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Librecad on RasPiOS

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  Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-22 16:36 +0000
    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> - 2026-06-22 18:56 +0100
      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-22 19:33 +0000
        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-06-22 20:18 +0000
          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-22 21:20 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-06-22 23:29 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-23 08:29 +0100
        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> - 2026-06-22 22:48 +0100
    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS 🇵🇱Jacek Marcin Jaworski🇵🇱 <jmj@energokod.gda.pl> - 2026-06-22 20:11 +0200
      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-22 23:01 +0100
      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-22 23:55 +0000
        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Nomad <nomad@the.desert.invalid> - 2026-06-23 07:01 +0000
          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-23 11:59 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-24 21:42 +0000
    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-22 20:19 +0100
      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-22 20:31 +0000
        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-22 22:55 +0100
          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-22 22:48 +0000
          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-23 00:20 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-23 03:57 +0000
              Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-23 12:10 +0000
                Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-23 13:28 +0100
                Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-24 01:08 +0000
                  Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-24 13:52 +0000
                    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-24 16:43 +0100
                      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-26 14:43 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> - 2026-06-23 04:28 +0000
              Re: Librecad on RasPiOS bp@www.zefox.net - 2026-06-23 12:25 +0000
          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> - 2026-06-23 04:22 +0000
            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-23 07:21 +0000
              Re: Librecad on RasPiOS RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> - 2026-06-23 08:19 +0000
                Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-23 10:23 +0100
                Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-24 01:10 +0000
                  Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-24 13:26 +0100
                    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-24 13:44 +0100
                      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2026-06-25 16:01 +0000
                        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-25 17:05 +0100
                        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-25 23:32 +0000
                          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-06-26 02:01 +0000
                            Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-26 10:05 +0100
                              Re: Librecad on RasPiOS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-06-26 17:51 +0000
                                Re: Librecad on RasPiOS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-26 21:51 +0100
                          Re: Librecad on RasPiOS scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2026-06-26 20:22 +0000
                    Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-24 21:59 +0000
                      Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2026-06-25 14:24 +0100
                        Re: Librecad on RasPiOS Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-25 23:31 +0000

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#38064

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:20:11 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> The default initial tool is the selection too. But of course you have
> nothing to select, to begin with.

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......

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

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


 

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#38066

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:
> 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.

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:
https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Themable_icons

Many packages, including Inkscape, have 'tooltips' where you can hover over
an icon to see a description of what it does.

Theo

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#38067

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:10:00 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

> One of the more confounding things is learning to find and recognize
> tool icons.

Tooltips help.

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#38075

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:10:00 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:
> 
>> One of the more confounding things is learning to find and recognize
>> tool icons.
> 
> Tooltips help.

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
 

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#38078

On 24/06/2026 14:52, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:
> 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.
> 
That is what I at least understand...
> 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.
> 
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

> Thanks for writing!

-- 
"When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics."

Josef Stalin

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#38091

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 24/06/2026 14:52, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:
>> 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.
>> 
> That is what I at least understand...
>> 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.
>> 
> 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
> 

It turns out that FreeBSD's Ports collection includes librecad. It
compiled from source using poudriere and seems to run correctly,
if slowly, over the network using RasPiOS as an X terminal.

I have essentially the same troubles on FreeBSD's version as I do
on RasPiOS's version, so the trouble isn't the software, it's me.

I'll continue fumbling about with the RasPiOS version in hope
of a revelation 8-)

Thanks to all for reading and replying!

bob prohaska

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#38057

On 23 Jun 2026 at 01:20:11 BST, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

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

Have a quick play with Draw.io:

https://app.diagrams.net

I use the Mac version with the 'Floorplans' library to do much the same thing
- in my case DIY - shed and room design for example.

-- 
Cheers, Rob
Sheffield, UK

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#38065

RJH <patchmoney@gmx.com> wrote:
> On 23 Jun 2026 at 01:20:11 BST, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:
> 
>> All I really need is the ability to make simple drawing to
>> scale so they can be checked for interference between objects.
> 
> Have a quick play with Draw.io:
> 
> https://app.diagrams.net

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

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#38056

On 22 Jun 2026 at 22:55:11 BST, Theo wrote:

>> 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.
> 
> 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.

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.

