302 lines
18 KiB
HTML
302 lines
18 KiB
HTML
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
|
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<TITLE>Mechanical CAD for Linux LG #33</TITLE>
|
|
<META name="GENERATOR" content="vim5.1 (Unix)">
|
|
<META name="Modified" content="13-09-1998 12:43:42">
|
|
<META name="Author" content="Damir Naden">
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
<!-- BODY text="#000000" bgcolor="#e6e6e6" link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000" -->
|
|
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
|
|
ALINK="#FF0000">
|
|
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<H4>
|
|
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
|
|
</H4>
|
|
|
|
<P> <HR> <P>
|
|
<!--===================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<center>
|
|
<IMG src="./gx/naden/mctitle.jpg" alt="mcadforlinuxlogo.jpg" align="MIDDLE"
|
|
border="0" hspace="1" vspace="1">
|
|
<H4>By <a href="mailto:ldtech@istar.ca">Damir Naden</a></H4>
|
|
</center>
|
|
<P> <HR> <P>
|
|
|
|
<H2><A name="intro"></A><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">INTRODUCTION</FONT></H2>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">I am a Mechanical Engineer and an owner of a small business, <A href="mailto:ldtech@istar.ca">L&D Technologies</A>, specializing in mechanical design and drafting and project management of small to medium size projects in mechanical engineering field. As any small business owner knows, the cost of start-up can be quite high, especially in the field where high end workstation and 3-D software are very important. I knew that I couldn't afford the <A href="http://www.sgi.com/">SGI(TM)</A> or <A href="http://www.sun.com/">UltraSPARC2(TM)</A> machine (even though that would have been perfect), so my options were down to which operating system I would be running my PC under.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">I had two options:</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
<LI><A href="http://www.microsoft.com/">WindowsNT(TM)</A>- which I use at my other, daytime job, and thus already have a very good understanding of the CAD software available on this platform ( <A href="http://www.cadkey.com/">CADKEY(TM)</A> and <A href="http://www.ptc.com/">Pro/E(TM)</A>)
|
|
|
|
<LI><A href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian/GNU Linux OS</A>- which I use on my home computer
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Doing the preliminary cost estimate comparison between these two options, I quickly ruled out Windows(TM)-based system.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">And so my search began for a production
|
|
quality mechanical CAD system that would run under Linux, and be reasonably priced.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<H2><A name="search"></A><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">SEARCH</FONT></H2>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">I have used Linux for three years, and all
|
|
that time the available applications and their quality have
|
|
constantly been improving. I have felt that the only field where
|
|
Linux was thin in available applications was mechanical
|
|
engineering. True, there have been some CAD apps out there, but
|
|
they either required too much programming (very powerfull <A href="http://www.microform.se/">VARKON</A>,
|
|
for example) or were too simplistic for production drafting
|
|
(otherwise very good xfig/transfig combo). I have also looked
|
|
into <A href="http://www.bentley.com/academic">Bentley's Microstation (TM)</A>(
|
|
for Linux, but they only offered educational licences at the time
|
|
( a move I will <U>never</U> understand: who would get an
|
|
educational licence for a piece of software they can not continue
|
|
using after graduation- at least not under the same OS-?). Just
|
|
for the record, I think the Microstation(TM) could blow away
|
|
anything offered for Linux in this field, if they had some
|
|
management vision and interest in developing for Linux community.
