[cad-linux] Re: cad-linux still alive [if only on life-support...
- From: Jon Shorie <jshorie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cad-linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:33:04 -0400
I work in local government. We currently have 10 people in my department
running CAD.
We have a mix of Autocad LT, Autocad, Carlson Survey, and Intellicad. The fact
is that there is no single Autocad
interface. The latest versions use the MS Office like BUTTON interface (which
our engineers HATE). I would prefer an
interface similar to openoffice.org where any function can be added as a menu
option or button. If there was an open
source cad, there could be "themes" of buttons that could be added/deleted to
customize the product to the user's
taste.
The one feature that MUST be there is the ability to open .dwg files. Anything
that cannot do this in recent autodesk
formats is a non-starter as far as government goes. We often receive cad
drawings from developers and outside
engineers that we have to be able to open here to make use of their data.
Each of the 4 programs that we have is better at different things. Carlson
Survey is better for working with GPS and
survey data which can then be imported into the autocad lt or autocad where the
project drawings are worked on.
A free/open source linux-based cad product that did not have the support for
.dwg would be worthless to us and probably
most government organizations. If it did, this would definitely smoothe the
migration to Linux for many smaller cities
and counties.
The only programs preventing linux migration here are GIS, our custom-developed
software, and CAD. Quantum GIS may
eventually fix one of the problems. We could rewrite our custom apps for
linux, but if the 40% of our staff that need
CAD are forced to run winblows, then we are stuck.
I long for the day that there is a floss cad on linux option.
On Thursday 2009-07-16 11:36:15 you wrote:
> Hi,
> this is a rather old thread now, still I would like to add some comments.
>
> First - cad is a wide range of applications. In some of them, Linux
> stands very well. In other, it does not exist. Unfortunately, me, being
> an architect, I am located in the former ones, where cad means either
> windows or mac os x. However, the opposite scenario, where architects
> are forced to use linux because of a lack of the software needed on
> other platform also (in some cases) exists. Not in cad.
>
> What is cad for linux looking like at the moment? cad for producing 2d
> drawings seams to be in a terrible state. Astonishing, as there is a
> bunch of powerful 2d vector engines available, and dtp can be easily
> done on linux right now. Still, there is no link to models from these 2d
> engines, and as such, we cannot really use them for generating drawings.
>
> cad for 3d is much better. Especially if we look at modelling-focused
> applications. Not only the typical modelling tools are under very active
> development and also commercially available (blender, houdini, maya,
> ...). Also what I would consider 3d cad is developing - a number of
> opencascade projects are in a race towards a solid modeling framework
> including a friendly gui. And while these are all work in progress, they
> already give us an idea on the power we can expect from open source cad
> on linux. Integration with standards is e.g. better even for some
> early-development-codes, then what we experience from commercial
> propietary applications that have been in use for decades. It looks like
> iges- and step-support, 3d-printing and similar stuff is just standard
> for open-source developments. Still - these are work in progress, and
> functionality in drawing, modeling is not really given yet.
>
> But - it points us to the fact that development in open source world
> looks different. When we will have the first big open source cad appear
> one day, it will lack a lot of mainstream features, it will have a rough
> gui, a lot of people complaining about the fact that it does not look
> like Aut0cad. But this is not a limitation - it is the concept of open
> source. People who are happy with the products available use those. It
> is those developers who want something different, who put the big
> efforts into such projects. And thus, we will see lots of rather
> strange, yet powerful features. And than, maybe later, the application
> will get its polish to become mainstream-cad. So I am watching the
> various developmemts of cads which look not very useable for many taks
> yet, but offer strengths where commercial systems fail, with a lot of
> excitement.
>
> Still, I observe what I have been mourning about some years ago. The
> fact that many developer groups start independent projects, making them
> small groups without a critical mass of ressources and little interest
> attracted, weakens development speed. Taken alone the many groups
> basically working on GUIs to form opencascade-based solid modellers, one
> may wonder what these would have achieved bundling their forces. But
> this can still happen.
>
> Cheers, Lars.
--
Jonathan R. Shorie
Systems Administrator
Medina County Sanitary Engineers
791 W Smith Rd
Medina, OH 44256
Phone: (330) 764-8332
Fax: (330) 723-9661
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