LibreCAD is an open source and mature computer-aided design application for creating 2D CAD drawings under the Linux platform. It is based on the Community Edition of the QCad software and it also runs on BSD, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.
Features at a glance
It features advanced two-dimensional CAD functionality and it has been designed from the ground up to help Linux users to effortlessly create rich 2D designs on their open source platform.
The application includes all the tools and elements that CAD designers need to create comprehensive geometric and CAD drawings, including entities, layers, blocks, as well as coordinate systems.
In addition, it features grid and object snapping, and allows for basic editing of entities, such as transform, delete, insert, select and duplicate. You can also move, stretch, scale, trim, rotate, divide, align, explode, and copy objects.
Another interesting feature is the ability to use templates in the Drawing Exchange, QCad 1.x, LFF font, QCad font, and Jww Drawing file formats. Furthermore, you can insert images and import blocks, as well as to print your 2D drawings with an attached printer device.
Under the hood, supported operating systems and architectures
Under the hood, we can mention that LibreCAD provides users with a graphical user interface designed with the Qt4 GUI toolkit. Its code is written in the C++ programming language and runs well on both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.
Officially, the software is distributed as binary packages for Debian- and Ubuntu-based Linux distributions, as well as third party RPM packages for Red Hat-based OSes. A source archive is also available for download, allowing users to configure, compile and install the program on any Linux-based operating system.
Bottom line
Overall, LibreCAD is a very good alternative to the FreeCAD parametric 3D modeler. It is available in more than 20 languages and supports modern Linux-based operating systems, such as Ubuntu and CentOS.