|
|
One other site is worth mentioning, if for nothing else but for
|
|
more exposure of this project to other Linux users- <A href="http://pw2.netcom.com/~iamcliff/FREEdraft.html">FREEDraft project</A>. It is an attempt
|
|
to bring to life a GNU drafting package, and I wish those people
|
|
the best of luck in future development.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Then I have noticed two new entries in the
|
|
software arena, LinuxCAD and VariCAD. I have almost purchased
|
|
LinuxCAD (at $75, it seemed like a great deal), but didn't like
|
|
the fact they had no demo available, and their E-mail reply to my
|
|
preliminary inquiry had amounted to a little more than
|
|
self-promoting junk mail. Only a couple of days later there was a
|
|
usenet discussion about LinuxCAD and result was a <A href="http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue30/wuest.html">page posted here</A>, which comletely turned me away from LinuxCAD. I went to <A href="http://atlanta.varicad.com/">VariCAD's USA site</A> instead, and quickly found out there is a working demo (without Save features) available for a download.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">If you are interested in doing a search for
|
|
available apps for Linux on your own, I recommend following sites
|
|
as a good starting point:</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
<LI><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">very good for scientific applications:<A href="http://SAL.KachinaTech.COM/"> Kachina Technologies site</A></FONT>
|
|
|
|
<LI><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">for general linux application: <A href="http://tsikora.tiac.net/linapps">linux applications mirror site</A></FONT>
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<H2><A name="varicad"></A><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">VariCAD FOR LINUX</FONT></H2>
|
|
|
|
<HR>
|
|
|
|
<H3><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Obtaining And Installing The Software</FONT></H3>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Download
|
|
consisted of getting four tarred files, and amounted to about
|
|
5Mb, which is very reasonable for a CAD system, along with the
|
|
installation script. Available for the download is also RPM
|
|
package, which must be downloaded as a roughly 5Mb single file,
|
|
and it represents a nice touch for people running <A href="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> distribution of Linux.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Installation instructions, for people who
|
|
choose to get the plain tarred files, are very simple and clearly
|
|
stated at the download site. I have simply followed those
|
|
instructions, and it worked like a charm with version 6.1. As of
|
|
a Aug. 29 1998, they have released new version, 6.2-0.3, and in
|
|
my experience, there is a small glitch in installation script
|
|
inst.sh which requires one to log in as root for it to work. On
|
|
my system trying to execute the inst.sh script under su did not
|
|
work; only 'true' root login managed to install the program.
|
|
Also, the tarred files had been deleted in the installation
|
|
process, so if you want to have a backup on the floppies, be sure
|
|
to copy tarred files someplace else first, before executing the
|
|
inst.sh script. This didn't happen with the version 6.1, though.
|
|
On the other hand, new version (6.2-0.3) seems to be more robust,
|
|
and it adds a drop-down menu for Internet access, which I haven't
|
|
tested yet.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Since I'm running the Debian distribution, I
|
|
would have liked to see the option in the installation process
|
|
for choosing the target directory, and would have rather placed
|
|
the VariCAD under /usr/local tree than under the default /usr
|
|
tree. On the other hand, after installation script had completed,
|
|
executing varicad command for the very first time in the rxvt
|
|
resulted in a flawless start. I'm running the <A href="http://www.xfree86.org/">Xfree86</A> windowing system, with xserver-mach64 running in the 1152x864
|
|
resolution and 32 bpp, and VariCAD didn't seem to have a problem
|
|
with those settings. After I have been playing with the software
|
|
for a week, I decided it was worth the price they are asking for
|
|
it and, after I have mailed in the cheque, received a small file
|
|
in an E-mail which enables the save feature. As per instructions
|
|
in the E-mail I copied the file to the /usr/lib/Varicad tree and
|
|
at the next start of the program, the pop-up message about demo
|
|
nature of the program went away, and I could happily save files
|
|
and settings</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><FONT face="">Using The VariCAD</FONT></H3>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Before going any further, I would like to say that my exposure to <A href="http://www.autodesk.com/">AutoCAD (TM)</A> has been limited to version 10, way, way back, and if
|
|
you are expecting the direct comparison between Mechanical
|
|
Desktop (TM) and VariCAD, I'm afraid you will be dissappointed.
