Happy New Year

Happy new year to all!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

New version for ARES CE

A new version of ARES CE for Linux is available. New commands in solid drawing/editing , a new plugin manager, and Voice notes are some of the new features in this version (2011.8.1080). You can download and test this version for free from Graebert's website.

 ARES CE

The new plugin manager.

If you want to buy ARES CE you might be interested on their Christmas offers.

This new version was installed without problems on Ubuntu 11.10 32bit.

Christmas offers from Linux CAD vendors

Graebert and VariCAD have some special Christmas offers for their products. So if you plan  to buy ARES CE or VariCAD this is the right moment. Varicad has a 20% discount until December 28, so you can buy VariCAD for 399€ (Normal price 499€) or VariCAD with one year upgrade for 479€ (Normal price 599€).
Graebert's ARES CE  now costs 395€ instead of 795€.

The true multiarch support

Ubuntu 11.10 came with multiarch support, a feature that makes easier the installation of 32bit apps in a 64bit OS. However this feature isn't yet implemented correctly and the installation of 32bit apps in Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit is a nightmare.
Another distro with multiarch support is OpenSuse. OpenSuse provides excellent multiarch support. I have tested the installation of the first beta version of DraftSight on OpenSuse 11.4 64bit and it was installed without any issues.
However, after the release of OpenSuse 12.1 I was curious to test the current 3rd Beta of DraftSight with the new 64bit OpenSuse.
I installed OpenSuse 12.1 64bit GNOME version via VirtualBox. I downloaded DraftSight.rpm and tried to install it. With the first attempt I got an error. A dependency couldn't be found. That happened because DraftSight depends on a library that isn't included in the official OpenSuse repositories. However, the solution is extremely simple. You just have to enable the Packman repository. This repository ( it's similar to the Medibuntu repository) contains extra software that isn't included for licensing reasons. After that step DraftSight was installed automatically, without problems,  simply by double clicking on the DraftSight.rpm package from your file manager.

 The warning message for the unsatisfied dependency.

After enabling the Packman repository, everything is fine.

New release for TeighaViewer

A new version (3.5.1) of TeighaViewer is available for download from here. This version comes with various improvements and a new properties pallete. It continues  having printing and font issues but it's an excellent tool for viewing dwg, dxf and dgn files on Linux. This version was installed without any problems on Ubuntu 11.10 32bit.

An unexpected solution for 3D dwg files

One of the biggest problems in computing is data sharing, meaning how to share your data between different programs. Especially if you work with CAD you need to share your geometry with raster image processors (GIMP,Krita etc.), vector graphics applications (Inkscape,Karbon, etc), 3D graphics programs (Blender,Wings 3D etc) or FEA software (Salome,Elmer,Gmsh,  etc). Proprietary formats make data sharing extremely hard.

Some tweaks for DraftSight on Ubuntu 11.10

Despite its BETA status DraftSight for Linux  is enough stable and mature for productivity work. In this post I will show you some tweaks in order to make your life easier.

VariCAD 2012-1.03 for Linux

VariCAD is a 2D/3D CAD application, that has been shipping Linux versions for over a decade. It is a powerful application, quite different than other CAD programs, with a lot of interesting features.

Playing with FreeCAD: Trapezoids and Ribs

FreeCAD is an application  whose development I have been watching closely since I first learned about it. What I like on FreeCAD?

• It is Free and Open Source Software.
• It's a feature-based parametric solid modeler. I actually believe that this kind of modeling is the best way to create complex 3D entities.
• FreeCAD has its own workflow without trying to mimic the way that other similar applications work.

FreeCAD is under active development and currently is on Alpha stage(FreeCAD's development team decided recently to remove the "Alpha" status from FreeCAD).
But despite the missing features it can create complex geometry thanks to its Sketcher which is a very good tool.