I've got CollabCAD working on Kubuntu Feisty Fawn. I've looked through the net and can only find one other reference to running CollabCAD on a Ubuntu system, and in this case, the writer ran into an installation problem and couldn't complete it.
CollabCAD is a 3D modelling CAD system allowing collaborative work on a design across a network. It is being developed by the national informatics branch of the Indian government and a consortium of industries. It is currently available as a free download from www.collabcad.com. It is by far the most sophisticated CAD available without charge on Linux. It is however still under development. It's a slow download and you should consider a Bittorent client to assist yourself and others in this if you're interested..
It is not well documented, and this is probably the problem faced by people trying to install it. In fact, I found the installation easy, though not what I had expected.
Looking at the downloadable files a .tgz file of over 100 megabytes, I assumed that it was a source file that would have to be compiled. In fact it does not need compilation, it is merely unpacked. for use
Once unpacked into the collabcad folder it can be run directly from the collabcad.sh script. Be aware however that this is a C shell, not a bash script -- a fact it took awhile to figure out. You can run the program by opening a terminal and changing to the collabcad directory. Issue the command ./collabcad to start.
I built a shortcut with an icon to open the program from the desktop without using the terminal.
In use, a problem I had was trying to figure out how to change the color of an entity. There is no obvious path to controlling colors in CollabCAD.
After trying many menu drawing commands I finally stumbled upon the Edit, Modify, command which requires selection of an entity. There, finally I found you could alter an object's color. There is no way to set a default drawing color initially however -- there are very limited options for saving preferences.
Despite some challenges, due mainly to a lack of good documentation, I found this to be a very good design tool, with great potential for sophisticated work. It will take some learning however. I'm sure that the user interface, particularly drawing preferences, will be improved as will the documentation.
I'd be interested in hearing from others who use this CAD system.
CollabCAD is a 3D modelling CAD system allowing collaborative work on a design across a network. It is being developed by the national informatics branch of the Indian government and a consortium of industries. It is currently available as a free download from www.collabcad.com. It is by far the most sophisticated CAD available without charge on Linux. It is however still under development. It's a slow download and you should consider a Bittorent client to assist yourself and others in this if you're interested..
It is not well documented, and this is probably the problem faced by people trying to install it. In fact, I found the installation easy, though not what I had expected.
Looking at the downloadable files a .tgz file of over 100 megabytes, I assumed that it was a source file that would have to be compiled. In fact it does not need compilation, it is merely unpacked. for use
Once unpacked into the collabcad folder it can be run directly from the collabcad.sh script. Be aware however that this is a C shell, not a bash script -- a fact it took awhile to figure out. You can run the program by opening a terminal and changing to the collabcad directory. Issue the command ./collabcad to start.
I built a shortcut with an icon to open the program from the desktop without using the terminal.
In use, a problem I had was trying to figure out how to change the color of an entity. There is no obvious path to controlling colors in CollabCAD.
After trying many menu drawing commands I finally stumbled upon the Edit, Modify, command which requires selection of an entity. There, finally I found you could alter an object's color. There is no way to set a default drawing color initially however -- there are very limited options for saving preferences.
Despite some challenges, due mainly to a lack of good documentation, I found this to be a very good design tool, with great potential for sophisticated work. It will take some learning however. I'm sure that the user interface, particularly drawing preferences, will be improved as will the documentation.
I'd be interested in hearing from others who use this CAD system.
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