gEDA-user: Re: Vericad?

["Kai-Martin Knaak" <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:10:48 -0400, Stuart Brorson wrote:

> I'd like to hear opinions about Vericad -- positive and negative --
> particularly from folks who've used it.

I use varicad to do the mechanical construction of my lasers.  
(http://lilalaser.de/lila/images/products/Laser_Breadboard_schlank.png)


> Are there better packages out there (for Linux) now?  

None that I know. I seriously tried qcad but the user interface is a real
pain. In addition qcad is 2D only, while varicad supports 3D modelling.  


> Is Vericad worth the $500 cost?

In my case: yes, definitely. 
At the physics institute and for my last job I did 2D construction drawings
with regular 2D drawing applications like Corel draw and xfig. Doing the
comparable tasks with a dedicated tool was a revelation :-)


> Is it overkill for creating 2D drawings of mechanical parts for the local
> job shop, or underkill? 

It is just about the right app for the job. Varicad works best if you
do a 3D model of the parts and derive the 2D drawings from that
model.  


> Does it support DXF adequately so that it
> interoperates with other CAD tools nicely?

Qcad had no problem to import dxf exports of varicad. Circles and arcs
are exported as such and not dissolved into little straight vectors. I had
no real world use for this ability yet, so some quirks may have been
undiscovered. The other direction from dxf to varicad proved useful,
though: Some enclosure manufacturers provide dxf drawings. These can be
imported and converted into 3D models.


Some strong points of varicad:
* Intuitive 3D interface. 
* Excellent 3D graphics. 
* Easy to derive 2D views of 3D model.
* Complete set of dimensioning styles.

Some weak points of varicad:
* 2D interface not quite as intuitive as the 3D part -- Still way
   better than qcad, though.
* 2D does not update automatically if the 3D model changes.
* 2D printing works, but suffers from poor GUI. 
* No high quality rendered views of 3D objects. (The the image linked above
   is a screen dump from the varcad GUI.)
   A workaround is to import the vector data to the full blown render
   engine blender. This works and produces beautiful pictures. But it
   involves a rather tedious amount of work with blender.
* Very little control on meshing.
* No real bending or stretching of 3D objects * No physics beyond a
primitive check of mechanical collision. * The suite is closed source.


Hardware requirements are moderate. I got good results from a AMD K7 box
that was born in 2002 (1.8 GHz, 256 MB RAM). Good 3D acceleration is
mandatory to get smooth 3D performance. OpenGL is a must. My matrox G550
didn't quite support openGL with xorg. I learned the hard way,
that Matrox does not bother to support linux anymore. Now I am happy with a
nvidia FX5200 graphics board.


Just my 2Â 
---<(kaimartin)>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
http://lilalaser.de/blog



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