Re: gEDA-user: OT: Mechanical Cad for Linux

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 12:27:19PM -0400, Marvin Dickens wrote:
> On Monday 12 September 2005 06:29 am, Kovács Levente wrote:
> > On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 00:11:50 -0400
> >
> > Dan McMahill <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > I'm not able to suggest alternatives, but I'm curious, what is the
> > > problem with qcad?
> >
> > It segfaults when you turn on the grid... at least for me on Debian
> > stable. And the UI is a little bit awkward...
> >
> > However, this is the only tool for free... :-(
> >
> > Levente
> 
> QCAD does not segfault for us when we turn on the grid (We are using
> SuSE 9.2 and 9.3). In fact, it performs as advertised and is a good
> 2D CAD package. We use QCAD in our design flow and further, like it. 
> It is easy to use and the UI is not as bad as a lot of 2D CAD packages 
> that I've seen that cost $. The output is excellent and to scale if you
> use a printer that is designed to print with a high degree of accuracy
> (In other words, the output is as good as the printer that is used to
> produce the output).
> 
> Our problem with CAD on Linux is that there are no viable 3D CAD 
> applications available except those that cost $. Our interest in 3D

BRL-CAD is not viable?
For Ronja it's viable:
http://ronja.twibright.com/3d/

And BRL-CAD has special personality :)
http://ronja.twibright.com/old_news.php
("Ronja employs BRL-CAD as 3D modeling tool")

> CAD is for the purpose of modeling complex designs - Some of the 
> devices that we build are rather complex and the ability to see what 
> we have in 3D makes a real difference throughout the entire design 
> process. Currently, we are looking at purchasing Varicad which 
> appears, at least on the surface, to do a decent job at 3D. Most likely,
> we will be purchasing a couples of Varicad seats before the end of the
> month.

After having learned it just a bit, I wouldn't step away from BRL-CAD now :)
BRL-CAD simply rulez for me (and is GPL of course).

CL<