Open Source Software?

[Mark Miller]

I’m looking for a good cheap or free (open source) CAD program.

Does anyone know of a good open source program I could try out? I’ve heard Archimedes, QCad Community edition and BRL-CAD mentioned on other sites, but I wonder which of these is best or if there are others that are better.

I’m most familiar with ACAD and Microstation, if that helps anyone to be able make suggestions.

[Bob Atwood]

Check Craigslist. Here in Houston I found ACAD 2010 real cheap. (Less than $100).

[Eric Gilbey]

I would suggest that anything that is significantly far from the MSRP would need to be verified for a legitimate license. Software companies do have the ability to track bootleg software and this tracking does identify the IP address of the machine on which it is installed. Beyond not getting support for the software, with that new of a version, they likely could easily disable the license and the buyer then is out that $100. I’d suggest to verify with Autodesk if that serial number is legitimate before buying.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

I heard of two arhitecture firms inmy area that took some pretty serious fines from ACAD a few years ago – second hand info, but plenty of hints that it was true.

There are several makers of Intellicad that are very reasonably priced (<$400 for the full program). Bricsnet, Progecad, and a couple of other ones that begin with “A” … search Intellicad and you’ll get the full story. It is essentially an autocad clone and many add on programs to acad can run on it.

[Ryland Fox]

Also: in terms of buying (if this relates to how you got your autocad)
“Federal appeals court ruled today that the first sale doctrine is “unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of copyrighted works.” This reverses a 2008 decision from the Autodesk case, in which a man was selling used copies of AutoCAD that were not currently installed on any computers. Autodesk objected to the sales because their license agreement did not permit the transfer of ownership. Today’s ruling (PDF) upholds Autodesk’s claims: “We hold today that a software user is a licensee rather than an owner of a copy where the copyright owner (1) specifies that the user is granted a license; (2) significantly restricts the user’s ability to transfer the software; and (3) imposes notable use restrictions. Applying our holding to Autodesk’s [software license agreement], we conclude that CTA was a licensee rather than an owner of copies of Release 14 and thus was not entitled to invoke the first sale doctrine or the essential step defense.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/first-sale-doctrine/

[Ryland Fox]

and you can try these out:

http://www.3dvia.com/products/3dvia-shape/

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/#vid1

or just look at this thread

http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=101136_0_42_0_C

[Bob Atwood]

I guess I need to clarify my statement…I found it…I didn’t buy it.

[Author]

Posts