×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

SolidWorks on Linux

SolidWorks on Linux

SolidWorks on Linux

(OP)
I have a question for you guys.
I am thinking of installing Ubuntu onto my computer and use SolidWorks on it.
Does anyone here have any experience with this and can tall me if it will work or not, or if i should look at another Linux Distribution that can run SolidWorks no problem.

Thank you for your answers in advance.

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

Will it work at all with any Linux OS?  If so, I'd like to try it (after I get these 47 projects completed, of course).

I have Ubuntu, but have not yet tried it.  The cool thing about Ubuntu is that you can run it directly from the CD--good for experimenting with a new OS.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

I assume you know that SolidWorks will not run directly on Linux, or any other flavour of ?NIX. You will need a Windows emulator.

I have wanted to try for a long time and am interested in hearing your results. Many Windows programs have problems running on Windows, so I doubt that it will work well being 'translated' by an emulator.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

(OP)
Thank you for your reply.
Well i dont think i am going to try this because i can not afford to being down. I hoped that someone here had tried it already and can tell me if it works or not. I know ProE work fine on Linux so i hoped that maybe SolidWorks made the move as well but i guess not enough people on Linux that wants to use SolidWorks. Oh well i just stick to the good ol" XP. :)

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

(OP)
Great article thank you.

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

KriszT,

   I have tried to displaying SolidWorks executable Edrawings on my Linux box at home using WINE.  It did not work.  I have not played with WINE that much, so perhaps I did not try hard enough.

   SolidWorks is the last piece of software I would want to run under an emulator.  It is abusive (is that the word?) of your RAM, your video card and CPU.  Articles on SolidWorks crashes recommend that you turn off most of the Windows eye candy.  I cannot imagine that Linux under WINE, or any other Windows emulator, would be stable.

   The GNU/Linus OS is very stable.  That does not mean that each and every application is stable.

CorBlimeyLimey,

   That is a nice article you linked to.  If you install one of the Linux distributions from a book at Chapters, you will get Open Office, which is the Free Software version of Star Office.  I have no idea what is crippled.  It works fine, especially at importing from and exporting to Microsoft Office format.

   I understand that there is a version of Pro/E out for it, but I have heard nothing about it in the Linux community.  A CAD package called VariCAD is available for Linux and Windows.  CoCreate either has or had a Linux version.  There have been a couple of Free Software projects to develop CAD for Linux, but they have not gotten far.

   GNU/Linux is an amazing programming environment.  A lot of electronics people are into it.  So far, very few mechanical types have gotten into it.

                         JHG

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

CBL,
I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic/facetious in pointing out tomorrow's date on that article.  While it does mention SW on Linux in the future, it also mentions (7th par. from bottom)

Quote:


...they worry about anticipated problems of migration to Windows 2000.

I'd say that pegs this as being written sometime in '01 or '02 at the latest.

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

handleman ... I must have gapped when I placed the date. I thought we were in month 10 for some reason. dazed
I even missed that they weren't talking about XP.

Time for another coffee ... and some anti-alzheimers shots.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: SolidWorks on Linux

They did not mention UGS' NX, which has also been ported to Linux. The Parasolid kernel that powers SoldWorks has been ported for a while.
The problem with porting SolidWorks (and SolidEdge) to Linux is not the core code, but the UI code which is built using the MFC toolkit. All of this has to be built from scratch for a Linux port. NX and Pro/E already have their UI in a neutral format so a port to Linux is easier for them.
I have also heard that either UGS or PTC will be pulling the plug on their Linux distribution unless sales pick up to justify continued development on Linux.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
Sr IS Technologist
L-3 Communications

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources