Reply To: 4MCAD from Mintronics

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Steve Skelton 1 on 30/06/2021 09:16:12:

Hi All,

I have used Autocad 2006 in the past and felt very comfortable with it, Whilst I am not a power user it did what I wanted and allowed me to modify the timber-frame design drawings of the house I built.

I can no longer use the 2006 software I had as it does not run on 64 bit PC's.

I am looking to invest the time (and money) in a standalone, non-subscription CAD package that will allow me to modify my library of existing Autocad drawings and produce some new layouts that I need.

Does anyone have any experience with the 4MCAD software that Mintronics sell and do you have any views? I have tried LibreCAD but for some reason I am unable to load any of the files as it claims that I do not have the permissions. I have tried changing the permissions but with no success.

Never heard of 4MCAD unfortunately so can't comment. However, don't give up too quickly on LibreCAD. No software will read files unless the permissions are correct, so it's worth investigating what the problem is before trying something else. (Check everything before changing a car engine because it won't start. The petrol tank might be empty…)

One cause of permissions problems is transferring files from one machine or account to another. I guess the files have been copied from a 32-bit computer to a new 64-bit machine? Depending on how it's done transferred files can arrive with their original permissions, which are wrong in the new context, and have to be fixed by an administrator. Or re-do the transfer another way.

Which operating system, how were the files moved, and what are the error messages?

An observation. LibreCAD is a fork of QCAD Community Edition and, when I tried it a few years ago, LibreCAD wasn't quite as functional as the original. Might be worth trying the QCAD Community Edition. Also, amongst other goodies, QCAD Professional (paid for but good value), has better import/export coverage of the various AutoCAD dwg/dxf versions. It matters because AutoCAD have developed and extended their file formats for as long as I can remember. An early AutoCAD is likely to gag on drawings produced by later versions.

Dave