How to use LDCAD on Linux (Nixos)?

[teambirb]

Hello, I want to use LDCAD on Linux. I tried to run it using Wine, but it doesn’t work. I loaded the libraries and everything. Then I loaded it up and got to the welcome screen and this is what it looks like, and it then crashes with an error after I create a new project.

I then tried to run the native linux version and I get the following errors

Copying executable to: /usr/bin
‘LDCad64’ → ‘/usr/bin/LDCad’
Copying data files to: /usr/share/LDCad
‘seeds/colorBin.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/colorBin.sf’
‘seeds/donors.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/donors.sf’
‘seeds/examples.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/examples.sf’
‘seeds/glTF.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/glTF.sf’
‘seeds/gui.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/gui.sf’
‘seeds/partBin.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/partBin.sf’
‘seeds/povray.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/povray.sf’
‘seeds/scripts.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/scripts.sf’
‘seeds/shadow.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/shadow.sf’
‘seeds/templates.sf’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/seeds/templates.sf’
‘docs/changeLog.txt’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/docs/changeLog.txt’
‘docs/manual.txt’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/docs/manual.txt’
‘resources/conLine_geoMethod.gsl’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/resources/conLine_geoMethod.gsl’
‘resources/LDCad-128x128.png’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/resources/LDCad-128x128.png’
‘resources/LDCad.ico’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/resources/LDCad.ico’
‘resources/conLine_geoMethod.vsl’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/resources/conLine_geoMethod.vsl’
‘resources/conLine_verMethod.vsl’ → ‘/usr/share/LDCad/resources/conLine_verMethod.vsl’
Creating config file: /etc/LDCad.cfg
Creating ldraw mime type file: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml
./setup.sh: line 103: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 104: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 105: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 106: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 107: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 108: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 109: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 110: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 111: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 112: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 113: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 114: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
./setup.sh: line 115: /usr/share/mime/packages/ldraw.xml: No such file or directory
Updating mime database.
Directory ‘/usr/share/mime/packages’ does not exist!
./setup.sh: line 123: ./genDskEntry.sh: Permission denied
Updating desktop database.
./setup.sh: line 128: update-desktop-database: command not found
All done.

[kharrington]

I was trying to use this on Ubuntu 22.04 and was able to get the UI running, but not able to find the Vex v5 parts library. Does anyone have a link to the v5 Parts library for LDCAD?

[teambirb]

On the vex website on every single item you can buy there is a cad file button where you can download the cad files. However, you have to download them individually, there are some alternative ways to download them in bundles on this post - Where to find v5 cad files on the vex website - #3 by 8goCrayzee

[holbrook]

I wish I had seen this thread 6 months ago when it was new, because I could’ve solved OP’s problem, which is that they need to point WINE at some font files. I put together some instructions a while back for getting LDCAD running under WINE; step 4 is the part they’re stuck on: Running LDCad for VEX IQ on macOS via Wine · GitHub

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Regarding the more recent replies, as much as I love LDCAD, it’s not the right answer for modeling V5 robots. What you’ll probably want to do is use one of several popular commercial CAD packages, all of which offer free licenses to students and/or teams and have parts libraries available. Probably the easiest one to use from Linux is Onshore since it runs in browser. This pdf from @kmmohn has some more info about getting started with CAD for V5: CAD for VEX Robotics.pdf - Google Drive

[teambirb]

When you say “Onshore”, I believe you mean onshape. I completely agree with you that onshape is a great alternative for v5. If you have problems with LDCad for VexIQ, Onshape is also a great alternative. When I couldn’t get LDCad working during the 2023-2024 season I used Onshape for designing our robots and it worked great.

[piplup]

I’ve found snapcad works well for designing iq systems, I’ve been running it with wine on my laptop.

CAD & SnapCAD - Downloads - IQ - VEX Robotics