Computer Aided Design

[Kranthi]

Does anyone know a distribution specifically maintained for running CAD programs?

[SW]

What CAD do You need? 2D or 3D?

CAD for professionals or for beginners? 

For business or just hobby?

[atolboo]

I did find this DraftSight: Free CAD software* for your DWG files.
I looked in the rpm package (76MB) and it's rather simple to make a .pisi package of it.
If it does what it promises remains to be tested.
It also has a 186 page Getting Started Guide pdf.

[SW]

Any news/information here?

[Kranthi]

A 3D CAD program for architectural designing, for a professional which is comparable to AUTOCAD.

[SW]

Ahhh, got it!

When You need a software for professionals then it is sometimes necessary to buy a professional sofware which costs some money. A architecture CAD software for experts must be stable and fit all needs. Otherwise You are not so much productive. So You have to pay for the software but in long term You safe money.  

Besides Draftsight I know two professional CAD tools You could use for architecture. I guess You must test both to get a feeling which one is better for You!

1. Briscad ( starting at 395$ )  http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/
Comparison: http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/bricscad/comparison.jsp

Bricscad reads and writes the .dwg format and offers very high compatibility with AutoCAD®. The availability of a constant growing number of third party applications makes Bricscad the best solution.

2. CYCAS ( 298$ )  http://www.cycas.de/produkt.php?s=en&sys=lin&v=pro#top

CYCAS is a piece of architectural software for drafting and design in 2 + 3 dimensions.
In addition to typical CAD functions, CYCAS offers special elements and techniques for architectural design. Therefore, you can easily design and draft your ideas.

Would be great if You could give here a little feedback about both tools.  

[Kranthi]

I found one OpenCascade which is totally opensource and only charge for support,training, etc.
I don't know how that is. This one is totally amazing.
www.opencascade.org
and
www.opencascade.com

[a.palius]

Here is the request for freecad and opencascade.

[SW]

You can do nothing with Opencascade, because it is just offering the base technology for CAD/CAM.
Usually for comfortable working You need a GUI for it:
http://www.opencascade.org/showroom/screenshots/


Freecad is more for mechanical designing than for architecture. Also I´m not sure if for a prefessional CAD worker would prefer a stable CAD system. 

FreeCAD needs a lot of dependencies which are not all available in Pardus. Because the most dependencies are only related to freecad its hard work to create all packages necessary for freecad.
Freecad is working great with wine!!!! 

a) install wine
b) download and install freecad for windows
c) start freecad via startmenue: /wine/freecad/freecad


Something more about FreeCAD:

There are several downloads for various operating systems available. Before downloading keep in mind:
FreeCAD is still in ALPHA state and not ready for production use

[SW]

@Kranthi
Any news? What CAD fit Your needs best?