VariCAD 9.0-2.3 serial key or number

REVIEWS VariCAD2005

CAD SOFTWARE

VariCAD2005

Its version numbers are now date-based – but has anything else changed, asks Nick Veitch?

KEY STUFF

Accomplished CAD software intended

for engineering use. Other Linux CAD

software includes QCad, CYCAS,

OCTREE and others.

■ DEVELOPER VariCAD

■ WEB www.varicad.com

■ PRICE $399

Computer-aided design has

been around for longer than

home computing, back when

it was the exclusive domain of VAX

and Prime mainframes and involved

arcane sequences of three-letter

commands entered on a dumb

terminal. In some ways, not a lot in

CAD has changed.

Being the natural successor to

those old-school Unix-running CAD

mainframes, it isn’t surprising that

Linux has a few CAD variants. However,

with a few exceptions, these are

mostly mired in the Motif-driven past,

with only a cursory nod towards new

user-interface conventions such as

dialogs, icons with more than one

colour, or even mice.

VariCAD is one of the exceptions.

Since we first covered it back in 2001,

the software has managed to stay at

the forefront of Linux CAD software,

particularly for mechanical engineering,

by pioneering new features and

functionality while retaining a useable

interface. Version 2005 (previous

release: 9.0-2.3) should keep it there,

even though the team seem to have

lost some of their drive for innovation.

Drawing tools

First, we must make clear that

VariCAD is more than just a CAD

package. For a start, it is equally at

home with 2D or 3D work, so it is

actually more like two CAD packages

in one.

FEATURES

AT A GLANCE

DWG, DXF and 2D IGES files are handled very well, but you need to use the DWB format for 3D.

On the 2D side of things, a

grid-based drawing system lets you lay

down different types of line and

transform them using tools ranging

from the simple Copy to complicated

Scale and Rotate. Drawings can then

be labelled, dimensioned, shaded,

scaled and output in a variety of

suitable forms.

For 3D work, you can choose to

create objects from simple threedimensional

primitives. Enter the

measurements of a cube, sphere or

other simple object, then get to work

with cutters, milling operations or

Boolean functions. Operations are

carried out through a series of

context-sensitive menus and

measurements that are based on a

number of ‘snap’ paradigms, where

“A WELL-DESIGNED

SOFTWARE TOOL THAT

KNOWS ITS USERS’ NEEDS.”

you target the centre of a piece of

work or the midpoint of one edge for

example, as well as the old standby of

absolute measurements.

One of the most powerful features

of the software is the extensive library

of pre-drawn symbols and objects. The

2D symbols include welding and

electrical symbols, while both 2D and

3D drawings can use a huge number

of fasteners, washers, splines and

metal profiles, and a few more esoteric

items besides.

You need never again draw an M8

screw – just select it from the Parts

menu, enter a length and it appears

by magic. Hurrah!

File formats

The software can import DXF, DWG

and IGES files for 2D objects. DXF is

really the lingua franca of CAD

drawings, but DWG is used extensively

by the sector-leading, proprietary

AutoCAD, so it’s also commonly

encountered – VariCAD has been

updated to support the latest revision

of the DWG format.

The IGES format is more often

used to save 3D data these days, but

sadly VariCAD only supports 2D

Generate a Bill of

Materials and

check your parts

shopping list.

Smooth and

easy 3D to 2D

conversions

save time.

A quick

calculation yields

the surface area

of any solid.

30 LXF71 OCTOBER 2005

www.linuxformat.co.uk

LXF71.rev_varicad 30

29/7/05 2:31:44 pm

REVIEWS VariCAD2005

CALCULATIONS

One of this

software’s more

impressive

features is the

automatic design

service offered

by VariCAD’s

calculation tools.

For a number of

structural and

mechanical

problems, the

software solvers

will work out

the acceptable

solutions for

the data you enter.

These are never going to take the

place of a real design engineer, but for

checking that your own solutions are in

bounds, or knocking together a quick

working drawing based on known data,

they can be a real time-saver.

The tools

themselves cover reasonably simple

stuff like beam loading and strength of

fixings and horribly complicated

calculations for power transmission

through gears. These are almost worth

the asking price alone.

The Cutting tool can be used intelligently – here, the lower hole has been

cut using a bolt as a straight cutter, but choosing the Corresponding

Modification feature creates a larger hole to allow for the thread and

part clearance.

information saved in this format – if

you want to load 3D views, you can do

so only with the application’s own

DWB format. You can, however, export

your 3D objects in IGES format for

other applications that do support it.

