Re: [Sodipodi-list] Using Sodipodi for 2-D CAD/CAM.

["C. Scott Ananian" <cananian lesser-magoo lcs mit edu>]

On Mon, 23 Sep 2002, Alan Horkan wrote:

> Dia is a Vector graphics diagramming tool, and it more intended for the
> the kind of design purposes you mention than the kind of beautiful artwork
> you can produce with Sodipodi.
>
> I am surprised that you did not even consider it, did you not hear about
> it or is it not appropriate?  Dia
> http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/

I'd heard of it, but it didn't come to mind when I was drawing up my list.
I've taken a look at it now.  Perhaps you can help me, because I can't
seem to make Dia:
  1) precisely dimension an object.  How do I get a box which is exactly
     2mm by 4mm, for example?
  2) snap-align objects.  How could I get the top left corner of a box to
     exactly match up with the midpoint of the left-hand side of another
     box?  How can I align the center of a circle to the top-left corner
     of a box?
  3) weld objects together (boolean addition) [also intersect and
     subtract]  Once I've put my circle center on the corner of a box,
     I'd like to union the shapes to get one outline around the outside of
     both shapes.
  4) There seems to be some amount of parametric dimensioning, in that
     lines will follow an anchor point as it is moved, but this capability
     is not as powerful as one would want in a 2D CAD tool.  I'd also like
     to say, "the center of this circle is exactly 5 inches above this
     line" for example.

> could you help me understand what your requiremetns are and i will
> help see what bugs need to be filed against Dia

The four items above would go far towards making Dia useful for
computer-aided design and fabrication.  But perhaps Dia can already do
some of these things?

> you did not expand these acronyms anywhere in your email or on the web
> page so i need to make absolutely sure we are talking about the same thing
> CAD   Computer Aided Design
> CAM     "     "   Modelling ???

CAM is computer-aided manufacturing.  It is basically taking your CAD file
and giving it to a machine tool which then cuts your part out, or mills it
from a block of material, or some such.

> If Xcircuit interests you perhaps Gael would also be of interest
> http://gael.sourceforge.net/
> (i would also mention Orengano but it is no longer well maintained
> http://oregano.codefactory.se/ )

I will look at these, thanks!
 --scott

--------------------------------------------
> On Sun, 22 Sep 2002, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
>
> > Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 16:21:14 -0400 (EDT)
> > From: C. Scott Ananian <cananian lesser-magoo lcs mit edu>
> > To: sodipodi-list lists sourceforge net
> > Subject: [Sodipodi-list] Using Sodipodi for 2-D CAD/CAM.
> >
> > I posted a brief evaluation of Sodipodi's suitability as a 2-D CAM tool
> > here:
> >    http://www.cag.lcs.mit.edu/~cananian/Projects/FabClass/freedom/
> > It contains some suggestions for additional features that would make
> > Sodipodi better for this application which may be of interest to the
> > Sodipodi developers.  Foremost is the lack of boolean path operations
> > (shape add/subtract/intersect).

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