Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Updating the High Priority List

[al3xu5 / dotcommon]

Il giorno sabato 06/02/2016 00:16:22 CET
arthur_torrey@comcast.net ha scritto:

> The thing I've been grumbling about almost since I started using Free
> Software all to many years ago is the lack of a competent 3-D CAD
> package....  LibreCAD is OK for 2D, and it is being actively maintained and
> worked on, but it is ONLY a 2-D package, and a lot of people look at you like
> you are nuts for even considering using a 2-D package these days....
> 
> [...]

IMHO the critical point with CAD is mainly related with the closed ugly DWG
format by Autodesk.

Since '90, the most people working with CAD (surveyors, engineers, architects
etc.) have been using CAD programs by Autodesk with DWG support (or by other
software houses, which pay royalties to Autodesk to be licensed using DWG).
These software generally run on M$ platforms and many users have a very large
archive of DWG files.

Also if we had a very good 2D/3D CAD libre software but missing a full DWG
support, CAD users still would not use it.
But having a full DWG support is really hard... I think quite impossible: DWG
is closed and Autodesk change it often (i.e. to support new "feature" for its
CAD programs) just, I think, to force users to pay for new releases and to
avoid libre full DWG implementations.

So the problem here are patents. And unfortunately the solution could not be
provided by free software licenses or developers community efforts...

This is a clear example showing freedom is a wider and more general "problem",
which "solution" needs looking further than the free software cause, involving
a wider and more general *political* and *social* approach (*)... 

(*) That in this case, I think, should means updating the high priority list to
fight to get rid of *any* sort of copyright, patents, trademarks and other
industrial design restrictions....

Regards

-- 
al3xu5 / dotcommon
Say NO to copyright, patents, trademarks and any industrial design restrictions.