-- 
Cheers, Rob
Sheffield, UK

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#38059

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:22:12 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

> I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.

Also has good design tools. And a Python API.

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#38061

On 23 Jun 2026 at 08:21:57 BST, Lawrence D´Oliveiro wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:22:12 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:
> 
>> I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.
> 
> Also has good design tools. And a Python API.

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

-- 
Cheers, Rob
Sheffield, UK

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#38062

On 23/06/2026 09:19, RJH wrote:
> On 23 Jun 2026 at 08:21:57 BST, Lawrence D´Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:22:12 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:
>>
>>> I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.
>>
>> Also has good design tools. And a Python API.
> 
> 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.

-- 
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and 
wrong.

H.L.Mencken

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#38068

On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:19:56 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:

> On 23 Jun 2026 at 08:21:57 BST, Lawrence D´Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:22:12 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:
>>
>>> I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.
>>
>> Also has good design tools. And a Python API.
>
> TBH I haven't used it in a while - I'll take another look, thanks.

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

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#38071

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:19:56 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:
> 
> > On 23 Jun 2026 at 08:21:57 BST, Lawrence D´Oliveiro wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:22:12 -0000 (UTC), RJH wrote:
> >>
> >>> I find Inkscape more of an illustration and drawing app.
> >>
> >> Also has good design tools. And a Python API.
> >
> > TBH I haven't used it in a while - I'll take another look, thanks.
> 
> 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

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#38073

On 24/06/2026 13:26, Theo wrote:
> 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.

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.

-- 
The higher up the mountainside
The greener grows the grass.
The higher up the monkey climbs
The more he shows his arse.

Traditional

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#38085

In article <111gjek$30bc0$3@dont-email.me>,
The Natural Philosopher  <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>( I use corel because the more modern packages require that you define 
>every single component before you start which takes days).

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

-- 
  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/         Top-posting!
 \_^_/                            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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#38086

On 25/06/2026 17:01, Scott Alfter wrote:
> In article <111gjek$30bc0$3@dont-email.me>,
> The Natural Philosopher  <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> ( I use corel because the more modern packages require that you define
>> every single component before you start which takes days).
> 
> KiCad has fairly comprehensive symbol and footprint libraries. 
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.,


>  If you're
> redoing every component every time, you're doing it wrong.
> 
No, KiCad is

-- 
Labour - a bunch of rich people convincing poor people to vote for rich 
people by telling poor people that "other" rich people are the reason 
they are poor.

Peter Thompson

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#38088

On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:01:58 GMT, Scott Alfter wrote:

> KiCad has fairly comprehensive symbol and footprint libraries.

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.

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#38089

On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:32:37 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:01:58 GMT, Scott Alfter wrote:
> 
>> KiCad has fairly comprehensive symbol and footprint libraries.
> 
> 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.

https://x.com/LundukeJournal/status/2070211673177399545

More about xfwl4:

https://alexxcons.github.io/blogpost_15.html

I worked with X11/Motif for years. Were I still doing so I would hate 
Wayland too.  Sooner or later you would have to reach far down into the 
stack to do the sort of thing the Wayland developers consider bad, bad, 
bad.

I wish Tarricone all the best for his Rust project.

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#38090

On 26/06/2026 03:01, rbowman wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:32:37 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:01:58 GMT, Scott Alfter wrote:
>>
>>> KiCad has fairly comprehensive symbol and footprint libraries.
>>
>> 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.
> 
> https://x.com/LundukeJournal/status/2070211673177399545
> 
> More about xfwl4:
> 
> https://alexxcons.github.io/blogpost_15.html
> 
> I worked with X11/Motif for years. Were I still doing so I would hate
> Wayland too.  Sooner or later you would have to reach far down into the
> stack to do the sort of thing the Wayland developers consider bad, bad,
> bad.
> 
> I wish Tarricone all the best for his Rust project.

I think there is a lot of 'I want do it this way and Wayland cant'
Without the concomitant 'why on earth are you doing it that way?' and
'because that's the only way you can in X windows'.

I have an oil fired range stove and oven.
If I want to reduce the heat on a saucepan I prop it up on three pennies 
arranged in a triangle.

Imagine doing that on an induction hob...

-- 
"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow witted 
man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest 
thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly 
persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid 
before him."

    - Leo Tolstoy

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