Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks

[gamefreak]

Hey all, is there a 3D drafting program such as those two that works on linux? preferably free.

[Cotowar]

i think surfcam works on linux, but unless you got 10 grand laying around, you might wanna look at something cheaper.

what distro of linux are you running? if you have a deb based distro, check the add/remove application after you enable the 3rd party repositories, and you might find what you're looking for.

another option is to install virtualbox, load XP into that as a virtual machine, and run your software on the virtual PC. its a little slow if you're going to be doing ultra high complexity things, but i found it works nicely for most situations. Just dont draw every thread on every screw and every tooth on every gear and i think you'll be fine.

PS, I heard about an OS called RealOS or ReactOS or something like that thats specifically designed to run virtualized. Its got an ultra small footprint and runs all windows apps. you might look into that if my previous suggestion doesnt meet your speed reqs.

if you try any of this and it works, let me know please. As of right now, I've been dual booting XP/Ubuntu Hardy so I can have a decent OS and still do high quality 3D CAD drawings.

[gamefreak]

im using Ubuntu, the newest one, So i think its hardy heron. Windows was screwing with me with odd ball errors which can only be fixed by disabling things that should not have to be disabled and so i refuse to actually install it, i'll try a virtual machine and edit this tomorrow if it works.

[airman00]

Sketchup runs fine through wine

[Admin]

you forgot to search

[JesseWelling]

Found this on sourceforge. Looks pretty good to me, but I'm only a software engineer. And the last time I ran AutoCAD was in highschool back in 2000 so I can't really do a good comparison to what is available to day... maybe Admin can way in on it...

[Admin]

Hmmm the screenshots look impressive:
http://brlcad.org/gallery/s/renderings/

Judging by this screenshot, it looks like it would be painful to develop shapes:
http://brlcad.org/gallery/s/screenshots/Archer_0_5prototype.png.html
(because you'd need to keep track of measurements)

But I really cant judge ease of use without trying it out . . . and I've already made a huge time investment into AutoDesk . . .