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GPL-Licensed QCAD Ported to Mac OS X
AlwaysTimeForCoffee writes "QCad, a free open-source 2D CAD system for Linux, various Unices and Windows, from RibbonSoft, has been ported to a native OS X version by Gilbert Duivesteijn. A screenshot of the OS X version can be found here. Qcad is a light, GPL'd version of the commercial available CAM Expert. It truely is an outstanding program and has earned 5 out of 5 Penguins on Tucow's Linuxberg and IceWalker review. With this native OS X release, a commercial quality CAD system has been made available to the Apple community."
It truely is an outstanding program and has earned 5 out of 5 Penguins on Tucow's Linuxberg and IceWalker review
You mean 5 out of 5 penguins use it? Get me one baby!
It is not native, it uses QT which uses custom widgets so it is slow, a native would use Cocoa (or maybe Carbon) libraries and almost no custom widgets.
...a CAD package for OS X that I can afford! :-)
-psy
Select "Preferences..." under the QCad menu. You get the "Print..." dialog.
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
I've read tucows only does reviews of software from companies that pay them to review it. who paid?
That screenshot was slashdotted pretty quick. I grabbed it and dropped it here if anyone is having trouble getting it.
I'd love to use apple workstations, but they need to get out there and make some sells to the big names - someone has to listen, because I am sick of paying mad money to buy overpriced Sun crap to run EDA tools because there's not much choice for >4GB workstations, and sick of bugs in Windows versions of software.. and I want Unix, damnit!
QCad. I'm sure it's a nice package. But 2D? That's so 1980's. Apple should get some hot sales reps over to some big names.. an open source package being made to run (non native) isn't worthy of news.
How about any one of the following, that would immediately justify the purchase of a G5 for me.. although I'll break down eventually, ha. These would be news:
On the mech front:
Solidworks
AutoCAD
Pro/Engineer
UniGraphics
On the EE front:
Synopsys Anything
Cadence Anything
Hell even OrCAD..
Mentor Graphics Anything..
Come on, apple! The memory limit is gone, so get some big guys on board.
..don't panic
Autodesk is considering porting Autocad if they receive sufficient indication of interest - it was a big enough deal to make Apple's news page. A Google search might turn something up. Here's what I could find:
2 -a cad-update.phtml
http://www.architosh.com/news/2003-05/2003c-051
For ghod's sake, use Quartz!
The screen shot looks like an X-Windows nightmare. Jaggies, jaggies everywhere!
I feel like I just stepped back to a few years ago, before those abominations were eliminated by OSX.
You can't even drag the main window when preferences is open.
Vectorworks has had a Mac-based CAD solution since the mid-90's. It started with Minicad and now it's called Vectorworks. No, it's not free, but it's also not 2D and it is a native Carbon/Cocoa app.
If you want to do serious work, get real tools.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
... that the guy actually took the screenshot on the Panther WWDC preview ??
Music is the language of the heart, the sound of the soul. -Joe Satriani
I have used AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop for many years and the biggest thing QCAD is missing in my opinion is keyboard macros. This is what made AutoCAD entry very fast for me. For example, you might first press 'L' for drawing a line. Then it asks for a starting point. Since features must me precisely placed, you must give exact coordinates or snap to an existing feature. So now you might press 'X' to enter cartision coordinates or 'P' for polar coordinates. Then it might ask you for the second point. You could snap to an existing feature. For example your press 'T' for tangent to an arc or circle or 'L' for parallel to another line. Once a good macro set is developed and you practice it, it is almost like typing on a word processor. The toolbars and menus should still be there by they should only be to help the beginner learn.
But the UI should be more Aquafied.
ThinkSecret posted an article about this back in May... Eric Stover from AutoDesk is interested in receiving email from people interested in a port of AutoCAD to OS X... According to the story, you can email him here (be sure to include "AutoCAD for OS X" in the subject line). He'll send you a survey which takes a few minutes to fill out... Even though I'm a student who can't afford the full version of AutoCAD, I filled it out anyway. Send it in and hope for the best!
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
You could always try Microspot's MacDraft package. Its history dates back to the very first Macs and it is now a true native Mac OS X application (Carbonised). It is fairly powerful for a budget CAD package.
Microspot MacDraft - it even loads AutoCAD files :-)
Higher end CAD users should look towards Nemetschek's VectorWorks.
So, there's this guy walking on ice and he views two cows on a Linuxberg (is that some kind of an iceberg?) and five penguins are sitting on them? Would that be three on one and two on the other one?
Sounds quite psychedelic to me...what were we talking about? Er, forget it.
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
I tried to post the survey that I received from AutoCAD, but Slashdot gives me this error:
Lameness filter encountered.
Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition. Comment aborted.
Speaking for the unwashed multitudes, whatever it is, it won't do anything for me without a CAM package 'cause machining is how I earn my living. Now that I'm in the process of upgrading Pro/E, I've got to get another box to replace the Dec Alpha/NT 4.0. How feasible would it be to boot Yellow Dog Linux on a Powermac and run the Linux version of Pro/E?
Me thinks that this is only to see how many people have pirated the beta in one way or another. I mean, this Panther release must be one of the most distributed Mac OS X developer seeded releases yet (a wild guess by me, but I think it's quite accurate) and at the same time they release a patch for it which they have NOT done with their previous seeds. Coincidence? I think not.
Flame me for being paranoid, but things like these are just too big to be small.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
Great program. I used the X11 version of this to do a quick layout of my new house. I have to say, it was easiest to use of the free/lowcost options out there. Not perfect, but good enough for me.
Glad to see a native OS X version of this, yes, it would be nice if it were Carbon or Cocoa, but for free I won't complain. For those that do complain, the source code is just sitting out there, feel free to roll up your sleeves and make it Carbon/Cocoa!