CAD programs

Hi,

This is to Matt Shaver's note. ( I named it - "Little activity ? "
- I should have known better :-)

Well, I didn't hear anything, my mailbox was empty for a long time,
- then I suddenly got more than I asked for.

Thank you about the info on LinuxCAD. I asked them if they had a
demo, or more info: I quote: "WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT DEMO VERSIONS "
(plus how to order and nice stuff ) - I got the impression that
this was the same as AutoCad. There was no use in a demo. Maybe I am
wrong, but it made me suspicious. I had asked about the GUI part, -
and even AutoCad has different versions. I think it would be a bit
funny if it is as good as AutoCad, considering what they asked for
it.

On the other hand, I just received a nice CD from Unigraphics -Solid
Edge - and I just can't figure out how they could have sent it to me
this fast. ( must have been 1 day delivery ! )

--------------------------------

I am actually trying to write a CAD package now, - but it is for
something totally different. It's a kind of graphical CASE tool for
real-time systems and distributed computer system design. ( what
ever that is ? :-)

This is an old idea I have had, and I just made a good start on it,
- but that is all it may become of it :-(
The thing is that all take so much work and time, and I don't even
have an income at the moment. Sure, there is a lot of nice things
we could wish for, - but it is hard and difficult work. EMC and
what Fred and the rest has done, - is so great, I don't think we
even are able to understand all the effort they have done, and to be
grateful enough.

I have also dropped the servo design I was working on, because of
all the stuff I have to do. So I am very pleased with what Jon has
done, I am going to be very happy to assemble the stuff he will
send me. I have looked it over, and he has really put a lot of work
and craftsmanship into this. ( It's just my ego that suffers - I
like to make things myself - but at the current rate I would not
have anything running before the you all are long gone :-)

Well, I sidetrack a bit.

I do like the idea of having a nice CAD system in Linux, - but it
is another hard and difficult task. You make it sound easy, but it
is not. I wrote some extensions to AutoCad once, and it was a
nightmare. I had to use Lisp, and interact with the database and
kernel, - and ..... I just don't like to think of it. This was for
a kind of CAM application. ( I am not a programmer - I would rather
wire up some spark plugs and other crazy stuff :-)

But I have started to look at VARKON, and I might try to join in on
that. There is a new release planned for January, and several parts
are coming together. ( I don't know much about it yet, - I have a
lot of ground to cover )
If I have time, and I could help, I might do. ( but as I said, - I
am not much of a programmer )

But let me tell you a bit about it: ( as far as I know )

Varkon is a parametric tool, made in Sweden. ( They do a lot of
good programming, even if it is a bit hard to say it :) You have
such things as EE-designer, IAR assemblers/compilers and much more.
Well, Varkon has been developed at Universities and others, and is a
bit different than many other designs. It is more like a back end
system and library, and they work towards a more common desktop CAD
system. If you download it, or look at it, - you may not think much
about it. It's more a programmers kind of system, - like unix in a
way, and not so user friendly for us "normal" users.

In order to understand it a bit better, you can download the drawing
example called "fighters". Some of the other examples look silly at
first hand. "Fighter" is an airplane with surface rendering and
stuff. Varkon uses splines, lofting, NURBS, and a lot of other
stuff. You have easy access to the database, and you can plug in
all kinds of analytical tools. It also creates everything into a
separate job, with it's own directory and modules. I can just tell
you, it has potential !!

At the moment, I think the X window interface is a bit cumbersome,
but it is a parametric program at this stage. That is, if you want
to draw a circle, you enter the radius, and such, from the
keyboard. But on the other hand, - you often do that in all the
other packages too. But here you may have separate dialog boxes in
other windows. At the moment it has drivers for hpgl, postscript,
and such, but drivers will be added.

Come to think of it, you don't really need them. You can get the
info from the program directly into a CAM package you develope
around the same system, and output G-codes. ( You don't really need
to export/import DXF )

Well, you can check it out, and the nice thing is that you have the
source code available.

To end this, I will just say that you guys have dragged me into
this. My intention to check out EMC was somewhat different then
doing machine work. But it looks like I have to try it out :-)

//ARNE