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hrmmmm again there are linux replacements for Autocad. Not sure about the controlling software. Thats a specialized case though that many businesses in America don't need to worry about.

http://www.linuxcad.com/
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/
http://www.adina.com/
http://www.lx-office.com/LX/products/architektur/i ndex.html/

So far the only responses to my question seem to be making the mistake that industry standard software means irreplaceable software. That's not what I asked though. Still waiting for someone to name a windows business app that doesn't have a working linux replacement.

Is this helpful to you, or have I misunderstood the question?

QCAD

• CAE Linux - A LiveCD which lets you try out SALOME and Code-Aster
• Quanitan - A LiveCD with QCad,
• Impact - Finite element
• QCad - 2D CAD
• BRL-CAD - 3D CAD
• Open CASCADE - software development platform for 3D CAD, CAM, CAE, etc.
• Code_Aster - FEM
• Salome - pre/post processing

I don't know about pricing... maybe that's for support, as qcad is GPLed.

$ rpm -qi qcad (edited to get around slashdot's lame lameness filter)
Name : qcad
Version : 2.0.4.0
Build Host: extras64.linux.duke.edu
Source RPM: qcad-2.0.4.0-2.src.rpm
License: GPL
URL : http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
Summary : A simple 2D CAD program
Description :
QCad is an application for computer aided drafting in two
dimensions. With QCad you can create technical drawings such as plans
for buildings, interiors or mechanical parts. QCad works under Linux,
Unix Systems, Mac OS X and Windows. The source code of QCad is
released under the GPL (Open Source).

I have been doing CNC work for a few years now, mostly freelance. Drawing tool paths for business signs, reproducing parts for farm equipment, some wood craft items and writing software to do the simple stuff; generating and post processing g-code and talking to controllers.
You might want to check out QCad, it is GPL'd CAD/CAM software with g-code support and it only costs a few hundred dollars.
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
(no affiliation)

Check these sites out:

http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm
http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html

The package I like to use is QCad:

http://www.ribbonsoft.com/

Even though it's source is GPLed, I think there is a fee for commercial use ($28 which is pretty much free)

Give it a try...

Check out qcad. I use it for all my CNC work now. It is commercial software, but licenced under GPL. Yes, it reads DXF.

I use Gimp to do what most people do with Photoshop: General Image Manipulations.
I am not a Photographer or a full-time Graphics Designer (although I love hand-drawing and designing Logos)
What I don't like about Photoshop is not the software itself but the OS : modal windows.

Gimp (and most apps in Linux) - you have that freedom of floating dialog boxes instead of Modal-windows; so you can get under it.

The general averseness with Gimp is twofold:

1. People are way too accustomed to Photoshop and unlearning stuff is short of painful.
2. Gimp on Windows/Cygwin sucks sucks badly. And sadly that is Windows-users gain their first impressions of the software.

In Gimp if you are stuck - right click (navigate the menu from thereon to do almost anything).
Gimp is definitely better what it used to be (I abhored the 1.x versions), and not that sub-standard in comparison to Photoshop.
I don't deny however that Photoshop itself is an extremely professional state-of-the-art software and that in many fronts it still beats Gimp (as I keep hearing: CMYK / Pantone profiles).
But there is much more to Gimp than people are vaguely aware.

For me its refreshing and exciting the whole evolutionary (if not revolutionary) process. Sure many Linux-ported applications are still sub-par in contrast to Windows-only:

Photogenics, MainActor, QCad / LinuxCad

Some got the timing wrong and had to pull-out as Linux wasn't popular then: NetObjects Fusion for Linux and MusicMatch Jukebox.
Others were bullied by the Microsoft lobby: most notably games.
While others still support a Linux version to this date: Maya Complete and Mathematica (way too expensive I rather settle for the free Blender, Octave and Pov-Ray)

Which leads us to the Open Source:

The were have a vast library of resources just to cater for the Designer.
But sadly we got tired and old in learning new stuff.

I cannot comment on the world of Mac. Which should be more user-oriented than developer-oriented; a means to an end as you stated.

While Microsoft itself - is a damn pain in the arse. People are stucked with it for lock-in reasons including proprietory formats - that is how they bred so many software houses writing apps just for it.
Rebooting, desinfecting - recovering corrupted documents is a hassle any business and I could do without. And so .. I resist.

Use Mac / Use Linux / but using Microsoft = very unwise.

Man
The company is German !!
Just write to them and they will port it.
I mean its one country that port their software to Linux easily without a fuss:

SoftMaker
MainConcept
RibbonSoft

QCad

QCad is probably the closest thing to AutoCAD LT that you will find for Linux. It has a nice easy-to-use interface, seems mathematically correct, and is still under active development. Most Linux distros offer it as a binary package; i.e. apt-get install qcad or emerge qcad.

Other currently usable engineering type tools which you may or may not be aware of are:

• Blender3D - You probably heard of this
• FElt - Open Source Finite Elements Program

What needs to happen is these tools should all be made to interact now. Draft your model in BRL-CAD (or Blender), run FEA on it using FElt, and then import views into QCad to dimension and plot out hardcopies. Some nice tight integration between these packages would be great.

I use both Qcad, and Varicad for my personal drafting. But when my personal distro choice (Gentoo), wasn't supported by Varcad. I just emerged RPM, and installed the Fedora2 RPM. Everything has worked fine. So I tried a couple more. And Guess what?

It seems as long as the dependancies are correct, they just seem to work. Go figure

So, where's the Free CAD drafting program?

Scientific Applications on Linux

The site lists both free and commerical applications.

For a drafting program, I would recommend QCad which is a nice GPL 2D drafting package. Unfortunatly I am not aware of any GPL 3D drafting programs which are either robust or mature enough for industrial use. Periodically I attempt to get TurboCad running under Wine, but while it seems to be getting closer to working, still no success yet.

Don't overlook the Python Programming Language which has a variety of extensions which make it very suitable for number crunching applications. Its is fairly easy to learn how to make GUI-based applications for specialized purposes, and its speed of development combined with robust error-checking and interpreted execution mode makes it ideal for implementing small engineering solutions.