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I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distrobution to
run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:

> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?

Any Linux distro will run any CAD program written to run on Linux. Your
question should be which CAD program, and the answer is seek, find,
install, and try, until you find one that meets your needs.

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."

In message <pan.2006.01.23.05.07.23.855608@invalid.yahoo.com> , imotgm
<imotgm_REM@invalid.yahoo.com> writes
>On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:

>> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
>> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?
>
>Any Linux distro will run any CAD program written to run on Linux. Your
>question should be which CAD program, and the answer is seek, find,
>install, and try, until you find one that meets your needs.

And I for one would appreciate it if you'd let us know what you find too
!


Cheers, J/.
--
John Beardmore

"John Beardmore" <wookie@wookie.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:0bOS8QhIkK1DFw5c@wookie.demon.co.uk...
> In message <pan.2006.01.23.05.07.23.855608@invalid.yahoo.com> , imotgm
> <imotgm_REM@invalid.yahoo.com> writes
>>On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:
>
>>> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
>>> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?
>>
>>Any Linux distro will run any CAD program written to run on Linux. Your
>>question should be which CAD program, and the answer is seek, find,
>>install, and try, until you find one that meets your needs.
>
> And I for one would appreciate it if you'd let us know what you find too

I helped write the old SunOS ports of the "chipmunk" suite, and have worked
with a number of CAD packages in Windows/DOS/Solaris/Linux. My experience
looking around has been that the major CAD packages, such as AutoCAD and
PowerLogic, have only recently moved to Linux. They're also provided, or
tested, only with specific Linux distributions.

There are lots of reasons for this: the X libraries, the versions of OpenGL,
the glibc itself, and lots of other tools may vary between distributions.
Saying it will "work on any Linux" is like saying that a battery "will work
on any car". There's occasionally some weird battery with the posts on the
side designed for a certain set of cars, and some car where the mounting is
such that the cables can't reach that far and it can't be mounted. (I own
such a car and an unused battery due to that.)

In message <z9OdnaI2atyvcUneRVn-sg@comcast.com>, Nico Kadel-Garcia
<nkadel@comcast.net> writes
>"John Beardmore" <wookie@wookie.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:0bOS8QhIkK1DFw5c@wookie.demon.co.uk...
>> In message <pan.2006.01.23.05.07.23.855608@invalid.yahoo.com> , imotgm
>> <imotgm_REM@invalid.yahoo.com> writes
>>>On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:

>>>> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
>>>> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?
>>>
>>>Any Linux distro will run any CAD program written to run on Linux. Your
>>>question should be which CAD program, and the answer is seek, find,
>>>install, and try, until you find one that meets your needs.
>>
>> And I for one would appreciate it if you'd let us know what you find too
>
>I helped write the old SunOS ports of the "chipmunk" suite, and have worked
>with a number of CAD packages in Windows/DOS/Solaris/Linux. My experience
>looking around has been that the major CAD packages, such as AutoCAD and
>PowerLogic, have only recently moved to Linux. They're also provided, or
>tested, only with specific Linux distributions.
>
>There are lots of reasons for this: the X libraries, the versions of OpenGL,
>the glibc itself, and lots of other tools may vary between distributions.
>Saying it will "work on any Linux" is like saying that a battery "will work
>on any car". There's occasionally some weird battery with the posts on the
>side designed for a certain set of cars, and some car where the mounting is
>such that the cables can't reach that far and it can't be mounted. (I own
>such a car and an unused battery due to that.)

Yes - I know that feeling !


So what CAD stuff free or cheap and good under linux ?

I'm interested in 2D, 3D, and possibly circuit board design. Ability to
read autocad files would be an advantage as people keep sending them to
me.
Doesn't all have to be done from one package.


Cheers, J/.
--
John Beardmore

John Beardmore wrote:

> So what CAD stuff free or cheap and good under linux ?

Not much. The expense of writing a good *parts library* and getting it into
the software is the expense of a lot of hand-work, and the bigger CAD houses
such as Mentor seem to insist on keeping their pricelist secret except from
their 3rd party vendors to keep you from comparison shopping.

In comp.os.linux.setup John Beardmore <wookie@wookie.demon.co.uk>:
> In message <pan.2006.01.23.05.07.23.855608@invalid.yahoo.com> , imotgm
> <imotgm_REM@invalid.yahoo.com> writes
>>On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:

>>> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
>>> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?
[..]

> And I for one would appreciate it if you'd let us know what you find too
> !

Did you try this URL or/and searched freshmeat.net:

http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html

IIRC, some people found linuxcad seems rip-off.

Good luck

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 188: ..disk or the processor is on fire.

I have used QCad under Windows and Linux (Simply Mepis)
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_downloads.html

This is a good 2D Cad program used world-wide.

Try the demos under your distribution. Then buy (around $28 US) the
professional version. You get the Windows version and Linux version --
plus 1 year free updates.

alanbe

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:07:24 +0000, imotgm wrote:

> On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:20:55 -0800, Levin wrote:
>
>> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distribution to
>> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?
>
> Any Linux distro will run any CAD program written to run on Linux. Your
> question should be which CAD program, and the answer is seek, find,
> install, and try, until you find one that meets your needs.
>
I tested this program and it worked well enough to open autocad drawing
files, with zoom and pan, etc.

qcad:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html

I don't know enough about the commands to use the program, though. The
price seems much better than AutoCad, and there is an ongoing
development effort with a lot of it being GPL. It is built on the qt
library, so it matches KDE applications.

--
Douglas Mayne

Levin wrote:

> I am going to college to learn CAD and I need a linux distrobution to
> run free (or reasonable)CAD on. What would be a good choice?

If you are going to college to learn CAD then your best bet would be to find
out what CAD system the college is teaching and then base your OS and
hardware choices on the requirements of that system. If they're teaching
you CATIA and all you can run is QCAD you're screwed.

Rather than looking for something free or cheap you should factor the cost
of the CAD system into the cost of your education and if you have to flip
burgers or trade bonds or whatever it is that you do to put food on the
table for another year to be able to pay for it then do what you have to
do.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)