Very Impressive

I have been using LibreCad a couple days now reading the manual.  It is very impressive. I was a daily autocad user for more than 30 years. I was cad manager for a while and at peak I had autocad loaded on almost 100 machines. Not that many licenses, there was a network manager. I did a lot of programming autocad with visual basic. I did a wordpress blog where I made a math function grapher. I made a large automation project at work that I worked at and used in production for years. Thats what I am missing here. I understand you have a thing called Lua in the next version, but that is not released yet. Is there a projected or hoped for date? I also installed FreeCad and see that has a python interface I am looking at. I know nothing about open source or Git. But hopefully I will learn. I may buy a Bricscad license but want to know about these two options first.

Freecad is about 3d, and LibreCAD stays 2d.

Both are open source, if you are interested in coding as well.

terry_priest wrote

I have been using LibreCad a couple days now reading the manual.  It is very impressive. I was a daily autocad user for more than 30 years. I was cad manager for a while and at peak I had autocad loaded on almost 100 machines. Not that many licenses, there was a network manager. I did a lot of programming autocad with visual basic. I did a wordpress blog where I made a math function grapher. I made a large automation project at work that I worked at and used in production for years. Thats what I am missing here. I understand you have a thing called Lua in the next version, but that is not released yet. Is there a projected or hoped for date? I also installed FreeCad and see that has a python interface I am looking at. I know nothing about open source or Git. But hopefully I will learn. I may buy a Bricscad license but want to know about these two options first.

I would like to know how the code works.  Would getting a start on GitHub be the first step?  Would Visual Studio be a usable editor?

terry_priest wrote

I did a lot of programming autocad with visual basic... I understand you have a thing called Lua in the next version, but that is not released yet.

You could try scripting it: https://forum.librecad.org/Appimage-for-librecad-3-tp5723225p5723258.html

I assume we are talking about LibreCAD 2, so the link to the LibreCAD 3 thread might be irritating.

GitHub is just the platform for git. And Git is the tool for source code management. It tracks changes and allows to split and merge the code base for development.
If you don't have skills in Git, you can simply download a ZIP archive of the whole code (green Code button).

To get used to the LibreCAD code, you need C++ skills.
I recommend Qt Creator as IDE, because LibreCAD 2 is built with Qt framework, and Qt Creator has best support for it.

Armin

Thanks that is helpful. I will give a QT a try.  I took a couple C++ courses 20 years ago but never used them after the class.  pointers and asterisks.  I still have the texts.  I am using version 2 and will do all my learning on version 2.  Is there a map file of any kind of features or changes intended for version 3?

well.... QT Creator "free 10 day evaluation" then $316/month.  Is that right?  

No. Just download the open source (LGPL license) version. It's free.

terry_priest wrote

well.... QT Creator "free 10 day evaluation" then $316/month.  Is that right?

I downloaded LibreCAD-2.2.0.2.zip as suggested and now can see files like rs_line.cpp which is cool to get some idea.

You can start with Qt 5.14, which is the last version with a setup package:
https://download.qt.io/archive/qt/5.14/5.14.2/

Due to changes in Qt's policy, since 5.15 there are no setup packages anymore.
It is still open source, and the community version is still usable under LGPL license, but they don't provide setup packages anymore.
You have to build it from source, what can become an obstacle for inexperienced users.

Armin

this is good. I have lots of examples and tutorials with that install I didn't have before.  thanks.

well I seem to have compiled it and run it.

Version: 2.2.0-undef
Compiler: GNU GCC 7.3.0
Compiled on: Sep 12 2023
Qt Version: 5.14.2
Boost Version: 1.83.0
System: Windows 10 Version 2009

Congrats, very impressive too