Dimensional shift

One of VariCAD’s more elegant

features is the ability to create objects

in 3D and convert them to 2D at a

later stage. There is greater demand

these days for 3D visualisations, and it

has to be said that modern engineers

tend to be trained with 3D from the

start. But 2D plans are still required for

various reasons, not least of which is

making the parts.

When you export the 3D model to

a 2D view you can select traditional

orthogonal projections or create a 2D

view of the object from any angle,

which is useful for visualisation. This is

one of the areas of the software that

has been improved greatly over

previous versions in terms of speed

and ease of use.

The exported view of the model

includes hidden lines and tangents if

required, but you will have to supply

your own dimensioning (which to be

honest, a human will probably do

better than any software). It is also

possible to do the reverse – profiles

created in the 2D view can be

extruded or revolved at any time to

create a 3D model.

Neat stuff

Building on its solid CAD base,

VariCAD adds tons of useful extras

which, as we’ve hinted, turn it from a

competent design tool into a

mechanical engineering tour de force.

For professional design, for example,

each component can be given a

multitude of properties (material, finish,

source, cost and so on) to form a Bill

Of Materials. Because designs can be

further subdivided, it’s easy to lose

sight of costs and requirements as the

project expands. As long as everything

has been given properties though, the

Bill Of Material functions can extract

the data and summarise it neatly.

One of the common mistakes

people make when using 3D design is

to create overlapping parts, or parts

where the fit is so tight that in the real

world the project just couldn’t be built.

VariCAD provides a neat tool that

checks for this sort of condition – just

another feature from a well-designed

software tool that knows the needs of

its users.

While VariCAD is still, in our

opinion, the most advanced CAD

The 3D view has been improved greatly in terms of speed and accuracy –

shame we couldn’t have some new demo objects though!

software available for Linux, it hasn’t

really changed greatly. In the last two

years, the 3D engine has been

improved significantly, but there have

been no major feature additions or

evolutions.

Baby, not giant, steps

The user interface is still pretty much

as it was, and while it will feel very

familiar to anyone with experience of

CAD software, little has been done to

move the design on.

VariCAD is still the best, and the

upgrade is worthwhile if you rely on

the 3D views or need compatibility

with the latest AutoCAD files. LXF

SUITS YOU

VariCAD is tested and working

on the following Linux systems:

Debian

Fedora Core 3 and 4

Mandrake 10.1

Mandriva LE 2005

RHEL 3 and 4

SUSE 9.x

■ A Windows version of the software

is also available.

LINUX FORMAT VERDICT

FEATURES 8/10

PERFORMANCE 6/10

EASE OF USE 6/10

VALUE FOR MONEY 7/10

A classy package with solid 2D and 3D

support, but no new exciting additions.

Add standard parts from the

huge range of fasteners and profiles.

