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

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi Saber,

The dxf2shape plugin is a current possible workaround, but far from 
ideal. Definitely what we want to use in the future.

The problems that come to my mind are:
- you loose all styling
- you loose text labels
- you have to manually restyle stuff (if you still can)
- you have to go through this nasty old file format "ESRI shape" that we 
really want to retire soon
- no curve support
- it is complicated and more time consuming
- there are probably even more drawbacks and problems that don't come to 
my mind immediately, regarding this approach

I would not recommend to invest in the dxf2shape plugin, but rather have 
a more direct provider that provides more information about the CAD 
objects, such as built around libdxfrw or Teigha (please don't stone me 
to death if I still list Teigha as an alternative ;-) ...)

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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