Kent A. Reed wrote: > Gentle persons: > > I quite understand the desire to find CAD software that (1) is free as > in beer and (2) runs directly in Linux. I yield to no one in my ardor > for open source in general and GNU/Linux in particular. As I grow older, > however, I find that pragmatism is overtaking idealism. With respect to > CAD, two other characteristics are becoming paramount: (1) how easy is > it for me to use a particular program without fuss and bother to design > precise mechanical parts and (2) how easy is it for me to extract the > design in a usable format. With respect to these characteristics, and > especially the latter, I have blown hot and cold over various > open-source CAD applications. > > Let me discuss a alternative that is not open source but can be free to > the user. > > In the MS Windows domain, there is a very competent commercial 3D solid > modeller called Alibre Design, for which there is a free lite version > called Alibre Design Express (see http://www.alibre.com for details). In > the years before I retired, I was an early adopter of Alibre Design to > create some mechanical parts and assemblies in an underfunded project > because the package was much less expensive than its competitors like > SolidWorks, SolidEdge, ProEngineer, or Autodesk Inventor for similar > features. The free Alibre Design Express has some restrictions, of > course, but it retains the good user interface and the ability to export > 3D models in well-known formats like IGES, SAT, and STEP that can be > post-processed easily. (For that matter, if you've got the $$, Alibre > has recently released a companion CAM package and also a woodworking > package. They also have various offers for "at home" use of their > non-free packages that I haven't explored.) > > I run Alibre Design Express on a Windows XP box to design parts. I > haven't tried to run it over WINE on a Linux box, but then the el-cheapo > boxes I have running Linux have neither the horsepower or the graphics > capability needed anyway. Although my Windows XP box is reasonably well > equipped and set up to dual boot into several different Linux > distributions, it seems pointless to try running Alibre Design Express > within a virtual Windows XP environment in Linux for the obvious reason > that it's already running fine in Windows XP. Naturally, your situation > may be entirely different but if you haven't tried this product I think > you should. > > Regards, > Kent > > > PS - Leaving aside its user interface, SALOME GEOM has very good data > import/export capability because it was intended to support > "interoperability between CAD modeling and computation software," its > internal geometry functions are excellent, and, wonder of wonders, it > exposes all its functions via a Python API, so I'm thinking seriously > about how I could use it for script-driven as opposed to gui-driven > design. Alibre Design and its commercial competitors expose a good deal > of their functionality using MS Windows technologies such as COM and > .NET, so one could drive them via Python as well, but somehow that's not > as alluring to me. > > PPS - FreeCAD (no, not that one, the other one; see > http://juergen-riegel.net/FreeCAD/Docu/index.php?title=Main_Page) might > become the open-source 3D modeling application of choice, but it's still > very early in its development and many claimed features appear to be > planned rather than actual. The home page is peppered with phrases like > "will have..." and "will be...." > > PPPS - I have no connection with Alibre or any other CAD-application > provider. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge > Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes > Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world > http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > haha
"I find that pragmatism is overtaking idealism." i wear a button that says "My karma ran over my dogma" (pushing 60 and not so idealistic now) regards TomP craigslist.com.tw/apa/882357191.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
