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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."

6 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. NonNative by norwoodites · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. 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.

  2. It's a bit buggy... by Green+Light · · Score: 5, Funny

    Select "Preferences..." under the QCad menu. You get the "Print..." dialog.

    --
    "Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
  3. Apple needs to attract some CAD companies by xtal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  4. Autocad and OS X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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:

    http://www.architosh.com/news/2003-05/2003c-0512 -a cad-update.phtml

  5. and the moral is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For ghod's sake, use Quartz!

    The screen shot looks like an X-Windows nightmare. Jaggies, jaggies everywhere!