V18 Linux questions

mlwebb
mlwebb
in Linux

Hi folks, new user here with a few questions.

I am putting together a new computer to give v18 a try (i5-8600k, Asus Prime Z370-A motherboard, 16GB of Crucial Dominator 3466mhz DDR4, XPG SX8200 NVMe 480GB SSD (boot-OS-Bricscad) and Seagate 7200 firecuda HD (storage), Noctua cpu cooler and fans, Nvidia Quadro P1000 graphics card) (Didn't seem fair to try it on my aging computer, and assuming it works, I won't have to resinstall). I've drawn up a couple of modest presentations in Shape, and while it feels a little "new", it also seems to have structural advantages over Sketchup.

So my initial question (possibly of many) is whether an all linux setup of v18Platinum and Shape (when available) is ready and viable for normal use, or should I also look into running the windows version in an emulator (wine, etc), or to buy an copy of win10 and perhaps another SSD and plan on dual booting. I have another windows machine that I dual boot for a few windows only programs but use linux for general use (Opensuse Tumbleweed). I am asking now, because its usually easier to install windows first, than linux when dual booting.

The second question is are there any configuration or installation issues that I should be aware of, or alternate drive/storage/partitioning options I should consider? Re Opensuse, should I use Leap rather than Tumbleweed?

I have a few other questions that I'll post in the appropriate forum categories.
Michael

Comments

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer

    I am in the same situation.
    I am on Mac but Apple makes 3D life harder and harder and when they will
    show on Monday on WWDC that they will go further away from workstation
    hardware and Mac OS, I definitely have to switch, soon.
    I want to build my own PC anyway.
    I think I just wait for Threadripper 2 and GPU+RAM peak prices to lower (?)
    But I am concerned about getting back to Windows again so I also looked
    at Ubuntu, played with Kubuntu and really like it.

    Some of my Apps are cross platform already, like Bricscad, Blender and Modo.
    My main App Vectorworks is Mac/Win only and going Linux means to rely on
    Bricscad completely for 3D CAD and BIM !

    1.
    So for the Bricscad Linux is ready or not question, from my Bricscad Mac
    experience :
    Things like Modo or Blender look and work equally on all Platforms.
    But Bricscad Mac (and meanwhile for Linux even more) are always
    months behind the Windows version.
    As for my 3D or BIM usage Bricscad itself is still not ready, complete or
    tedious up to preventing from work, that is an issue for me.
    (PDF display caching now available in Windows, as an example)

    But beside a few of Windows features missing or just being behind a bit,
    I don't have enough experience with Bricscad Linux so far, but seen from
    Mac, Bricscad Windows is a whole other experience.
    Much less crashes, everything runs so much smoother. Not all these
    hiccups here and there.
    So I doubt it is a good idea to renounce of Windows completely.

    2.
    About the Virtual Machine thing,
    on Mac, Bricscad on Windows 10 runs really well on a Parallels VM as
    it offers really good fake hardware support for Windows OS including
    OpenGL.
    On the other hand the support for Linux is poor and Bricscad doesn't even
    work on my Kubuntu VM. So it depends and you have to test VM's before.
    Also Bricscad on VM's is not recommended or supported and I am not sure
    if the VM power will be enough enough for "real" projects on the long run.

    (I did that with my Microstation on a Win7 VM on OS X for a few years and
    that was not a nice experience)
    So I would go with a dual boot real Windows.

    3.
    Linux installation.
    I could handle Windows very well in the past although I think you need to
    spend too much time to frickle with it, opposed to Mac which just runs.
    I am very comfortable with controlling macOS and my Apps.
    But when Terminal inputs are needed, I leave my comfort zone and can
    just copy/paste lines from from a web site.
    Your understanding and handling of Linux may be much better.
    My experience with Linux is that an Ubuntu is very well suited even for the
    average PC user that has no clue at all. As long as all standard Software comes
    from the repository, it's fine.

    But when you need your proprietary Pro Software or want more recent
    Software versions than in repository it gets really hard for me.
    Modo doesn't really install but runs from its folder similar to Mac. I have no clue
    in which folder I should install/extract. In always need the Terminal. I have no
    clue where Modo's setting files reside.
    Fortunately Bricscad Linux offers an installer. I see it installing in locations I would have expected though. I also feel lost where to find (hidden) settings files,
    which, at my start with Bricscad on Mac, I had so often to reset.

    So I also have no clue about Bricscad Linux installation hurdles and tips and
    are very interested too.

  • sandyego
    sandyego

    I have been trying to install BricsCAD on Linux and so far no luck. I have tried so far on Fedora 28 and Lubuntu 18.04 but in both cases packages are missing that are not in the current package repositories for either distro. In both cases most missing libraries are the same. I did not save my missing package list from Fedora before wiping the partition but I will list my missing packages for Lubuntu 18.04 below. I guess I will just install on Windows though one main reason I bought the software was to use it on Linux. Passthrough support appears to be improving on KVM so that might just be the winning ticket, as long as there is hardware support in the processor and mainboard/chipset.

    My current list of missing packages (list made via ldd) are:

    libcommands.so => not found
    AcModelDocObj.tx => not found
    libTD_Db.so => not found
    libTD_Ge.so => not found
    libTD_Root.so => not found
    libTD_Alloc.so => not found
    libxerces-c-3.0.so => not found
    libwx_baseu-3.0.so => not found
    libwx_gtk2u_core-3.0.so => not found
    libwx_gtk2u_xrc-3.0.so => not found
    libwx_gtk2u_gl-3.0.so => not found
    libwx_gtk2u_aui-3.0.so => not found
    libwxgui.so => not found
    libcmdapi.so => not found
    libcadapp.so => not found
    libodapp.so => not found
    libbcutils.so => not found

    If anyone has these to share it would be greatly appreciated :smile:

  • Torsten Moses
    Torsten Moses
    edited June 2018

    Hi Sandyego,

    all those packages are core part of BricsCAD Linux :-)
    So if the loader can not find them, then you can adjust the default loader path to include the BricsCAD install folder, usually in a shell script to start BricsCAD
    (I'm not sure about, but I think, BricsCAD installation does also install such a default shell script to start it ?)
    hope this helps ?
    many greetings !

  • Tijs Vermeulen
    Tijs Vermeulen

    Indeed, as Torsten points out all those libraries are part of BricsCAD itself, not caused by missing package dependencies but by incomplete loader search path.

    By design BricsCAD requires that the installation directory is added into LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

    Did you perhaps try to directly run the bricscad executable from a terminal, by entering ./bricscad?
    Please try to run the bricscad.sh shell script that should be in the same folder.
    Or you could enter bricscadv18 in terminal, from any working directory.
    If you must run it directly LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./bricscad may do the trick.
    Try LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ldd bricscad to spot actual missers.

    For more help, please enter a support request.

    Regards
    Tijs

  • sandyego
    sandyego

    Thank you guys. It works! Turns out I was missing package libglu1-mesa in Ubuntu. And yes all of the binaries were there in the install folder, no wonder I couldnt locate them in a repo :)

This discussion has been closed.