What CAD Programs Run on Linux? These Do.

• alexc
  misfitmodel3d, blender & wings3d are not CAD programs
• Josh M
  well, if you take 'CAD' literally as computer aided design, they could be considered CAD, but yeah, you're not going to be drafting with them. They're more geometry modelers, Blender will actually be getting some mcad functionality... dimensioning, from the looks of Marijn link up there. who knows, maybe someday, 2d drawings won't be required and the geometry will have all the data we need for production. :)
• Letsevo
  Great post Josh, too bad we cannot see yet fully developed parametric CAD programs on the list (Kudos to Marijn to point out Blender's new developments in parametric sketches).
  
  FreeCAD seems promising, would be nice to hear comments from current users.
  
  
  The advent of a true open source parametric CAD program would foster great developments in another segment which is open source hardware. That's because parametric modelers have an intrinsic open source code, the feature tree, which contains the history of the geometry, what I would call "source geometry".
  
  I am part of a design platform called Letsevo which is experimenting with open innovation and open source hardware, we are looking for software solutions in that area. A common file standard and open-source program could mean great leaps in making innovation more accessible to the creative community and not only the big firms.
  
  For that, projects like FreeCAD, need sponsoring to develop into powerful options to proprietary CAD software, just like IBM sponsors Linux. Your story on it raises awareness on the subject which is awesome!
  
  Lets wait and see!
  Henrique
• justin
  Why not just run a proper MCAD in a Virtual Box machine on a Mac OS X or *nix machine? I run Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks in VB machines on Linux, Macs, and Windows boxes on a regular basis. What's another $100 for a Windows license for a $3500 MCAD distro? The only issues I have encountered are: Trouble with 3D controllers on occassion and Autodesk's Fusion (...from ADesk Labs...) won't run in my VB machines.
• croaxis
  I am glad to see this posting in the blogsphere!!!
  
  We can easily come across with every CAD-related topic on a daily basis yet somehow everyone seemed to forget that there is an ever-increasing community of Linux user civil/mech engineers who like to receive the same sort of service/products as MS using colleagues!
  
  Well done Josh!
• Nan
  "linux=free" > kids using mom's pc to play
  "linux=open source,GNL, etc" > pro
• yeags
  Your link to Ubuntu's website is misspelled as "Ubunta." It might cause some confusion among your readers.
• Josh M
  ah yes, I imagine it would. Thanks yeags.
• burhop
  Hey, your question was "What CAD Programs Run on Linux?" You didn't bring up free until 1/2 way through your article. I bet you are not even a real journalist :-)
• Marijn
  Yeah it is not very clear but it is also on top of your window ;)
  Wordpress topic title diffrent from the title bar title..
• burhop
  But only if the web page is not opened from a frame. Try this URL:
  
  http://novedge.com/i/56756
• Josh M
  ok, ok you two. :) yep, just like a blogger to throw down a misleding headline just to pull in more traffic and comments. seems to be working. I'll have to leave NX out more often. haha.
• burhop
  w00t. I get 3 cents every time you say NX :-)
• jsarfati
  Josh,
  
  The list doesn't include NX from Siemens PLM software. NX runs on SuSE Linux 10 (in addition to Windows and Mac OS).
  
  www.siemens.com/nx
  
  Jerry
• Josh M
  Hey Jerry, thanks. Is it Free? ;) I know, I know, some of these are not necessarily free, but darn close. I wonder what would happen if a big MCAD company open-sourced on Linux? I know it's been discussed nearly to death in some forums/blogs. I'd love to see someone get behind FreeCAD.
  
  Thanks for the comment!
• Marijn
  hmm thats a bummer, most cad programs are only 2D and the 3D's are mostly moddeling programs not really CAD. Blender is currently working on mechanical designing functions looks already pretty awesome: http://www.vimeo.com/6321556
• Josh M
  cool. parametric sketchy. that is gonna be interesting to use.

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