Newbie question: Sub-interpreters for CAD program

[Terry Hancock]

On Wednesday 24 August 2005 09:12 pm, Peter Hansen wrote:
> Terry Hancock wrote:
> >>I have a strong EE and hardware background (hence my need to write a
> >>CAD program that doesn't piss me off), but not a CS background.
> > 
> > You probably ought to consider starting with something existing like
> > the Gnu EDS project -- but I'm assuming you probably already know
> > about that.
> 
> Or even http://www.pythoncad.org/ which, although probably for 
> mechanical CAD work (I haven't looked at it, don't really know), is 
> surely a good place to get ideas of what Python can do in this area.

No, I doubt it.  PythonCAD is a 2D mechanical CAD drawing system.
I don't think it would be anywhere near what this guy wants.  They're
just different applications. He's looking for an electronic CAD system or
EDA, I'm pretty sure (or looking to write one, rather).

Anybody that says he's not "looking for a CAD program" but "looking
for a CAD program that doesn't piss me off" is probably a power-user. ;-D

Not a reflection on PythonCAD, though -- it's a pretty cool project,
I recommend it to anyone interested in exploring general purpose
2D CAD drawing systems.  Among other advantages, it is written in
Python, so probably somewhat easier to script (haven't tried, though),
and it uses a self-defined XML format for CAD drawings, which is an
interesting standards move, given that free CAD formats have hitherto 
been pretty limited, leaving professionals stuck with proprietary binary
formats, and not very happy with them (there are technical reasons for
not liking the DXF format which is a free format, albeit created by
AutoDesk).

At present I believe that PythonCAD is about on par with QCAD, but
I'd bet on PythonCAD for potential, because of these design advantages.

Cheers,
Terry


--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com