LibreCAD in the Browser | Hacker News Reader

LibreCAD in the Browser

magik.net

99 pointsdevttyeu17 comments

This version of LibreCAD needs WebAssembly JSPI, which your browser does not enable. Please use an up-to-date Chromium-based browser (Chrome/Edge 137+). Firefox and Safari are not yet supported.

> I'm not a CAD user, and I don't want to install one just to draw five lines and a circle.

I have installed LibreCAD years ago and used it 3 or 4 times to add measurements on a downloaded drawing. Installed it with just "pacman -S librecad" and enter. Takes just ~82.7 MB on the disk. No account, no background service, completely gratis. Never asked me for an update, because it is always updated with the rest of the system. For all the years it sits there, waiting for a moment to be needed.

While I do get the appeal of the ability to squeeze desktop program into a browser, especially when using someone else's computer, so thank you for the project, while I do not understand the level of push away desktop programs get sometimes.

Hmmm. I select "line > 2 points" and attempt to draw a line. I see nothing when I move my mouse over the canvas or click.

In a default native install, I get a crosshair and grid dots, and when I select "line > 2 points" I can click on the canvas twice and I get a line between those locations.

Edit: All tools appear to be broken and clicking on the canvas after selecting a tool doesn't draw anything.

Google Chrome Version 150.0.7871.46 (Official Build) (64-bit)

I also tried in an incognito tab in case it was an extension or cache issue, still nothing.

Are you sure you created a new canvas first? Should be black, not grayish.

I would think SolveSpace would be a much better target for this. It's got its own GUI system so probably pretty trivial to get running in the browser.

Oh yeah look somebody did it 4 years ago: https://github.com/TrevorDArcyEvans/solve-space-web

Plus SolveSpace is actually a good CAD app, especially for simple stuff. (For complex stuff the only good open source option is FreeCAD.)

Ok, solve space is cool. But let me know when it’s ready to tackle more than a “hello world” level design problem.

Same for LibreCAD... SolveSpace is much more capable.

This is something that is being done by the core maintainer(s?) now; it’s linked off the main site.

I highly recommend using a CAD with constrains support, like the sketcher in FreeCAD. Once get the hang of it, you'll never, ever go back.

Mmm FreeCAD you say, let's see.

Having the sketcher as a web app could be incredibly useful, especially if it could save as PDF, SVG and download your current sketch as JSON or something so it could be loaded again.

I have never had success using Freecad or librecad on xubuntu. Tried a couple times and couldn't figure it out. I became very proficient in AutoCAD/inventor in school.

But qcad is very straight forward to use, runs on Linux, and is affordable. Unfortunately no 3D

Thank you so much for showing off this tool. I had never heard of it either, but this sounds like such a time saver for basic stuff!

I'm always a bit disappointed when something only works in Chrome. It feels like developers don't give a damn about any other browser.

Enable issues ?

Just enabled, however note that I don't really intend to support this much more, but would happily get this repo to someone who would want to support wasm mode more properly / ideally upstream in longer term

Very cool!

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