Overview
Introduction
This is a trial version of TuxCAD, a 3d CAD- and simlation-system
for Linux. The program will be published unter the GPL (GNU general public
licence). TuxCAD ist still under development and so, important
functions are missing and numerous bugs have to be fixed.
Functions
TuxCAD tends to be a simple to use CAD-system, which serves the
prime functions of a real CAD-system. This will be the construction of
parts and devices, graphical representation, measurement of dimensions and
simulation of movements.
System requirements
Hardware
TuxCAD does not need any special hardware. A Pentium 133 MHz should
serve the purpose for smaller play. To make the work with TuxCAD
more pleasant, you should use a faster computer and a graphic card with
3d support, which is supported by Linux. The color depth should be at least
16 bit. Thinking about the current hardware, this should be not to difficult.
However, if you haven't a hardware accelerated graphic board, you might use
the Mesa-libraries instead.
Software
I developed and tested TuxCAD only on a Linux-system. Prior
tests with Solaris and IRIX have shown, that porting the
program to other Unix platforms should be not too difficult (if the
neccessary libraries are available). TuxCAD needs the following
packages (the named version-numbers are taken from my system; I hope there
are no problems with a little bit older or newer versions).
- libc Version 6 (the GNU C-library)
- libgcc_s Version 1 (GNU C++ library)
- libjpeg Version 62.0.0 (JPEG images)
- libtiff Version 3 (TIFF images)
- libXpm Version 4.11 (XPM image format)
- libpng Version 2.1.0.8 (PNG image format)
- libz Version 1 (compression for some image formats)
- libpthread Version 0 (Thread support)
- libX11 Version 6.0 (X-Windows)
- libXt Version 6.0 (X-Toolkit)
- libXext Version 6.0 (X Extensions)
- libICE Version 6.0 (X-Windows Connections)
- libXm Version 2.1 (Motif)
- libttf Version 2 (TrueType fonts)
- libdl Version 2 (for dynamic loadable filter libraries)
- development packages of your grafic hardware:
libGL Version 1.x
(OpenGL)
libGLU Version 1.3
(OpenGL Utilities)
libGLcore Version 1.x (Base functions)
- maybe Mesa (if no graphic card with 3d acceleration is available)
- libgltt Version 2.0.5 (TrueType-fonts for 3-dimensional-characters)
All these packages should be included in most distribution, but can be also
downloaded from
rpmfind.net
.
TODO-List / known bugs
The current version of TuxCAD is rather instable and there are
a lot of function missing. While a CAD-system is not a small project the
following list contains only a small selection of the most important errors
and insufficiencies.
- There's still no way to save a workcell with all it's settings and
restore it excactly when reloading. The IGRIP workcell-format
is not suited, because I'm not able to interpret all it's values. An
own format is not suitable, yet, because it needs to be changed too
often due to new features of TuxCAD.
Also, there are missing import and export filters like DXF, ...
- Especially when working with multiple CAD windows, TuxCAD
often crashes and - which is extremly annoying - shuts down X-windows,
too. (see also Troubleshooting).
- The implemented CSG-operations does not privides not all cases.
- Functions for defining kinematic chains have to be implemented.
- Cut and paste between different cad-windows must be added.
- We need a possability to measure distances and sizes.
- Implementation of features like antialiasing, motion blur and others
- The online help has to be completed and translated to english
The design of the classes is still under construction. There's still a lot
to do. Well, this is foremost version 0.04 of TuxCAD...
Copyright
This program will be published unter the terms of the GPL
(GNU PUBLIC LICENSE). An actual version of this license can be found at
the homepage of
www.gnu.org
.