QCAD as a Familiar 2D Drafting Environment

QCAD Community Edition
1

Hello,

I am an architect looking to transition from classic 2d drafting workflow using commercial software to a free open source solution. I first stumbled upon FreeCAD, but the closest I have found to my needs seems to be QCAD, as it does everything better drafting-wise. However, I noticed it has many differencies to its workflow compared to common commercial CAD drafting software, like AutoCAD. For example, I need to click on the command line in order to type, and also the functions work with shortcuts, as well as many of them are not used the same way. I would like to understand why that is. Is it to avoid legal problems with other companies? Or, is it a limitation of javascript? I want to know, because the core is there, so why isn’t it adjusted to a more familiar drafting workflow? Or at least having the option for it? As I understand, this is not a limitation just to community edition.

Thank you in advance for your input!

Yannis

2

Anyone?

3

Unfortunately, I can only confirm that QCAD is not “yet another Autocad clone”. However, as far as I know there are plenty of those available, so you might want to look into those?

QCAD is very much intentionally designed to be different than all the Autocad clones. If you need Autocad, QCAD is very likely not for you.

4

Thank you for your answer.

I know about other “autocad clones”, like ZWCAD and BricsCAD, to name a few. The reason I am asking is because I am looking for an open source solution specifically that also uses a familiar drafting workflow and functionality like AutoCAD. I was wondering if the reason why QCAD (and LibreCAD too) does not follow this concept and whether the choice is design-based, or because of legal limitations.