Archimedes – "The Open CAD" – (also called Arquimedes) is a

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

(CAD) program developed with direct input from architects and architecture firms. The program was made to create

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

more compatible with architectural design than the currently widely used

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software application developed by Autodesk. It was first released in December 1982 for the CP/M and IBM PC platforms as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics control ...

, and other available CAD softwares. Archimedes Project The program is

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

released under the

Eclipse Public License The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is a free and open source software license most notably used for the Eclipse IDE and other projects by the Eclipse Foundation. It replaces the Common Public License (CPL) and removes certain terms relating t ...

Features

* Basic drawing ** Lines, Polylines, Arcs and Circles. ** Editable Text ** Explore ** Offset * Advanced CAD functions ** Trimming ** Filleting ** Area measurement * Miscellaneous **

Autosave Autosave is a saving function in many computer applications and video games which automatically saves the current changes or progress in the program or game, intending to prevent data loss should the user be otherwise prevented from doing so manu ...

** SVG export **

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

export ** English, Portuguese, and Italian language support

Integration with other CAD systems

Archimedes uses its own

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

-based

open format An open file format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by an openly published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. An open file format is licensed with a ...

, which resembles SVG. It does not yet include support for other CAD formats, but

DXF AutoCAD DXF (Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format) is a computer-aided design (CAD) data file format developed by Autodesk to enable CAD data exchange and interoperability between AutoCAD on different computing platforms. His ...

support is planned.

Development

Archimedes is written in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, and the latest version runs on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

based systems, and might run on platforms that are supported by LWJGL and a Java Virtual machine on version 1.5.0 or later.

History

The Archimedes Project started as a collaboration between a group of programmers and architecture students at the

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, in 2005. The project is currently being developed as free and open-source software. There is a team of students from the University working on it as collaborators, and everyone is free to contribute with plugins and/or patches.

Timeline

* Archimedes was registered as a SourceForge.net project on July 12, 2005. * The last stable pre-RCP version was 0.16.0, released on October 25, 2000. * The first stable version after the RCP migration was 0.50.0, released on April 25, 2007.

Migration to Eclipse RCP in version 0.5x

A migration to the

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

Rich Client Platform in versions 0.5x vastly improved the user interface model and stability, but some functionalities from the last pre-RCP version are still under transfer. Version 0.58.0 aims to move this process a step closer by adding trimming, leader, svg and pdf exporting.

External links

Archimedes Home Page

Archimedes on SourceForge.net

Hugo Corbucci's Blog (Archimedes Project Lead)

Github Repository

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archimedes (Cad) Computer-aided design software for Linux Free computer-aided design software Free software programmed in Java (programming language)