QCAD

[ronateah]

Anyone out there using QCAD. I am looking for lite cad program to run on EMC mill/drill machine for creation of simple dxf files. Is this apropriate. I have Artcam Pro and corel draw in the design studio and CUT2D out in the shop but i am getting tired of rebooting my controller. I have tried WINE but CUT2D is not performing under WINE.

Any thoughts would be gratly appreciated.

Ron

[BMG]

I have it on my machine as well. Just hav enot had time to go through the paces with it yet.

Curious for others comments as well.

BMG

[acondit]

I bought an earlier version and couldn't get it to work. It wouldn't open the dxf files that I wanted to edit. So, I refused to pay for an upgrade. However, I recently downloaded a new demo and it appears to have fixed the problems that I was having earlier. I have since bought a more expensive cad program, so, I am unlikely to upgrade QCad in the near future.

Alan

[cyclestart]

http://www.tech-edv.co.at/lunix/CADlinks.html
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Cam

Some personal opinions, take them for whatever their worth and a huge grain of salt.

BRL-CAD has a learning curve a mile long. Skip it.

SALOME-MECCA is similar to SolidWorks in concept. Nice but not CAD.

Synergy. The demo ran out before I could get comfortable with it. The free CAD doesn't seem to save dxf (Can anyone confirm?). Definitely worth a look for CAD/CAM. A conversational CAM plug-in for emc is available as well.

QCAD. I have the community version. Very simple to use. If your a real cheapskate (and I am) the CAM plug-in can be used for free without violating any license.

VariCad. Anyone using this ? Looks impressive.

WINE is hit-or-miss by nature. Have you considered a virtual machine ? XP runs nicely for me using VirtualBox. Not batting 100% but certainly more successful than WINE for the apps I've tested.

Edit/ If you want something tested in VirtualBox, I'm a cheerful test mule. Must be free or have a free demo available.

[BMG]

With my home system, I am going 100% linux. I use Autocad at work so in a pinch, I can always break out the lappy.

I just can't see paying money for software to use on computers obtained for free. Makes me cheap perhaps. By avoiding the Wine port - it forces me to learn more so thats the path I am taking.

Most of what I need is 2d. KIG looked cool and is written in Python - would make an interesting starting point since it has all the drawing tools for primitive shapes and geometry. I just don't know how to get information out of it. - lots to learn.

[Big John T]

I use free Qcad on my plasma machine. It is great for the price . It takes a bit to get used to. Once you get past "this is how I did it in ACAD" stage it is pretty good for 2-D. I use sheetcam to generate my g code from my dxf files.

John

[OMA]

I also work with Qcad and then import the dxf in Gsimple
Gsimple (open source CAM software 2.5 D) is running under wine, till now everything works fine.
But I am in the beginner stage.

OMA

[nghiaho12]

I'm new to CAD/CNC, only started out this year on a home made one but found a 100% Linux solution that works for me. I've found QCAD + dxf2gcode (http://www.christian-kohloeffel.home...dxf2gcode.html) to be a good combination for 2.5D stuff. QCAD + CAM doesn't seem to support multiple passes for depth milling, where as dxf2gcode does.

Though one downside I found is for layers with different depths, I have to make separate DXF/G-CODE files and load them manually into emc2. Alternatively, one could just concatenate the individual files together.

These two software are good for engraving artwork. A bit inconvenient for making solid parts because you have to factor in the tool size and calculate it manually, not a big deal I guess.

[acondit]

Originally Posted by nghiaho12 I'm new to CAD/CNC, only started out this year on a home made one but found a 100% Linux solution that works for me. I've found QCAD + dxf2gcode (http://www.christian-kohloeffel.home...dxf2gcode.html) to be a good combination for 2.5D stuff. QCAD + CAM doesn't seem to support multiple passes for depth milling, where as dxf2gcode does. Though one downside I found is for layers with different depths, I have to make separate DXF/G-CODE files and load them manually into emc2. Alternatively, one could just concatenate the individual files together. These two software are good for engraving artwork. A bit inconvenient for making solid parts because you have to factor in the tool size and calculate it manually, not a big deal I guess.

I spoke to the guy that wrote CAMEXPERT and he said that it was designed for laser cutting, hence no multiple depth cuts.

Alan

[dond3]

Hi Ron,

I am using QCAD (community version) and Cut2D. Both work well for me. QCAD is not autocad but once you are familiar with it, very easy to use.

Cut2D works pretty well but throws you back into the Windoze world.

[BMG]

Originally Posted by Big John T I use free Qcad on my plasma machine. It is great for the price . It takes a bit to get used to. Once you get past "this is how I did it in ACAD" stage it is pretty good for 2-D. I use sheetcam to generate my g code from my dxf files. John

Are you using Ubuntu or another Distro? I saw that there is a .deb download of sheetcam.------ Never mind - that was the easiest install from his website I experienced lately.

BMG

[Big John T]

BMG, I'm using Ubuntu.

John