Blender is heaven, almost CAD for movie makers (VLC), but not what I want for Mechanical engineering where simple consistent engineering sketches – finite elements simulation – draftsman ready output and the tools for the draftsman; shop ready drawings, bills of material, shipping, cost calculation, and vendor choices are required. Linux with its 64-bit multiprocessor lead in Data Base, Super Computing and Server applications, could with a clear economics of scale become the host for a powerful future Cad.

Bricsys announced the beta version of Bricscad V10 for Linux. Now it finally becomes available as a native Linux version. Initially, Bricscad will support two Linux flavors, Red Hat and Ubuntu. The first commercial version will be released at the end of June, 2010.

You can download the beta version at www.bricsys.com

CAD basically means parametric modeling with NURBS, for those who knows what NURBS is;).

..and there’s not a single app that has even basic NURBS tools in the free software domain.

There is ongoing work, though, and we’ll get there eventually.

Today, heavy NURBS development occurs in apps like K3d, Ayam and BRL-CAD.

K3d and Ayam are not aiming for pure CAD functionality like BRL-CAD, but the more NURBS development, the faster we get there.

Also, there is a handy linux distro called “caelinux” (google it) that let you try out many CAD apps for linux without installing.

Isao

If you want Solidworks for Linux, you need to send them a snail-mail letter:
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/contact-information.htm

If you want to help Linux adoption overcome the chicken-egg scenario, then write to these two companies and help them realize the potential Linux market. If we do not express interest in their products, how will they know that demand even exists?

QCad is a great program that has all the functionality I would ever require as a hobbyist, or as a professional. I use it to generate both part drawings, and assembly drawings. I have never encountered a situation where I could not complete a design with QCad. However, there really is no comparison to AutoCad as far as efficiency. I am an experienced user of both, and it takes about twice as long to draw up a complicated part in QCad as it does in AutoCad. As the complexity of the part decreases, so does the difference in design time. A fairly simple part could probably be designed in about the same amount of time with either one. QCad is a little more cumbersome to work with, and it is not quite as intuitive. But for what it is, it is an excellent package!

FreeCAD is to SolidWorks what QCad is to AutoCad, but at a much earlier stage.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page
The FreeCAD project is being built on a solid foundation. The version I use doesn’t have a front end to speak of, but I am sure that once the core is complete the front end will be the next major step. It has most of the tools required for basic 3D design. I doubt it could ever rival SolidWorks, but for a lower end package that gets the job done, FreeCAD can’t be beat.

BricsCAD (the old version) uses WINE (but was deliberately optimized for it). The new version is in the making which promises real Linux compatibility (using wxWidgets for GUI). And OSX further down the line.

Blender et al are not CAD. You can not draft, there is no real 2D (hatching, dimensions, text, etc…), the 3D is polygonal, while “real” CAD 3D modeling should at least support proper Boolean operations and preferably decent NURBS modeling and editing.

OpenCASCADE is promising to be used as the basis for a “real” Linux CAD system, but so far there are only some attempts to use if for a full Open Source CAD system. Even OpenCASCADE itself, although Open Source, doesn’t use a typical GPL or alike license, which can prevent some to use it.

Although there have been some attempts for Open Source CAD applications, I would rather see an Open Source Building Information Modeling (BIM) application, rivaling ArchiCAD and Revit. But none of the real BIM applications is running on Linux. And if they ever do, they won’t be Open Source.

Right now, it looks like Bricscad is the best bet.. the version they now offer for Linux is old and weak, but they – supposedly – are going to issue a Linux version of their current product. Sometime.

If so, it would be a capable substitute for AutoCad.

I would use it over Autocad having used both I can
say Varicad works fine and many
mechanical pieces came back
perfect first time

Doug

Did you try OpenCascade-based CAD programs for Linux ? A good start is the SALOME platform, at www.salome-platform.org (which is also intended for pluging physics simulation tools).
SALOME has a 3D CAD module, which can import or export STEP and IGES data, and can be scripted using Python.

You may find other programs which build just on the CAD parts of OpenCascade (http://www.opencascade.org/), such as FreeCad (http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page), which is still in Alpha Stage, but seems to be under active developpement.

http://linuxmadeasy.blogspot.com/2009/09/dwg-cad-in-linux.html
http://linuxmadeasy.blogspot.com/2009/09/linux-for-engineering-pratical-case.html

As for people defining “what exactly is CAD”, you just have to look at the name: Computer Aided Design. If your computer is helping you design something, then that is CAD. Most design tools tend to be specific to certain industries, and CAD is no exception to that rule. Thus, each niche industry has their accepted favourite packages. This is a problem for linux in all niche computing areas — inertia implies that the newcomer has a lot of work to do.