Hi from China (Australian)

Hi guys,

I am pretty darn good at Sketchup with many years and lots of build projects done through SU but recently came across a serious problem, SU does not do circles.

For my latest project I need lots of laser cut holes including around a 1000 rivet holes so i had to find a 2D CAD program because I can't find a suitable CAD guy locally, thgere' probably a hundred guys but language becomes an issue and just differences in approach.

So I downloaded a bunch of 2D programs and here I am, Librecad won out!

It is by far the easiest to come from SU and more logical to use naturally although still not a match for SU in ease and many times an extra step required, but hey, beats out all the rest and I've had a number of parts cut now successfully and can make mods on the run fast and with ease!

I do have one issue though, cleaning junk from files. A simple DXF file that's around say 50kbs, gathers junk and can end up as big as 5 meg - I actually keep Draftsite on my computer that I run all the huge files through it's "clean" function and save them.

Does Librecad have this function please?

Thanks to the developers, great work!  

Hey,

I am curious to know... what sort of 'junk' stays behind?

From a technical point of view, once a person deletes a circle, it's gone and isn't stored anymore.
I know some items are stored in a DXF regardless if it's used or not, like line styles but
that should add a few Kb, not Mb.

I am happy to hear LibreCAD works for you!

Cheers,
Ries

Everything you do is stored it seems, I import a block to ghost it and check part to part dimension, I draw a line or a circle - it just all adds up and stays regardless if I delete it or not.

You can see the difference in file size after 'cleaning' it through Draftsight (dwg or dxf save doesn't matter).

Very happy with Librecad otherwise.

Another question please, I have around 1000 4mm holes (rivet holes) and would like to change the size to 3mm, is it possible to do this in bulk? Would save a few hours!

Thanks :-)

Interesting dialog,

I never seen that before and I am going to look into that and see how they 'hide' some of the entities.
The other items (line styles, tableStyles etc) I can understand, but they usually take up a few Kb instead of Mb.

This could also be a feature of a DWF file, although you mentioned DXF...

In regards to the 1000 holes. This can be done by making a plugin for LibreCAD 2, or by LibreCAD 3 that currently 'almost' has write support, but it does scripting.

I am going to test this with a little test file to see if I can do this and see what we are missing out to make this work scriptable.

Thanks for your reply R Van.

This is still a big issue for me.

Biggest and warmest thanks to Librecad developers, I use this program extensively now and not unusual to be on it anything from 2 to 6 hours per day, I am developing a machine and every part is drawn up in Librecad for cnc work.

BUT ... I still have this problem, I just made many changes to a number of parts on a file and it went from 50kb files size to 3.8 meg by the time I was finished!!!

It needs something done in this area to be perfect, I still have to open the files in Draftsight to use their "clean" function.

Thanks again, great program!