On 06/25/2014 02:40 PM, zxq9 wrote: > On Wednesday 25 June 2014 13:29:05 you wrote: >> Hi All, >> >> I occasionally need to do some drafting. About >> 25 years ago I knew AutoCad somewhat. Currently, >> I need to do some minor landscape architecture. >> >> On research, I am finding four Open Source alternatives: >> FreeCAD >> QCad Community Edition >> Archimedes >> BRL-CAD >> >> Each seems to have it points. >> >> Have you guys used any of these and do you have an >> opinion on them? (It may come down to who has RPMs.) > > FreeCAD > Not familiar with this. > > LibreCAD (not QCad) > LibreCAD should replace QCad for all intents and purposes. It was a fork of > QCad that has grown into something much more interesting. I used to package > it, but haven't had time to work on LibreCAD or packaging for a long time (so > my existing packages which would work on SL6 are way out of date). Anyway, > installing it from source (or packaging it) was a snap on Fedora 14 and still > should be rather easy. > > Archimides > Not familiar with this. > > BRL-CAD > Great, but probably not for what you're interested in. Its real focus is 3D > simulation, not just drawings. With things like LibreCAD the control language > (which is scheme-based in LibreCAD, very similar to AutoDesk's 2D) and the GUI > tools are given equal weight. In BRL-CAD there is a gui, but its pretty obtuse > compared to the absolute and fine control granted by writing in the control > language. BRL-CAD is not a trivial system to get into; very steep learning > curve with a very high payoff. More of a career descision than something you'd > get rolling with over a weekend. This is the killer app for people interested > in "3D simulations for engineering, not art". > > OpenSCAD > Another great 3D tool, but whereas BRL-CAD excels at simulation and is more > complex for it, OpenSCAD is focused on making shapes and drawings and is > accordingly simpler. It relies entirely on the control language, but is *much* > easier to get started with than BRL-CAD. This one feel complicated at first, > but it turns out to be something you can get working in a weekend. Most folks > I know in the OpenSCAD community use it to create neat things to pass to 3D > printers or creating very early prototype models. Its language has awkward > areas (going back to a scheme-based language would do wonders here...) but its > easy to get started on and there are loads of online examples, quick-start > tutorials and shape libraries. If you need 3D this is where I would start (or > Blender, see below). > > Blender > If you're going the 3D route anyway and you want pretty colors and things, and > you don't like the idea of being forced to learn a control language then this > is probably your best bet. Camera perspective in a GUI drawing tool is always > something annoying to mess with, but Blender has a surprising number of tricks > available to make this easier -- but you won't discover them until you've made > a few drawings and gotten used to the environment. This is sort of the killer > app for people interested in "3D art, not simulations for engineering". I'm > pretty sure this is in EPEL. > > Of the projects's I'm personally familiar with, LibreCAD probably suits your > needs best. 3D is a whole new world of complexity that just doesn't tend to > benefit people as much as the think, especially when the actual use-case is > creating digital blueprints (as opposed to creating an ooh-aah game or movie > scene -- which lacks any way to meter or measure for use by a worker on-site > who need to know where to plant his shovel). > > There are other projects, these are just the ones you either mentioned or I am > familiar with personally. Hope you find something useful! > Thank you! What do you think of this spin? http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/23356724/dir/redhat_el_6/com/librecad-2.0.0rc1.git20130625-2.1.x86_64.rpm.html