Interested in Contributing, where to start?

Hello everyone! I'm completely new to librecad: haven't even installed it yet. I used qcad some years ago and thought it was quite alright for a 2d CAD software - later, I didn't feel like paying so I stopped using it.

I see that librecad is a fork of qcad: how far has librecad diverged from the original qcad source code? What's the deal with qcad 3? Is there a bug tracker? In what way can I help contribute to this project?

Hi,

welcome ezzieyguywuf!

When LibreCAD started, the target was to kill all Qt3 dependencies and move to Qt4. This per se brought extensive changes to the source code. With the release of LibreCAD 2.1 the GUI was revamped too. Also QCAD is far behind 3.0. Thus they don't have much in common now, beside that they are both 2D CAD software.
The issue with LibreCAD 2.x is, that it still depends on the QCAD 2.x license, GPLv2, what embarrassed the development couple of times in past.

The state of LibreCAD 2 is, that we are on version 2.2.0rc, that means release candidate, the code head is in a stable state and next will be to officially release 2.2.0. There are a few things to do, but nothing experimental.

LibreCAD 3 is build from scratch. With a new concept and no more license issues. The kernel has evolved over the past years with great work from a couple of GSoC students. This year we have a GSoC student again, working on rendering with OpenGL for performance improvement.
Also the LibreCAD 3 GUI has evolved, but it is still not ready for a first release.

Where to start depends on your interests. All help is welcome and help is needed everywhere. Documentation, translation, coding and also support here in the forum.

Searching for some links for you, I feel that this is another point where help is needed. Our resources are widely distributed, they diverge and are not up to date everywhere.

Anyhow, you can dig the code on github.
Find all kind of information in our wiki.
And for translation we have a pootle server.
Also, for more questions, you've already found our forum .

Armin

is it any feature discussion place, code style, UI guidelines, etc?

Discussion place is here, in the LibreCAD-dev sub forum.
Live contact is possible on our chat channels, join #librecad at IRC or join our Zulip channel at https://librecad.zulipchat.com/. But consider different time zones in live contact and be patient.

Code style is messed up in LibreCAD 2 series, too many individuals worked with different styles, too much effort to fix this. Also formatting is bad in many places. We fix this only in places where it is needed for readability and where changes are made anyway.
For LibrCAD 3 series, we have code style in the wiki: http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php?title=LibreCAD_3_-_LibreCAD_3_-_code_style

UI guidlines are similar to code style. There were massive changes with release of 2.1. But not all changes are for the better and there is still room for improvement.

To make a long story short, if you have concrete plans for features or urgent needed changes for active 2.2 series, discuss the best implementation here, to avoid waste of time. You can also fork on github and give code or GUI examples in a new branch.

If you don't have exact plans and looking for some amusement with coding, consider to focus on LibreCAD 3. I believe that it is time to give LibreCAD 3 development a boost.

Anyhow, don't hesitate to ask here or on the chat channels if anything is vague.

Of course you can use this communication channels too, if coding is not the kind of contribution you're looking for. Any help is welcome!


Armin

Hi I'm interested in Migrating our Draftsmen and Designers to LibreCad.
Their main concerns is Workflow and Learning Curve from Autocad 2007 to this one.

I'm concerned that there will be some Customization of Workflow (all of course will be shared and uploaded here, as well as all the Training Material we will use to get our People to use Librecad not just for Open source sake but feedback and use case scenario). Where can I inquire in searching if there is a programmer I can hire to help customize and share the options/modifications here.

I guess we can help in Documentation: Actual use Case in the Philippine Setting and Barriers typical of Philippine usage.