[Qgis-psc] Proposal that QGIS.ORG will become a member of the OpenDesign Alliance

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi all,

Jürgen is currently investigating whether libdxfrw can be a Teigha 
alternative, resp. what is missing in libdxfrw to fulfill our requirements.

The whole situation with dxf/dwg libraries is a bit messy. Lots of 
abandoned projects and not a lot of documentation around. Thanks for all 
who helped investigating the issue. It really isn't easy to find out 
which project forked from which other project and is used by which 
software. Also which project has which license restrictions and still 
alive ...

If libdxfrw is a viable alternative to Teigha I am of course for using 
this library instead of Teigha.

Seems like libdxfrw is currently our best bet as a GPL compatible 
DXF/DWG library.

Let's wait for Jürgens feedback.

Andreas



On 17.12.2015 15:35, Saber Razmjooei wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My workflow so far for dealing with DWG files have been:
> - Using Teigha File Converter to convert DWG files to DXF (a binary tool distributed for free by OpenDesign to convert DWG/DXF formats)
> - In QGIS, using DXF2Shape to convert dxf files to vector consumable in QGIS
>
> The problem with Dxf2Shape is that the converted vector file does not include symbology, text and other info on the spec document sent earlier by Andreas.
>
> After Sandro's email, I have downloaded and compiled the code for libdxfrw. Using the dwg2dxf tool from libdxfrw, I then converted my 2015 DWG CAD file to dxf.
> I had some problems opening the resultant DXF in TrueView (AutoCAD file viewer) but managed to successfully use DXF2SHAPE to convert the file and read it in QGIS.
>
> To summarise, in my opinion, it will be best to:
> - embed libdxfrw library to convert DWGs to DXF behind the scene. If necessary, improve the library to handle complex DWG files.
> - improve DXF2Shape plugin...or if needed re-develop  a new tool to handle DXF files
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Regards,
> Saber
>
>
>
>   
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Qgis-psc [mailto:qgis-psc-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Sandro Santilli
> Sent: 16 December 2015 16:46
> To: Andreas Neumann; vincent.ml at oslandia.com; qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-psc] Proposal that QGIS.ORG will become a member of the OpenDesign Alliance
>
> UPDATE: it looks like libdxfrw (used by LibreCAD) has been made GPL2+:
> https://sourceforge.net/p/libdxfrw/code/ci/master/tree/
> It's documented to be able to read up to 2015  version of DWG files.
>
> Thread here:
> https://sourceforge.net/p/libdxfrw/discussion/general/thread/6d9d288c/
>
> --strk;
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 02:24:10PM +0100, Sandro Santilli wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 01:54:38PM +0100, Andreas Neumann wrote:
>>> Hi Strk,
>>>
>>> So why aren't FreeCAD, LibreCAD, Blender and Inkscape using
>>> LibreDWG? As far as I understand, it is because some of their other
>>> components/libraries are GPLv2 only and thus they can't mix? I can't
>>> claim that I understand all of these licensing issues. But
>>> apparently, for some reasons the majority of the LibreGraphics
>>> software cannot use LibreDWG. This is what the say at their
>>> websites:
>>>
>>> http://freecadweb.org/wiki/?title=Licence#GPL2.2FGPL3.2FOCTLP_incomp
>>> atibility
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreCAD#GPLv3_vs_GPLv2_controversy
>> So it looks, but those articles don't state clearly which dependencies
>> are GPL2-only so I cannot easily check if that's still the case.
>>
>>> Apparently LibreCAD created their own library, which is available at
>>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdxfrw/
>> And they made it GPL2-only. That's a bad move really :(
>>
>>> About the funding drive: this funding drive is about the Free
>>> Software Foundation (FSF) in general, not for the LibreDWG project,
>>> unfortunately. You can find the same funding drive on
>>> http://www.gnu.org/ and other GNU websites. Unfortunately, FSF,
>>> doesn't treat LibreDWG as a priority project.
>> Oops, you're right. Sorry for the confusion.
>>
>>> So basically, GRASS is the only piece of software using LibreDWG -
>>> according to
>>> https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibreDWG#Who_uses_it.3F
>>> because the information about LibreCAD is outdated.
>> That seems to be the case, yes.
>>
>> --strk;
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