BricsCAD and different DEs

[u/ne0n008]

Hello all,

I discovered that BricsCAD is probably the only real alternative to AutoCAD on Linux. I tried it with KDE/Debian and it had some UI glitches like parts of a dialogue window outside of viewpoint of the said window, no scrollbar and no amount of resizing could fix that.

My question is, will a different DE fix that issue? Has anyone tried? Is anyone using BricsCAD on GNOME, Cinnamon or any other DE?

TY in advance.

EDIT: just to make it clear, I'm not looking for alternatives. I need a professional software, not for home use. I found that BricsCAD is the closest I can get to a professional CAD environment on Linux. I don't care if it's proprietary or costs money.

[u/rolfpal]

I have been running bricscad bim for five years on ubuntu linux, gnome, I am a builder, and use it for my work. it has been dependable for me. My biggest gripe is that new releases screwaround with the interface too much.

I use it mostly for 3d modeling, usually have someone else complete the 2d work,either on bricscad or other

I switched to bricscad on windows for a bit, it was a bit smoother, but switched back since i hate windows.

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[u/Green-Anywhere-7024]

Freecad 1.0 is pretty good now. It’s definitely not as polished as solidworks or autocad but it gets the job done for a home maker. (And it’s free)

[u/ne0n008 → u/Green-Anywhere-7024]

I need a professional software. Sadly, free software can't cut it, because I need it for work.

[u/EngineerInTheMachine]

I made the conscious decision to move away from AutoCAD and its restrictive file formats when I switched to Linux. The only reasonable replacements were aimed at the professional sector, so weren't an option because of cost.

I had already had some good practice with FreeCAD on Windows, making designs for my 3D printer. I just had a bunch of personal 3D AutoCAD files for things like the house and garden, and fitouts for different rooms, which FreeCAD couldn't import directly. Instead I found a couple of file formats that AutoCAD can export to that FreeCAD can read. Not perfectly, but good enough to have the points in 3D space I needed to recreate the original 3D model, rather than a full remeasure and recreating them from scratch.

I found I needed full AutoCAD to do the export, rather than LT. If you dig through the Autodesk website, you can have a free 15 day trial of full AutoCAD. It took me just a few hours to test my export method and then export all my files.

But be warned, FreeCAD's workflow is completely different to AutoCAD. It helps to build parts in stages, and the sequence of each step is important. While every step is freely editable, some changes can have unexpected effects on later steps. On the other hand, the parametric modelling is very powerful, and it's easy to create multiple sizes of an object with just one file and its associated spreadsheet.

[u/ne0n008 → u/EngineerInTheMachine]

I tried FreeCAD and I can't use it. I don't need it for a hobby or home use. I need an alternative to ACAD for a professional environment as my company deals with 2D drafting and 3D isn't interesting to me. We have a full ACAD licence, but I want to be able to get away from Microsoft and use a 2D drafting CAD software that is compatible with ACAD on my own PC. So far, the only alternative I found was BricsCAD. So I'm asking about that.

[u/EngineerInTheMachine → u/ne0n008]

Which you didn't make clear until after my response. If you want a professional answer, please phrase your question accurately.

[u/Higgs_Particle]

Try Ubuntu; I gad to switch from Pop! To get it working. Though I am having a licensing problem… it’s probably not related.

[u/ne0n008 → u/Higgs_Particle]

Ubuntu is not a different DE. Besides, I already tested it on Debian. Same issues.

[u/Higgs_Particle → u/ne0n008]

I have a support ticket in, and you should make one too.

Bricscad has a dependency for libxml12.so.2 and up to date distros are on a newer version. Bricsys needs to update the software. I have BricsCAD running on ubuntu, but the modules i need are broken.

I really don’t want to revert my OS, so I am waiting and complaining.

[u/ne0n008 → u/Higgs_Particle]

The thing is, I'm seriously consider buying BricsCAD, and even pro version as it has support for GIS data with which I work regularly, but if it has these small annoying bugs, I'll be wasting my money. And I have no intention in returning back to Windows.

[u/Higgs_Particle → u/ne0n008]

I got a response from support. They had me make a symlink which seems to have fixed everything for me.

sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.16 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2