|
|
If you are using AutoCAD and have given VariCAD a try, please <A href="mailto:ldtech@istar.ca">E-mail me</A> your short review in an
|
|
HTML format, and I'll post it here or send me an URL pointer to
|
|
your page.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Because VariCAD does not use the Motif
|
|
libraries, the executable is rather small and efficient. Fired up
|
|
and having a rather simple 2-D drawing running, VariCAD toll on
|
|
the system's resources is rather small ( output from ps on my
|
|
system running VariCAD):</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="courier">~$ ps aux</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="courier">USER PID %CPU %MEM SIZE RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="courier">dnaden 2406 11.4 2.7 4844 1760 1 S 22:16 0:02 /usr/bin/varicad</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">The interface is very plain which is a plus
|
|
in my opinion. Starting with ver. 6.2-0.3, the 'tool-tip' style
|
|
description is available for all the buttons of the toolbar,
|
|
which is a very important feature if you are just strarting to
|
|
use the software. On-line manual is available from the drop-down
|
|
menu, and it is very complete. Some parts suffer from
|
|
less-than-optimum english translation, but I haven't found that
|
|
to be in a way of getting the gist of the information through.
|
|
Then again, my english is not perfect, either...</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Sytem starts up in a 2-D mode, and switching
|
|
into the 3-D mode is a matter of simple click on the icon in the
|
|
top right-hand corner. Default toolbar features the icons for
|
|
drafting functions, and paging through the toolbars for other
|
|
functions ( dimensioning, for example) is done by clicking on the
|
|
respective icon in the bottom part of the toolbar. All toolbars
|
|
seem to be of the tear-off variety, but I haven't tested that
|
|
extensively ( I like my interface clean). And all the functions
|
|
are available through the drop-down menus as well.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">First thing I have noticed is that panning
|
|
and zooming back and forth is done fast. A simple subjective
|
|
comparison between very similar machines running CADKEY (TM)for
|
|
Windows(TM) v.7.5 (under WinNT(TM)) and VariCAD v6.2-0.3 under
|
|
Debian/GNU Linux v.2.0 would suggest that VariCAD is slightly
|
|
faster in redrawing the screen. Another feature I like is the way
|
|
zooming and panning work (users of Pro/E should feel at home
|
|
here): dragging the mouse ( and having the Shift+LMB pressed) up
|
|
and down zooms in and out, respectively, and dragging the mouse,
|
|
having the Control+LMB pressed, does the panning. It is very
|
|
convenient feature when you get used to it. And if you get lost
|
|
in all this zooming and panning, there is a feature called Aerial
|
|
View, which brings up a small window with the overview of the
|
|
entire drawing area and highlights the square you are in at that
|
|
moment in the main window ( I believe I have seen same feature in
|
|
AutoCAD Lite(TM)...). Other noticeable feature ( for me at least)
|
|
enables one to highlight the feature when the mouse cursor is
|
|
over it. If you ever worked with lots of lines spaced close to
|
|
each other, you will learn to appreciate this. It can also
|
|
highlight feature's significant points (i.e. end- or mid- point
|
|
of the line, center of the circle and so on) by popping up a
|
|
small code when your cursor is on top of it. I haven't had that
|
|
in CADKEY(TM), so it will take me some time before I can remember
|
|
all the symbols and their meaning, but AutoCAD(TM) users should
|
|
be familiar with them ( for example, @ for the center of the
|
|
circle...).</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Otherwise, VariCAD seems to have all the
|
|
drafting, geometric tolerancing and dimensioning functions one
|
|
would expect to find in a decent CAD package. In addition to
|
|
that, there is a macro language, which I haven't had a chance to
|
|
try yet, rather complete 3-D kernel (see some screenshots from
|
|
VariCAD's site) and ability to import DXF and IGES formats. I
|
|
have imported a 1.2Mb DXF file from CADKEY(TM) without a lost
|
|
line, but dimension text was angled, and it could not be edited.
