CAD

[George Staikos]

On Sunday 29 January 2006 16:33, Brian wrote:
> Not subscribed.
>
> Currently using Konq 3.5 on Suse 9.2 and 10
>
> My thoughts on CAD on the Linux Platform.
>
> The CAD industry is stuck with it's head up its collective backside. What
> more can you say ? They have incredible beligerence in supporting
> alternative platforms and seem to be colluding to keep others out. Why
> else is it so difficult to view our CAD files on our Linux boxen ?
>
> Is it possible for us to improve Knoquerors handling of CAD files ? For
> example could we develop a series of good icons to represent established
> file formats like Autocad, Solid Works, IGES, STEP, ..... and others. This
> would enable us to quickly identify CAD files and display them in a nice
> konqueror window.

   Do you realize the cost of those applications?  The cost of a Windows is 
around 0.5% of the cost of the software in many cases, and the equipment it's 
run on is usually very high-end and expensive.  It's not unreasonable to 
consider a CAD system to be a full package with hardware, OS, and CAD 
software in one.  (We have such a system actually.)  The business argument 
for putting this software on Linux is very very weak right now, and the whole 
process would be quite costly.  In the past year I've actually met some of 
the top folks at some of these companies, as well as other industrial users, 
and the answer always seems to be the same.

   On the other hand, a viewer likely isn't too hard to develop.  I'm not sure 
how useful it is in the long run.  Especially when these CAD apps can output 
many different formats including video.

-- 
George Staikos
KDE Developer				http://www.kde.org/
Staikos Computing Services Inc.		http://www.staikos.net/