DraftSight V1R5.2 fixes localization bug

DraftSight V1R5.2 is out and the important news are that now Linux users can open their files normally without worrying if the path contains any non-English characters. Finally after six months of waiting, DraftSight Linux users can expect normal functionality when they try  to open their files.

You can download DraftSight V1R5.2 from here. As usually 32 bit .deb and .rpm files are available.

Teigha Viewer and Teigha File Converter have been upated to v4.00

Teigha Viewer an Teigha File Converter the official tools from ODA for viewing and converting dwg files have been updated to v4.00. The big news for this release is the availability of these two interesting apps for android devices. As usual ODA provides 32bit-only .deb and .rpm packages but you can easily install them without modifications on a 64bit system.

You can download them from ODA's website. Both applications are available without any charge.

DraftSight V1R5.1 is out.

An update for DraftSight, the popular free DWG based CAD from Dassault Systemes, is now available. V1R5.1 comes with no major changes and unfortunately doesn't fix the bug with non-English characters.

BricsCAD V14 for Linux is out !!!

Today Bricsys announced the availability of BricsCAD V14 for Linux. This new release has a lot of new features and improvements.

DraftSight V1R5 is out with a lot of changes

DraftSight V1R5 has been released and its Linux version has some significant changes.
Most important of all is the change of the package name and the new locations of files and folders.

ARES CE gets a new major upgrade but...

Graebert released a new major upgrade for the ARES CE dwg-based CAD program. This new version comes with major changes and as the company claims it also has performance improvements. Unfortunately, the Linux version is garbage. It's impossible to run the software under Linux and in some cases even the installation isn't possible . I spent a lot of time trying different combinations of software and hardware. I tried Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit and 13.10 32bit with both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, with or without proprietary drivers, without any success at all. I also tried various workarounds but probably this is a problematic Linux release of ARES CE. It seems that Linux users have to wait for a fixed version in order to run the new release and test its new features under their favorite OS.

RibbonSoft released QCAD 3.4

A new version of QCAD has been released a few days ago. This new version contains some new features, like a new view mode and support for custom properties. Any Linux users that are interested in trying this CAD application, can download QCAD here. QCAD 3.4 will work just fine in any modern Linux distro.

DraftSight V1R3.2 is available for download!

The last few days a new release of DraftSight has been available for download.
V1R3.2 doesn't introduce any new features. It's a quality, bug-fixing release only.
You can download it for free and use it for free after a simple registration.
As usual, only 32bit installers are available for Linux users (both .deb and .rpm).

FreeCAD 0.13 is now stable

FreeCAD 0.13 is now the latest stable release of FreeCAD. This version has a lot of improvements and  a new Ubuntu PPA for stable releases.

• Release Notes
• Complete changelog
• Ubuntu Stable PPA

FreeCAD is an Open Source Parametric Solid Modeler. It has excellent community support, modular architecture and it's fully programmable via Python.

DraftSight V1R3.1 is now available !

Dassault released today an updated version for DraftSight. This new V1R3.1 version fixes 2 bugs in fonts:

- The display of .ttf fonts in model and paper space.
- The PDF export of .shx fonts (Capital E letter problem)

As usual 32bit only .deb and .rpm files are available.

If you experience any problems with the download page try the direct links provided in this post.

BricsCAD V13 for Linux is now available!

Bricsys has released today the new BricsCAD V13 for Linux.

New version for ARES CE

Graebert released an updated version for ARES CE. This new version comes with various new tools and fixes. A complete changelog is available here.
As usually .deb, .rpm and tar.gz versions are available for testing with or without registration (some features like saving and printing are not available in the unregistered version).
Unfortunately there is no native 64bit Linux version yet.
Also a special offer is valid until January 5th 2013 so you can buy ARES CE at the discounted price of 495€.

How to fix BricsCAD's segfault on Ubuntu 12.10

BricsCAD V12 doesn't work correctly on the new Ubuntu 12.10.
The problem is that BricsCAD V12 doesn't operate well  with the version of libfreetype that is installed by default on Ubuntu 12.10. This problem can be fixed by copying a working version of this library into BricsCAD's LD_PRELOAD path.

DraftSight V1R3 is available for Download

An updated version of DraftSight (v1R3) is available. This version has some new functionality for easy creation of Revision Clouds but it has also a problem with the display of .ttf fonts. You can download this version here. As usual both .rpm and .deb files are available but for 32bit Linux only.

How to install Bricscad V11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Bricscad V11 has a syntax problem in the description field of the .deb file. This problem causes a failure during the upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 but it also makes the installer unusable in clean installations of Ubuntu 12.04. The fix is quite simple and similar to the DraftSight on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit workaround.
You have to edit the control file inside the .deb installer. Here is the complete workaround:

DraftSight V1R2 is out but it's broken

A new version of DraftSight has been released but it's completely unusable with the new Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. The application seems broken and I get a segmentation fault when I try to launch it. Sometimes the application opens but pull down menus and toolbars are missing. I'll try to investigate if there is any way to fix that but I don't expect any solution about this.
Ubuntu 12.04 users have to be careful with this. Don't upgrade if you don't have a copy of the previous DraftSight V1R1.4 installer.

