Librecad on RasPiOS

TBH I haven't used it in a while - I'll take another look, thanks.

Y still use Corel draw and Rhino cad because they are the best 2D and 3D CAD applications I have found.

Hence the XP installation. If either were available on Linux I'd willingly pay for later versions.

It does indeed help. Thank you very much!

bob prohaska

No, it's worse than that 8-). I opened a drawing that I'd created some (long) time before. There were things to select, and I'd put them there. I'd simply forgotten how......

One of the more confounding things is learning to find and recognize tool icons. It's mostly a matter of discovery and memorization, though even the same tools can behave differently between CAD systems. Add to that a menu higherachy and it gets confusing fast.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

That's not far from my level of need. It appears to be oriented mostly toward flowchart-like graphics, but might be compatible with measurement based drawings if there's a way to input actual dimensions.

I do recoil a little at it being a web-based system, with all input visible to somebody else's server.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

For FreeCAD you can change the icons to include text, which I find makes them a lot easier to recognise as there are so many!

On Inkscape I can't find a setting like that, but here's a list:

Theo

Tooltips help.

Remember also that its native file format is SVG. There are lots of other tools that can process/generate/consume that.

Although sometimes the webby nature of SVG shows through, eg the default dimension is pixels rather mm or inches. That's easy to change though. Also some packages mess up the scaling when importing SVGs - I think Inkscape stores everything in the file in pixels and then they get imported with a different pixels per inch (PPI) setting.

Another one that's surprising from other packages is that dimensions include line thicknesses. eg if you draw a 10mm wide box with thin lines, it's exactly 10mm. If you change the line thickness to 1mm, the width of the object is now 11mm. That's not wrong per se but means you have to include the line thickness in your calculations, while on some packages the dimensions of the object are measured from the centre of the lines not the outside edges - that means you can place everything on a 1cm grid irrespective of how wide the lines are.

Theo

Yes. I run into this when using corel draw to lay out PCBs. There is a tool online to convert corel draw to whatever is used by PCB people - Gerber?

( I use corel because the more modern packages require that you define every single component before you start which takes days).

The converter ignores fonts and line thicknesses - it only understands filled outlines - so I have to convert everything to 'curves' ..

But that's the joy of CADS isn't it? So many standards to choose from.

If by tooltips you mean the little pop-up windows that appear when the mouse is dragged over an icon, they're on, and do help.

If you meant something more, please elaborate.

Part of my confusion may be order of operation issues. I just realized that Librecad seems to reverse the order of selection and action that I'm accustomed to.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

That is what I at least understand...

Tell me about it. People who design CAD don't seem to understand the conceptual process of 'design something that fits here' only 'here are your dimensions, now draw the part

Alas, some but not enough. Librecad crashes on startup, ending with [Qt FATAL] Cannot mix incompatible Qt library (5.15.8) with this library (5.15.3) Cannot mix incompatible Qt library (5.15.8) with this library (5.15.3)

Is it possible to update Qt? The OS was last updated yesterday, so it's up to date by Raspbian standards....

Thanks for reading!

bob prohaska

The name “pixels” doesn’t actually mean “pixels”. It seems to mean

I just started my copy of Inkscape, drew a box, and the default units showing is mm.

I don’t know why they should. If there’s any doubt, there should be an option to tell them what the scale factor should be.

I just tried, and no they don’t. I drew a box 10mm on a side, changed the line thickness, and it was still shows 10mm on a side.

The dimensions are measured from the middle of the line, not an edge.

I'm not sure if that has changed recently, or if I changed the default because setting mm was the first thing I set on a new install.

Many SVG inconsistencies on this thread:

That's odd, because it still does it for me. On Inkscape 1.4.3 (0d15f75042, 2025-12-25):

Draw rectangle, Fill and Stroke -> Stroke style -> Line width = 0.001mm Set W = 10mm, now it's 10mm wide.

Select rectangle, Fill and Stroke -> Stroke style -> Line width = 1mm W is now 11mm.

It also happens in the following sequence:

Draw rectangle, Line width = 0.001m Set W = 10mm Without leaving rectangle mode, Line width = 1mm Select rectangle, W is now 11mm.

When in rectangle mode, if you change the line width it doesn't update the W but it does when you exit and select the object.

Theo

KiCad has fairly comprehensive symbol and footprint libraries. If you're redoing every component every time, you're doing it wrong.

That never ever contain the components I am using.

It draws its own ugly cattywumpus version of the circuit diagram.

It does not understand RF or audio ground planes etc.

It creates a PCB that is to its own rules, Not the way I want it. For retards its probably fine.,

No, KiCad is

Bugs in that particular proprietary app ... so it’s not worth using *yawn*

I’m sure Adobe would not be so enthusiastic about SVG, which is why its support is only lukewarm. They would rather their own .AI format was universal, but the open standard got adopted instead.

I don’t know why they bother with PostScript, though, given that nobody uses it any more. Shouldn’t they be doing PDF instead?

I used the same version. Lined up the sides of the 10mm square on the “50” and “60” points on the top ruler. The control points stay in exactly the same position as the line thickness changes.

They are the ones still insisting they want application-level control over window layout, aren’t they. Which is why they hate Wayland, and are resisting the move to it kicking and screaming.