CAD on GNU/Linux
One of the most important problems that GNU/Linux users encountered when they wanted to migrate from Windows was that there were no professional CAD software on this architecture.
Of course, when we talk about “CAD software” we are talking about AutoCAD. All engineering students use this program to design their buildings. But AutoCAD does not work on GNU. I was trying to install it one year ago and finally it was possible just to install AutoCAD 2000, and it did not work really well.
I have been trying installing AutoCAD on a virtual machine (on virtualbox). Even it works well without any bug, there is a rendering problem. A virtual machine can not provide the correct render acceleration, so when AutoCAD is running on it, mouse pointer moves faster than autocad pointer (it seems that the pointer on the application tryes to follow the mouse pointer).
What about free software?. Free CAD software is so limited and it is not professional software. There is an interesting webpage where are listed all CAD applications known on GNU but the most part are stopped projects or limited applicactions.
So, is there a CAD solution on GNU/Linux?. Yes, and its name is BricsCAD.
BricsCAD is compatible with AutoCAD and the GUI is quite close to Autocad’s interface. One or two years ago the company decided to make it compatible with GNU/Linux and there was a version that could be installed without any problems and it worked really fine.
But now we don’t really now if linux development was stopped. However, Windows version can be installed on GNU and the program still work fine. It’s quite simple to install it:
1. Go to the official website and download the windows version (it’s v8)
2. Install wine on your GNU distribution
3. Open a terminal and run:
wine BricscadClassic-V8.2.8-1-en_US.exe
It is possible that the terminal will show some errors, but there’s no problem: the installer will start and you’ll be able to install bricscad on you linux system. I have been trying it and, for the moment, it works really fine.
- Link | CAD software on GNU/Linux
- Download | BricsCAD v8
there is a program put out by IntelliCad called ProgeCad. I have used it and found it very good and much less expensive than AutoCad. Also, it is compatible with Linux. I had 2 computers, one loaded with AutoCad and one with ProgeCad and found that I was able to send and receive my drawings between the two with no problems. I could open them and revise them with no problem in either direction.