Lost in Support: VariCAD

VariCAD is a general purpose 2D/3D Mechanical CAD. It already has a native Linux port for many years and it's  very popular between Linux users.

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.

 

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€.

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.

How to work with pdf files with ARES CE,Bricscad,DraftSight and Librecad

Importing PDF files is a missing feature from all Linux CAD packages. However there are some very interesting and simple workarounds to bypass this problem.

Several different ways to do the same thing

You may have noticed that,while using a CAD program, there are several ways to get to the same result. Also different programs use different techniques to get to the same result. What's the point of this post ? To prove that CAD is much more than a single program or only one drawing technique. Let's create a very simple 3D object, a pipe with 100mm height,outer diameter 20mm, inner diameter 15mm, by several different ways and programs.

VariCAD Viewer for Linux

VariCAD viewer is a freeware CAD files viewer from VariCAD. Supports various well known formats like STEP 3D, IGES 2D, DWG/DXF 2D and DWB 2D/3D ( this is  the native VariCAD format).
VariCAD Viewer comes in both .deb and .rpm packages for easy installation on the most Linux distros

VariCAD viewer on Ubuntu 11.04

The latest version comes with some interesting performance improvements,
especially in .dwg support.

Now VariCAD Viewer can handle larger drawings faster,
 with better pan and zoom performance.

You can download it free of charge after a simple registration from here

Tip: Zoom works with the mouse wheel and pan with Ctrl + right mouse button.

New VariCAD release

Just a few days ago a new release (2011-1.04) of VariCAD came out. This version brings various improvements, better dwg support, improved 2D functionality and more. You can find more information about this release here.
VariCAD is a well-known program for Linux users because of its Linux support for over a decade. It has plenty of features and very cheap price (499€ / 599€ with 1-year upgrades). It's a very good and affordable choice for mechanical design. It's available for both 32bit and 64bit architectures. VariCAD also provides both .deb and .rpm packages.