My experience, Linux is a decade behind when it comes to Mechanical/Electrical Engineering design apps. Draftsight (Dassault) used to offer a version for Linux but that ended. My hope is with China and EU governments switching to Linux, they'll pour funding into CAD programs across the board.
Fingers crossed for that!
@asdasd201 The sad reality is that you will likely have no choice but to use AutoCAD since that's what your instructor wants you to use. Even if you are able to use something free/open, there is always a chance that something in the file will render incorrectly when loaded into AutoCAD.
The best thing (I think) you could do is do the assignment in both #AutoCAD, and #CAD software of your choosing be that #FreeCAD, #QCAD, #blender, #LibreCAD, or something else with which I'm unfamiliar. After class, speak with your instructor and teach them that these things can be done using #FOSS solutions as well, could be they don't even know. Worst that happens is you'll have taught yourself how to do the same thing in different software. Everything that was taught (that I can recall) in the #drafting classes I took 30 years ago can be done in any of the softwares I mentioned, but I'm sure things are a bit different these days.
It's quite irresponsible of educational institutions to push students into specific software, versus teaching concepts which can be translated across multiple. Teaching students only about expensive licenced software (regardless of providing free student licences) over the concepts used to accomplish the task, promotes ignorance over education, and encourages software pirating.
My country in particular has been pushing what I'd like to call the “anti-education” policy for decades now. They don't teach anything in any grade, be it kindergarten or post-grad. They want you to study for the ridiculous exams that test your memorization instead of your knowledge. And even when you pass them and get in a good school, if you don't have any relatives close to the government, you either have to move to other countries or work in inhuman conditions.
As for the AutoCAD, I'm using a VM, and I haven't encountered any problems for now. I can go my own way after I pass the class.
QCAD can read/write DWG files on Linux, it costs just 40 bucks, and it has an autocad-like interface. But if your instructor says that they need autocad, better keep a Windows machine too.
Another way to read/write DWG files is to download and make executable the appimage here. It converts DWG to DXF. https://www.opendesign.com/guestfiles/oda_file_converter Then you can load the DXF on the Community (Free) version of QCad.
Sure, you could load that DXF file on any Linux app (e.g. librecad, freecad), but qcad is the most autocad-like app of them all. Even Librecad is a very, very old fork of qcad, which hasn't progressed much since. https://qcad.org/en/ You can make their trial version of QCAD (that supports natively dwg) to become free community edition by removing some library files they request on their UI. The ability to read dwg goes away, but then you have the converter above to do the job.
Hi!
I have used autocad since way back in the text entry box days. I have used linux for the same period of time and have used two dozen different cad packages many free/libre and a fair amount closed and for pay.
If your school is teaching you how to use autocad, drown your principles and use autocad.
The goal of going to school is to learn and you will have the easiest time understanding the lesson if you’re using the tool they are teaching you with.
There is no value to making it harder on yourself.
As other replies have stated: file support is gonna be hit or miss and when you start doing actual design work people are gonna expect you to be able to open their unique dwgs that have geometry breaking errors on everything but honest to god autocad.
You might be able to get away with web or vdi or a vm, but my honest advice having used all of those in the past is to bite the bullet and dual boot or maintain a windows or mac system.
You dont wanna find out that you’re beyond what remote, web or vm setups can do when it’s midnight the day before something is due. Just be normal.
You're right, but dual booting screwed up my computer many times, so I'm trying to avoid it at all costs. I'd rather use the web version or work slowly on the VM than pray for not breaking things again. I'm planning to use an older version like 2017 since our instructor approved any version that works on Win10 or 11.
It may be worthwhile to switch to windows or buy another computer if you can afford it. There’s a super cheap and decent mac option for students if you can scrounge up $500. If your present computer can handle the workload you could even put windows on it for school and use a $100 old laptop to run linux for your personal stuff.
The problem is $100 dollars is too much money here, ~5000 bucks. If I buy that I won't be able to afford my bills. Switching back to Win10 if all else fails sounds way more affordable.
Those are inflated American prices. Whatever I said is probably much cheaper where you’re at.
Might be worth it to go ahead and switch back to windows now before you are in a position where you need to do so quickly in order to complete some task or assignment.
Look at the massgrave instructions for 21h2 iot ltsc, it’ll make your life easier.
Those are inflated American prices. Whatever I said is probably much cheaper where you’re at.
I just checked it, and the cheapest option we have is around 40k, jfml. The reason for the expensiveness is the stores inflate the prices, and the taxes double the already ridiculous prices.
Look at the massgrave instructions for 21h2 iot ltsc, it’ll make your life easier.
Good to know! I might even try to dualboot using their ISOs instead.
TUR?
Yep, a very hostile country against its citizens.
Idk how bad shipping/vat/crossing the eurozone border is but Cheap laptops that will get the job done with linux: dell/hp/lenovo business class models (precision/lattitude, whatever hp calls their stuff, t/p/x series respectively) with 3rd/4th gen Intel processors are still viable in 2026.
Hell I was doing cad work on a 3rd gen intel laptop from 15 years ago last year (small models only, of course!)
Hope you find one that suits your needs.
Importing anything above €27 is out of the question here, the prices increases exponentially, and there's a high risk of getting it seized in the border for govt to resel it in a higher price later. As I said earlier, I can work with VM or dualboot.
First thing you should check is if the school offers VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
My college has VDI, where you can access a GPU accelerated Windows machine from your browser, preinstalled with tools like Autocad, Photoshop, and other stuff.
If your school doesn't, then you should look at options like VM's. The problem, however, is that CAD and a lot of other software is GPU intensive, and simply using it in a VM might be too slow for practical usage.
I asked them about VDI, and they asked me back what is it. Not surprising considering every semester course choosing becomes a nightmare.
I will use it for doing homeworks and exams, so speed isn't my concern.
Just because they don't know what it is doens't mean your school doesn't have it. My school is similar. They get VDI by partnering with an external organization.
I utfg but couldn't find a vdi app for our school. Ig I'll use VM since Web version doesn't have the tools needed.
unfortunately dwg files are a blind spot on linux. there are projects like qcad and librecad that have experimental dwg support (behind a paywall for qcad) but they require you to learn a whole new set of tools because workflow is entirely different for these.
i don't have experience with the web version, it might be enough for files with fewer elements but your best would be to use a vm for immediate future.
alternatively, you can draft your work in 3d and export your drawings from these files. for architectural work there is a great addon for blender called bonsaibim, for mechanical work there is freecad (it also has a workbench called bim workbench for architecture) and for circuit design there is kicad.
We are currently doing 2D stuff, so I don't want to push my luck that much. I'll try try the Web. If that fails, off to VM mine I go.
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