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GPL-Licensed QCAD Ported to Mac OS X

Posted by timothy on from the slickness-and-light dept.

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."

10 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Screenie mirror by dema · · Score: 3, Informative

    That screenshot was slashdotted pretty quick. I grabbed it and dropped it here if anyone is having trouble getting it.

  2. Vectorworks, anyone? by zangdesign · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
    1. Re:Vectorworks, anyone? by teh*fink · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree. Vectorworks is an excellent 3D modelling, as is ArchiCAD, which we have been using for about 3 years. Their mac support is excellent and on par with the windows versions. Graphisoft is the only company i know of that releases mac and windows updates side by side.

      --
      "I DARE you to make less sense!"
  3. Re:NonNative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    He's not wrong. Just because this application statically links in QT doesn't mean it doesn't use QT. This is not a Mac OS X application. It doesn't use standard open and save panels. It doesn't use services. It doesn't comply with any of the Aqua Human Interface Guidelines. (They use an Installer package for a single application file, for crissakes!) It doesn't use standard buttons, or windows, or toolbars, or even menus. It's an abortion.

    Oh, also: slower. Than. Ass. I've got a top-of-the-line dual-proc G4, and this program sucks donkey balls.

    In about fifteen minutes, this sucker is going to be up on Perversion Tracker.

  4. Re:NonNative by gerardrj · · Score: 2, Informative

    Statically linked means that the required QT calls are built in to the application instead of dynamically loading Qt from the system installation (it there was one).

    It's like saying "filled baloon, no blowing required", the blowing is included already so you don't need to do it.

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    Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
  5. Re:NonNative by lpontiac · · Score: 4, Informative
    It is not native, it uses QT which uses custom widget

    I'm pretty sure QT on OS X uses the native Aqua widgets, rather than rendering it's own. Ditto for Windows XP (otherwise themes wouldn't work..)

    It's true that on plenty of platforms (Windows prior to XP, Motif, raw X11 etc) that QT does all of it's own drawing and doesn't rely on the native UI for anything more advanced than a window, however that's not true here.

  6. Re:What QCAD really needs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Do you know QCad II ?
    QCad II will use Scripting / Plugins, " Python ".More...
    And...
    Other GPL CAD/CAM software SagCAD "can" use " Ruby ".

  7. Re:NonNative by WatertonMan · · Score: 2, Informative
    WebCore isn't QT. It may share a bit of code, but it is different. The earlier version of QT did have its own widgets. However QT/Mac released last week uses Carbon widgets. It's true it doesn't use Cocoa though.

    KDE Discussion

  8. Re:anybody else noticed ... by ZackSchil · · Score: 1, Informative

    Yup, plain old 10.2.6. Panther's aqua looks like someone ran a gaussian blur on the entire resource file. Also, the Finder has a slightly different icon; the one in the dock in the shot looks like Jag.

  9. MacDraft - worthy low end CAD solution for Mac? by navig · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.