DraftSight V1R2 on Ubuntu 12.04. Disaster!!!

Update: DraftSight V1R2 doesn't have any GUI problems with CentOS 6.2 32bit, OpenSUSE 12.1 64bit and Ubuntu 12.04 64bit ???!!!(All these are VirtualBox installations). On my Ubuntu 12.04 32bit installation I finally got back the toolbars but the pull-down menus are still missing.

Update 2: Finally I got a working DraftSight V1R2 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32bit. The problem is that DS tries to load missing or invalid CUI and Menu files when your system locale is not English.
To get a correct looking DraftSight you have to:
- type options on the command  line and navigate to File Locations--->Interface--->Customization File and then load the correct application.xml file. Save the changes

This will make the toolbars visible again.

After that:

-right click on a toolbar and select Customize Interface
Navigate to UI Profiles--->UI Profiles--->Menu Bar, then click to the button show menu explorer and then drag 'n' drop all the items into the Classic default entry. Save the changes again.

Finally DraftSight looks OK again

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New release for VariCAD

A new version of VariCAD has been released. According to the release announcement there are various new features and improvements:

This version contains new methods of profiles lofting and extrusions, more options for 2D drawing in 3D space, support of ISO228 pipe threads and improvements of 2D threads exported from 3D views. In 2D, the new version has rebuild layer management. There are further significant improvements in user interface. 

List of new features:

 - Multiple new possibilities of lofting of profiles 

- New options of profile extrusions, improvements in other methods of basic solid creation 

- New methods of 2D profile selection, including better diagnosis of problems 

- New possibilities of 2D drawing in 3D space 

- Support of ISO228 pipe threads 

- New methods of selections of 3D edges for blending 

- New 2D layer management 

- Additional options for data exports from BOM 

- Further improvements in user interface

The release announcement has also a more comprehensive description of the new features:

- Multiple new possibilities of lofting of profiles - allows you to loft one profile into another, without limitations given by type of profile segments 

- New options for profile extrusion, support of draft angle 

- Improved method of creation of helical surfaces and creation of rotation combined with lofting 

- New methods of 2D profile selection, including better diagnosis of problems. This allows you to easily detect forgotten overlaps, gaps, intersections etc. 

- New possibilities of 2D drawing in 3D space. You can comfortably draw a profile at a selected plane and then select method of solid creation, like profile extrusion, lofting, rotation etc. 

- Support of ISO228 pipe threads, and better option for thread selections. Threads exported from 3D into 2D are automatically detected during dimensioning. 

- New methods of selections of 3D edges for blending. You can select multiple edges, or optionally edges of entire outlines. Before blending, selected edges are sorted automatically. 

- New 2D layer management. This contains a possibility to modify automatic layer switching. 

- Improvements in user interface - new multiple options for dialog panel buttons, for solid translations or for 3D view rotations. Some panels are changed to be more legible. 

- Multiple new selection methods are available between commands. Press and hold Shift for edges selection or press and hold Ctrl + Shift for drawing plane selection. 

- New default settings for icons size. The icon size is now automatically determined according to screen resolution. There are new toolbar configurations, now different for small icon size and large icon size. 

- Additional options for data exports from BOM. You can optionally export headers, or to select text file formats and encoding.

VariCAD 2012-2.03 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

VariCAD provides .deb and .rpm installers for both 32bit and 64bit. Free trial versions are available after registration at application's website.

 

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and .dwg-based CAD

After the installation of the new Ubuntu 12.04 LTS I tested the installation of all the available .dwg based CAD applications.

Highlights of Bricscad V12 Linux: Screenshot tour

Fully editable tables can be created or imported from csv files.

Here is a test file created with LibreOffice Calc 

 Editing the above table

 Flatshot command creates 2D profiles from 3D solids in model space

 The Quad cursor in action for easy and fast 3D direct modelling

The Solprof command is similar to Flatshot but in paper space

Hatch wipeout!

Refedit allows to edit xref's directly

 With this command you can: select which entity of the xref you want to edit and lock the others, 
add/remove entities to set,draw new geometry, save/discard changes

 Livesections in action

Bricscad V12 for Linux is out!

Today Bricsys has released the final V12 version of Bricscad for Linux.
This release includes many fixes and new features such as direct modelling, 2D and 3D parametric constraints, realistic rendering via RedSDK and more ( a full changelog is available here).
Bricscad V12 for Linux is a powerful and affordable application that can reduce the cost of a CAD workstation significantly . Combined with the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which will come with a 5-years support period, it can be a reliable long time solution for anyone, not only current Linux users.
Bricscad V12 for Linux comes in 3 versions:

• Classic (2D only with LISP)
• Pro (plus 3D, direct modelling, realistic rendering, BRX)
• Platinum (plus 3D constraints and design intent capturing)

As usual 30-days trial version is available after registration

The installation on Ubuntu 11.10 32bit was fast and trouble-free. However the new features and especially the real-time realistic rendering need more powerful hardware (especially GPU). Also consider that you have to tweak some settings in order to get better performance ( I had to change the default settings of quad cursor to make it work better in my machine).

Startup Wizard

3d modelling space

Push/Pull in action

A more detailed view and any possible tweaks/fixes will be available soon.