[Triumf-linux-managers] CAD viewer for linux

[Rick Baartman]

For years now, I've searched for a simple CAD viewer for linux. I don't 
need AutoCAD itself, just need to inspect others' drawings, e.g. 
to see that optics layout is correct. (I get the drawing office 
drawings from https://trwinsecurity.triumf.ca/remote_m/drawing/)

I tried a windows viewer on top of Wine, but always have some kind of 
problems with Wine. 

I finally found a simple solution. There is a fast command-line 
executable called cad2svg. I have a copy; it should work in any TRIUMF 
flavour of linux. Google cad2svg and linux.

SVG is scalable vector graphics and should be built into your browser. 
I.e., the svg file extension is already handled correctly. However, 
usually, you want some tiny detail of a big drawing so you want to 
zoom. In that case it is better to use an SVG viewer like inkscape 
(look for it with you package manager). Inkscape is actually a complete 
drawing program and can output into any other format (ps, pdf, gimp, 
latex, ...), even back into a CAD format.

I've written a simple startup script called DWGviewer that does 
cad2svg -> inkscape. You can find it here:

http://lin12.triumf.ca/text/DWGviewer

Then add it as an application for mime.types dwg and DWG.
-- 
rick baartman