RATING 7/10

www.linuxformat.co.uk LXF71 OCTOBER 2005 31

LXF71.rev_varicad 31

29/7/05 2:31:50 pm

REVIEWS VariCAD2005CAD SOFTWARE VariCAD2005 Its version numbers are now date-based – but has anything else changed, asks Nick Veitch? KEY STUFF Accomplished CAD software intended for engineering use. Other Linux CAD software includes QCad, CYCAS, OCTREE and others. ■ DEVELOPER VariCAD ■ WEB www.varicad.com ■ PRICE $399 Computer-aided design has been around for longer than home computing, back when it was the exclusive domain of VAX and Prime mainframes and involved arcane sequences of three-letter commands entered on a dumb terminal. In some ways, not a lot in CAD has changed. Being the natural successor to those old-school Unix-running CAD mainframes, it isn’t surprising that Linux has a few CAD variants. However, with a few exceptions, these are mostly mired in the Motif-driven past, with only a cursory nod towards new user-interface conventions such as dialogs, icons with more than one colour, or even mice. VariCAD is one of the exceptions. Since we first covered it back in 2001, the software has managed to stay at the forefront of Linux CAD software, particularly for mechanical engineering, by pioneering new features and functionality while retaining a useable interface. Version 2005 (previous release: 9.0-2.3) should keep it there, even though the team seem to have lost some of their drive for innovation. Drawing tools First, we must make clear that VariCAD is more than just a CAD package. For a start, it is equally at home with 2D or 3D work, so it is actually more like two CAD packages in one. FEATURES AT A GLANCE DWG, DXF and 2D IGES files are handled very well, but you need to use the DWB format for 3D. On the 2D side of things, a grid-based drawing system lets you lay down different types of line and transform them using tools ranging from the simple Copy to complicated Scale and Rotate. Drawings can then be labelled, dimensioned, shaded, scaled and output in a variety of suitable forms. For 3D work, you can choose to create objects from simple threedimensional primitives. Enter the measurements of a cube, sphere or other simple object, then get to work with cutters, milling operations or Boolean functions. Operations are carried out through a series of context-sensitive menus and measurements that are based on a number of ‘snap’ paradigms, where “A WELL-DESIGNED SOFTWARE TOOL THAT KNOWS ITS USERS’ NEEDS.” you target the centre of a piece of work or the midpoint of one edge for example, as well as the old standby of absolute measurements. One of the most powerful features of the software is the extensive library of pre-drawn symbols and objects. The 2D symbols include welding and electrical symbols, while both 2D and 3D drawings can use a huge number of fasteners, washers, splines and metal profiles, and a few more esoteric items besides. You need never again draw an M8 screw – just select it from the Parts menu, enter a length and it appears by magic. Hurrah! File formats The software can import DXF, DWG and IGES files for 2D objects. DXF is really the lingua franca of CAD drawings, but DWG is used extensively by the sector-leading, proprietary AutoCAD, so it’s also commonly encountered – VariCAD has been updated to support the latest revision of the DWG format. The IGES format is more often used to save 3D data these days, but sadly VariCAD only supports 2D Generate a Bill of Materials and check your parts shopping list. Smooth and easy 3D to 2D conversions save time. A quick calculation yields the surface area of any solid. 30 LXF71 OCTOBER 2005 www.linuxformat.co.uk LXF71.rev_varicad 30 29/7/05 2:31:44 pm

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The software that we have prepared for you on the Startcrack website is a professional tool for designing industrial components for mechanical engineers. VariCAD With Keygen enables users to create their elements with a complete 2D and 3D library. Now that you are familiar with this powerful software it’s time to download the latest version of VariCAD with Keygen from Startcrack website.

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• Having a complete library of premade pieces
• Compatibility with different versions of Windows

About Author

startcrack

The list of packages included in Mandrakelinux 10.1 for x86-64 is available below. To know more about a package, please click on its name.

• opera 7.54 - Opera for Linux, dynamically linked to Qt 3.1.1-mt

• cpio 2.5 - A GNU archiving program.
• dump 0.4b37 - Programs for backing up and restoring filesystems
• mt-st 0.8 - Programs to control tape device operations
• pax 3.2 - POSIX File System Archiver
• rmt 0.4b37 - Provides certain programs with access to remote tape devices.
• sharutils 4.2.1 - The GNU shar utilities for packaging and unpackaging shell archives.
• star 1.5a47 - An archiving tool with ACL support
• star-devel 1.5a47 - An archiving tool with ACL devel support
• taper 7.0 - A menu-driven file backup system.
• tar 1.14 - A GNU file archiving program.

• bzip2 1.0.2 - Extremely powerful file compression utility
• cabextract 1.0 - A program to extract Microsoft Cabinet files
• file-roller 2.6.2 - An archive manager for GNOME.
• gnozip 0.1.3 - Graphical interface for compression utilities
• gzip 1.2.4a - The GNU data compression program
• lha 1.14i - An archiving and compression utility for LHarc format archives.
• unzip 5.51 - Unpacks ZIP files such as those made by pkzip under DOS
• zip 2.3 - A file compression and packaging utility compatible with PKZIP

• howto-html-de 10 - Deutsch HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-el 10.1 - Greek HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-en 10.1 - English HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-es 10 - Spanish HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-fi 10.0 - Finnish HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-fr 10.1 - French HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-hu 10.1 - Hungarian HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-id 10 - Indonesian HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-it 10.1 - Italian HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-ja 10.1 - Japanese HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-ko 10 - Korean HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-nl 10.1 - Dutch HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-pl 9.1 - Polish HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-ro 9.1 - Romanian HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-sl 10 - Slovenian HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-sv 9.1 - Swedish HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• howto-html-zh 10 - Chinese HOWTO documents (html format) from the Linux Documentation Project
• lib64alsa2-docs 1.0.6 - Documentation for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)
• libalsa2-docs 1.0.6 - Documentation for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)

• smabi 1.2 - program obs³ugi sprzeda¿y dla ma³ej firmy