lithgow-schmidt.dk

What's the status of CAD on linux? How can you import and export your CAD drawings to your Linux computer?

Here's my story so far... I'm a keen user of Linux, Ubuntu since it came on the scene. I'm also trained as an architect and building technician. So good quality CAD application for the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) industries is important to me. So here's what I've found and in some cases been involved in:

• Wikipedia now has an improving Comparison of CAD editors for AEC
• It looks like the BRL-CAD geometric modeling kernel is something which other apps could build on.

There are heaps of Linux-CAD project which are hardly started or not yet out of beta:

• PythonCAD looks like it has a limited interface, and hasn't seen an update since May 2006
• SagCAD hasn't seen an update since November 2007. Although the interface looks quite comprehensive I couldn't get it to run last time I tried.

As for commercial CAD applications on Linux the options are somewhat better.

• A variety of IntelliCAD based applications run on Linux
  • VariCAD runs well on my Ubuntu machine
  • BricsCAD is said to run well (not for me) and it a good AutoCAD clone

Useful lists:

• http://linuxwiki.de/LinuxCad

Anyway, I'll just keep using this page to keep my findings and notes on.

 Duncan