[4617] in RedHat Linux List
Re: AUTOCAD on Linux
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark Hamstra)
Fri Nov 15 17:35:15 1996
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 17:27:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Hamstra <mhamstra@sullivan.bentley.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
In-Reply-To: <199611152137.PAA06786@babba.cu-online.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Otto Hammersmith wrote:
> Mark Hamstra wrote:
> >
> > Zig Herzog <herzog@egghead.psu.edu> wrote:
> > > Howdy, is anybody out there who got Autocad (preferrably release 13)
> > > running under Linux (whatever flavor). At this point I just want to know
> > > whether it is feasible
> > > Your help is much appreciated ..... Zig
> >
> > Nope, it's not possible. Probably won't ever be, either: Autodesk
> > looks to be intent on dropping all Unix support with R14, so they
> > certainly won't be starting a new Linux port now.
> >
> > However, even if they did support Linux, it shouldn't make any
> > difference to academic-types: I've already done the port of
> > Bentley's MicroStation 95 to Linux/Intel, it will be released soon
> > as part of the Q4 '96 MicroStation Academic Suite, and MicroStation
> > is just plainly a better CAD environment than AutoCAD in the first
> > place.
>
> But you're not biased, right? ;)
Ummm.... Actually, there's some pretty good objective evidence to this
effect (cf. http://www.bentley.com/products/microstation95/r13/). On the
subjective side: I got my job at Bentley by being persistent enough in
asking for a Linux port of MicroStation: my preferred CAD
platform in my previous life as architecture grad student.
> > If you want fully supported, commercially licensed MicroStation for
> > Linux, then you need to stop by
> > http://www.bentley.com/products/change-request.html and make your
> > desire to purchase commercially licensed MicroStation/Linux known.
> > At this point there are no plans to release MicroStation/Linux
> > commercially, but that is simply a matter of economics and numbers:
> > if enough would-be commercial MicroStation/Linux users make their
> > presence known, then Bentley will fully support Linux.
>
> What's the count up to now?
I'm to busy coding software to count ;-) In all honesty, you would have
to ask Phil Chouinard (phil.chouinard@bentley.com). He's the one who's
job it is to look at all the ..change-request.html responses.
> If some more convincing would help... you might want to point out
> Mathematica does quite well under Linux.. I would put Mathematica in
> the same class of application as Microstation, with similar
> markets... both are large, high-end, tecnical applications
I'm not the one needing convincing (btw, just how many Mathematica
licenses has Wolfram sold for Linux?). I think Phil is beginning to see
the light too. However, neither one of us has a last name of Bentley, so
in the final analysis our opinions matter little. I doubt anyone here at
Bentley has any reservations about the technical merits of
MicroStation on Linux, but the only way to convince the Bentley brothers
of the business merits of MicroStation/Linux is to provide them with a
sufficient number of license requests.
> > BONUS POINTS:
> >
> > 1) Every Linux box at Bentley is running Red Hat Linux :-)
> > 2) It hasn't been officially announced yet, but I've also completed
> > the port of our MasterPiece rendering and animation add-on to
> > MicroStation. When the MasterPiece product manager left my office
> > yesterday, his last comment was to the effect of: 'O.k., let's put
> > it on the Academic CD....'
>
> Cool.
Very cool: ray-tracing, radiosity, photomatching, procedural textures,
area lights, animation with such things as parametric motion control,
field rendering (for use with video), and networked rendering... hmmm,
better make that 'very, very cool!'
> > 3) I've got this SPARCstation20 that I'm going to be adding an ext2-formatted
> > hard drive to over the weekend....
>
> Bastard! And here I am forced to run Solaris on a SPARC ELC. *sigh*
> At least no one is using this machine for builds anymore. :)
Yeah, but I only get to use mine on weekends :-(
> So does this mean there might be a SPARC Linux versino of
> Microstation? That would be quite nifty.
I'm quite confident that I can get the port done in fairly short order
(that is, if people would stop coming into my office at 4PM on Friday
asking me if I could get stuff done by Monday morning :-( Whether anyone
but me will ever get to use it is another question.
> If that is the case, is
> Alpha going to happen anytime soon?
Unlikely. We've looked hard a couple of times at doing Digital Unix (at
the request of commercial customers), but have always run hard into the
32bit --> 64bit wall.
> That's the only drawback I can
> see to Linux on non-Intel machines... the lack of applications. It'd
> be great if Alpha Linux started becoming as usable as Intel
> Linux... Digital Unix emulation is great, but native apps would go a
> long way. For what it's worth, Mathematica on Linux Alpha is awaiting
> hardware and time...
Umm, hate to tell you this, Otto, but I've got the Alpha hardware, too ;-)
(I've even got a 24bit plane z-buffered graphics card just sitting here in
a box just waiting for Jay to finish the X server.) Aside from working
*way* too many hours in a week, I do kinda enjoy this job!
Mark Hamstra
Bentley Systems, Inc.
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