QCAD vs LibreCAD

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matt____jackson
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QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by matt____jackson » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:36 am

Hello. I have no prior experience of any sort of CAD, but want to introduce basic 2D drawings into the small business I own. I have whittled my choices down to LibreCAD or QCAD.

Could someone give me an overview of the pros/cons or a recommendation etc? Just FYI the cost of QCAD doesn't bother me as it's so relatively cheap.
QCAD-Pro v3.22.1 on MacOS.

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andrew
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Re: QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by andrew » Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:37 pm

Obviously this will be heavily biased as this is after all the QCAD forum.

I don't know how Librecad has evolved, but it is based on an old version of QCAD. Last time I checked they didn't have fundamental things like a property editor or support for TrueType text.

Best is probably as always, to try for yourself. Free QCAD trial versions are available at:
https://qcad.org/en/download

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Husky
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Re: QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by Husky » Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:27 pm

Hello,

I can't tell you what is the right decision for you - but I can tell you what was the right decision for me.

I had decades of experience with "big" CAD programs and was on the search for something adequate for small businesses or home usage. I tested intense a lot of CAD programs over a course of two years. Yes, with my experience I was pretty picky ...

Important for me was to have tools which are similar to that what I was used to and that I'm pretty close to the standard of the "big" programs. Compatibility is very important just to avoid an island CAD solution.

What I haven't put in my deliberation was how active is the development and the support of the existing CAD programs. I learned over the years that it is a very important part and it looks like a "stepchild" for many CAD developers out there.

Fortunately that isn't the case with QCAD. An active international forum and program updates every few month helps you to get the job done. And believe me - If somebody in the forum tells you "that isn't possible with the current version" helps you more than guessing around for hours or days why it isn't working as expected. Most of the time it is working as expected and the developers have always an open ear for new features.

This said - after two years "testing around" my decision was QCAD Pro .... and I never regretted it!


BTW: Maybe you like to compare QCAD Pro features to your other candidates: :wink:

https://www.qcad.org/en/qcad-documentat ... d-features
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Husky
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Re: QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by Husky » Wed Jul 03, 2019 8:03 pm

andrew wrote:
Wed Jul 03, 2019 5:37 pm
I don't know how Librecad has evolved ...
I kept an eye on that and the last update was 3 years ago in 2016 ...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/librec ... s/Windows/

... compared to QCAD the last update was 6 weeks ago in 2019 ...

https://www.qcad.org/en/changelog

... a slightly different picture.
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

matt____jackson
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Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:34 am

Re: QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by matt____jackson » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:01 am

Thank you for the replies guys, really appreciate it.

QCAD wins! The comments about regular updates & support was high on my list of points to consider - I've started learning software before only to have to change 3 years later because there was no development etc. I had figured QCAD was stronger on this side since they have some income from the Pro version.

Also, as a sign of the forum support, I posted exactly the same post on LibreCAD's forum at the same time yesterday, and as of right now there's not a single reply!!! Lol.

Thanks a lot, I imagine I'll be posting on here a lot more as I start learning :-) If anyone has any links to useful tutorials etc I'd be grateful. Have never done a technical drawing before so it's going to be a steep learning curve!
QCAD-Pro v3.22.1 on MacOS.

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andrew
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Re: QCAD vs LibreCAD

Post by andrew » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:05 am

Thank you for choosing QCAD!
matt____jackson wrote:
Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:01 am
Thanks a lot, I imagine I'll be posting on here a lot more as I start learning :-) If anyone has any links to useful tutorials etc I'd be grateful. Have never done a technical drawing before so it's going to be a steep learning curve!
You might want to consider investing in the QCAD book in this case. This will walk you through the process of getting started and producing a drawing. It will also teach you basic CAD concepts such as layers, blocks, snapping, etc:
https://qcad.org/en/qcad-book

The e-book is EUR 14.75 / USD 17 when purchased with QCAD.

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