Librecad on RasPiOS

Current version seems to be: librecad_2.2.0.2-3_arm64.deb See

W dniu 22.06.2026 o 18:36, snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net pisze:

How about updating to a recent AppImage?

There is a LibreCAD-v2.2.1.5-aarch64.AppImage available. The online manual is probably more closely aligned with this version as well.

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What's not working?

I find LibreCAD a bit awkward. I think it's designed as a clone of AutoCAD, which means it inherits the AutoCAD way of doing things - that's often backwards to how other 'design' packages do it.

For example, in older versions you couldn't just draw a rectangle with height and width, you had to draw 4 lines and then set constraints on them (the four corners are right angles, the left side is of length H and the bottom side is of length W)

That's how AutoCAD works, and it makes sense when you're doing parametric CAD. But it's just annoying if you just want to draw some boxes to eg work out the best positions of furniture in your room, or whatever it might be.

I can't speak for LibreCAD (which is 2D CAD) but FreeCAD takes the same approach for 3D: you start with 2D sketches which have lines, arcs and constraints and then you build 3D shapes from the sketches. MangoJelly has (a lot of) good tutorials for FreeCAD:

- I don't think he covers LibreCAD but the generic 'CAD thinking' might be relevant. Any time he's talking about a sketch it's the same ideas as 2D CAD.

I had a brief search for LibreCAD tutorials on Youtube and there's no-one I recognise, so I can't vouch for any of reliable quality.

Theo

How would I go about using that repository? I've always used sudo apt install (packagename).....

Thanks for posting!

bob prohaska

The easiest way is to go to the site, download the deb, and then 'sudo apt install librecad_2.2.0.2-3_arm64.deb'

Seemingly, everything 8-)

That points strongly to me being the problem, and it's at least partly true. I just managed to draw, save and open a rectagle using a tutorial at

I find LibreCAD _extremely_ awkward after learning to use Ashlar Graphite, it really spoiled me 8-) but I can't justify the license cost now. .

That's the sort of problem I'm interested in, nothing sophisticated.

It seems helpful, I'll watch it carefully

I found quite a few, but they're basically unfollowable; cursors can't be seen on-screen and the narration runs away from me.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

Looks like no go: bob@raspberrypi:~/Downloads$ sudo apt install ./librecad_2.2.0.2-3_arm64.deb Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'librecad' instead of './librecad_2.2.0.2-3_arm64.deb' Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies: librecad : Depends: libc6 (>= 2.38) but 2.36-9+rpt2+deb12u14 is to be installed Depends: libmuparser2v5 (>= 2.3.4) but 2.3.3-0.1 is to be installed Depends: libqt5core5t64 (>= 5.15.1) but it is not installable Depends: libqt5gui5t64 (>= 5.7.0) but it is not installable or libqt5gui5-gles (>= 5.7.0) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libqt5printsupport5t64 (>= 5.1.0) but it is not installable Depends: libqt5widgets5t64 (>= 5.11.0~rc1) but it is not installable Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 14) but 12.2.0-14+deb12u1 is to be installed Depends: librecad-data (= 2.2.0.2-3) but 2.2.0-1 is to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. bob@raspberrypi:~/Downloads$

I tried apt-removing the RasPiOS version of librecad, but the error above recurred, so I guess it's not a package conflict.

Thanks for writing, any further counsel appreciated!

bob prohaska

Look at the notes on the page that I listed.

Fir mainstream products apt is good, but for many products it just installs ancient versions. You could compile from source, but there are many packages that ease the way through

Ah, ok. Not sure what's up there. I wonder if it's something to do with the graphics setup not being right? eg Wayland issues?

TBH when I just want 'scale drawing' rather than parametric CAD, I use Inkscape. That's been good enough for accurately drawing things to be laser cut, and it works much more like a traditional vector drawing package (I used to use Acorn's !Draw, a long time ago). You can export DXF if you really need AutoCAD compatibility, eg for the laser cutter.

I only really use parametric when 3D printing, and often I find I'm fighting FreeCAD more than drawing so often end up using OpenSCAD instead (which is more like 'writing code' than 'drawing')

(FreeCAD has got a lot better recently, but typically the problem is I know how to express what I want parametrically, but run into problems with constraint conflicts)

Another parametric CAD program I found easier to use is SolveSpace - I threw in a bunch of room dimensions and it produced a house plan, working out how thick all the walls were and how they fitted together. Again it's not really for drawing, it's useful specifically because it's trying to solve your pile of constraints. I only used it for 2D... perhaps I should look again at its 3D features.

Theo

That's probably the easiest way to get a newer version.

There is also a Flatpak of 2.2.1.5:

sudo apt install flatpak sudo flatpak install flathub org.librecad.librecad flatpak run org.librecad.librecad

(you have to launch apps from the GUI or via 'flatpak run <full package name>' at the command line; they don't get installed in your command line path)

Theo

I was wondering when someone was going to mention that ;). Add my vote to the suggestion.

Which is exactly what it is.

But more than that, it lets you type in exact numbers for measurements of things, rather than having to go by eye. And of course you have the align/distribute tools, to get things nicely arranged.

If you need to do constraint solving to place/shape things, you could write Python code to do it. It’s better than Autolisp, anyway ...

That’s open-source, too

I was concerned when I saw 'sid' in the URL. Sid is Debian's bleeding edge, often broken code but I thought it might be a usable deb.

It's downloading now, how do I unpack it? I'm totally clueless.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

That's something I didn't consider, maybe I'll try reverting to Xorg at some point. I've also noticed that the snap function seems to silently stop working for a time, then resume.

I messed with Inkscape a couple years ago and got it to work after a fashion. The other day I opened it up again and my brain went blank as the page. No memory of how I accomplished the little bit I did, IIRC a floorplan. A crude one, at that.

Still, Inkscape didn't give me the impression the software was the problem. Clearly the fumbles were mine. With Librecad I'm not sure.

All I really need is the ability to make simple drawing to scale so they can be checked for interference between objects.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

The default initial tool is the selection too. But of course you have nothing to select, to begin with.

There are tools for creating shapes and drawing lines. Choose one, and click/drag away.

FWIW, I find Draw.io good - in the sense it's easy to learn/use for things like buildings and gardens, with scales and architectural detail fairly easy to manage.

I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.

Have a quick play with Draw.io:

- in my case DIY - shed and room design for example.

Just make the file executable (chmod +x "File_Name")

Then either click it (once or twice depending on how your desktop is setup) or just run that filename from the CLI

bp@home$~/home/bp foobar.appimage

HTH

Avpx

Also has good design tools. And a Python API.