|
|
But, as I said, I used CADKEY (TM)to export the file, and
|
|
therefore the file is being translated twice, and it is hard for
|
|
me to determine which one is "wrong" translation. I
|
|
haven't tried to optimize the translator in VariCAD either.
|
|
Translation itself is transparent, which means that as soon as
|
|
you read the DXF or IGS file, VariCAD produces its native (dwb)
|
|
file on which you continue to work. To translate the file to DXF
|
|
from within the VariCAD, just save the file with a DXF extension.
|
|
As simple as that.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Developers have been smart enough to include
|
|
in the "core" software a database of Parts, consisting
|
|
of nuts, bolts, washers, pins and SKF bearings. Also a part of
|
|
the package is a calculation program for calculating spur and
|
|
straight bevel gears, splines, shafts, bearings and compression
|
|
and extension springs, as well as the V-belt drives. ( I have
|
|
probably missed some other elements in here. Check out <A href="http://www.varicad.com/gallery.htm">their site</A> for full
|
|
description...) There is also a possibility of creating the
|
|
information needed for making the BoMs, although I haven't
|
|
touched that yet myself. I also haven't had the need to print
|
|
anything as of yet; most of my jobs are being sent in a DXF
|
|
format on a floppy.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">The only gripe I have with the software is
|
|
that I can't seem to be able to find out how to dimension to or
|
|
from "imagined" intersection. I frequently need to use
|
|
the dimension from this or that edge to the intersection of the
|
|
chamfered or radiused corner, and I can not get VariCAD to
|
|
recognize that I want to use the point where two lines would have
|
|
intersected each other, had it not been for the radius for
|
|
example, as one of the references for the dimension. If anyone
|
|
knows how to do it, please let me know.</FONT></P>
|
|
<H3><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">People Behind The Software (Support)</FONT></H3>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">I have found people at VariCAD to be knowledgable and courteous.
|
|
Everyone, from sales rep in Canada to their HQ in Checz Republic,
|
|
had answered my e-mails within 24 hours. As an example: in the
|
|
6.1 version, there was a bug in vertical dimensioning when using
|
|
the toleranced dimension (the dimension line would not break
|
|
around the text, but go right through the text). I have written
|
|
an E-mail about it to their tech support, and within 12 hours, I
|
|
had an answer- they were aware of it, and it happened only in
|
|
inch drawings, not in metric ones, and will fix it in upcoming
|
|
6.2 version. Fair enough, I thought... About a month later, on
|
|
the very day of the new version release, I have received an
|
|
E-mail (from the same tech support guy) notifiying me that the
|
|
new version is available for download, and the bug I have asked
|
|
about had been squashed. That is what I consider a good customer
|
|
service.</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<H3><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">Other User's Opinions On VariCAD</FONT></H3>
|
|
|
|
<P><FONT face="Lucida,Helvetica">In a couple ow weeks my mCAd page was up, I have already received a couple of E-mail responses from other VariCAD users. Thanks for your input. Keep it coming...
|
|
<BR>
|
|
One user had a problem with too much mousing (not enough command line input) in the earlier (but don't know which) version of variCAD and didn't try it since. I know there is a command line input, but as I said, it is not straight *utoCAD copy, so some commands may need re-learning. And also the quality of the help files was questioned, but I maintain that is mainly a language barrier. We English speaking folks take the fact that everyone knows English too much for granted.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
The other E-mail was regarding the inconsistent volume calculator. I
|
|
can not attest or deny that, as I didn't use 3-D enough as of yet, and VariCAD
|
|
allegedly claims they have had no such problems.</font>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!--===================================================================-->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Damir Naden <BR>
|
|
Published in Issue 33 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, October 1998</H5></center>
|
|
|
|
<!--===================================================================-->
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
|
|
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
|
|
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
|
|
<A HREF="./ayers3.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
|
|
ALT=" Back "></A>
|
|
<A HREF="./bentson.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|
|
<!--endcut ============================================================-->
|