Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
In search of ... someone using CAD software
Edvard:
Ooh, looky!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qcadbin-win/
http://www.himili.com/blog/downloads/qcad-for-windows-gpl-version/
That's the Community Edition compiled for Windows so you don't have to. :)
One of them ought to work...
What's the difference?
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_doc_faq.html#35
Basically, no Polyline support, as well as the Community Edition being an older version with fewer features.
I've been using it with no problems, but I've never used the Pro version, so I wouldn't miss what's missing.
kfitting:
SuperboyAC, I use autocad at work and love the freeform drawing capabilities as well... I hate visio and other such "diagramming" software because they take the art out of diagramming!
BUT, what are your thoughts on the new UI (2010 and later, assuming you're seen/used it)?? To me it is cumbersome and the entire program is getting sluggish.
Sorry if this is OT, by the way.
superboyac:
SuperboyAC, I use autocad at work and love the freeform drawing capabilities as well... I hate visio and other such "diagramming" software because they take the art out of diagramming!
BUT, what are your thoughts on the new UI (2010 and later, assuming you're seen/used it)?? To me it is cumbersome and the entire program is getting sluggish.
Sorry if this is OT, by the way.
-kfitting (September 29, 2011, 05:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
I like that! The art of diagramming, indeed! I also struggle with viso because my mind is so invested in the Autocad way.
As for the new ribbon UI, yeah, I'm not a huge fan. I'm not against the ribbon in general, just in Autocad it's not the most useful thing. Autocad keeps adding cool visual things in their releases, and they are usually not terribly useful and I end up turning them off. Most people who use Autocad a lot are using it from the command line, with custom commands, and they are FAST. If you watch them, they look like little birds pecking away at food. It's just zip zip click zip click, it's fast. A ribbon and menu system, etc, only slows them down.
I'm a hybrid user. I would say I'm 90% command line, but I have my buttons placed in strategic areas around the screen. I turn off all the visual stuff that appears around the cursor, I find it slow and annoying. I try to make it so there's nothing around the cursor, it's all showing up at the command line. Otherwise, the screen starts getting too cluttered and slow, and autocad keeps trying to force you to do something you're not interested in. I turn off the zoom animations. I HATE the palette-style layer managers. I always switch back to the windowed dialogs with the "classic" commands. Same for the xref managers.
The coolest part of the newer versions is the "smart" features they've added to the objects. I love the dynamic blocks. I like (but am not very good yet at) the auto-constraint things you can add to objects, which essentially turns them into super dynamic blocks.
kfitting:
I'm not a huge fan. I'm not against the ribbon in general, just in Autocad it's not the most useful thing.
-superboyac (September 29, 2011, 09:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
Totally agree. Whether a ribbon works is very dependent on how the designers lay it out... AutoCAD's just makes me cry (I actually like Excel's implementation).
Yeah, I do a lot of system block diagrams at work and it really can be an art form: How do you convey as much relevant data in as concise a way as possible? And yes, I find Edward Tufte's ideas stimulating (while a tad too theoretical sometimes!).
kilele:
TigerCad is another freeware 2d cad made by an engineer as a hobby project. You can find it at
http://peterhoward42.blogspot.com/2008/07/tigercad.html
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version