbench is via the 
Addon Manager under the Tools → Addon Manager menu.
If a manual install is necessary please follow the following instructions:
- Copying the Manipulator source in to the Mod sub-directory of the FreeCAD application.
cd ~/.FreeCAD/Mod
git clone https://github.com/easyw/Manipulator Manipulator- Restart FreeCAD
- FreeCAD v0.15 4671
- FreeCAD v0.16 >= 6712
- FreeCAD v0.17 >= 11707
- FreeCAD v0.18+
- FreeCAD v0.19+
The workbench evolved out of the Center Align Objects with Faces or Edges macro
FreeCAD workbenches are easy to program in Python, there are therefore many people developing additional workbenches outside of the FreeCAD main developers.
The external workbenches page has some information and tutorials on some of them, and the FreeCAD Addons project aims at gathering them and making them easily installable from within FreeCAD.
New workbenches are in development, stay tuned!
⏵ documentation index > Addons > [External Workbenches](Category_External Workbenches.md) > Manipulator Workbench