[scribus] Scribus as technical drawing tool

[Sveinn í Felli]

Hi John,

(a bit late, the thread has evolved some)

Þann mán  9.apr 2012 11:10, skrifaði John Beardmore:
> Because Scribus allows very precise placement and
> dimensioning of objects, I've taken to using it as a basic
> CAD tool.
>
> This would be greatly facilitated though, if it were
> possible to move the origin of the coordinate system, and
> introduce arbitrary scales for the drawing of lines and
> polygons, e.g. 1:150.
>
> Is anybody else using it this way, and is anybody else
> interested in these developments ?
>
> (I know there's an argument for doing this in CAD, and
> that's something we've looked at, but haven't got to grips
> with yet. We're still waiting for a package that will do for
> CAD what Scribus has done for DTP.)
>

I'm sure Alexandre Prokoudine could give you more pointers.

I'm often using Scribus for annotating and sketching details 
based on CAD drawings in PDF-format. What I like is the 
ability to load an A1 page into an image frame on an A4/A3 
page, panning/zooming at will and putting my text and simple 
drawings on top. Sometimes this is for feedback to 
(external) designers, sometimes as a supplement for 
execution (carpenters/plumbers/etc). Of course, if the 
sketches become serious modifications, one has to work on 
the source DWGs.

DXFs can also work, but hatches/fills and line thickness 
often mess up (as between any CAD software).

What I always have to include, is a warning about not taking 
any measurements/calculations off the printed output; even 
if I'm able to show the drawing parts close to a certain 
scale, it is not verifiable. And the printer 
software/drivers (in my case Acrobat + CUPS+Gutenberg) are 
not calibrated or officially certified for this kind of work.

So, even if it would be nice to have a sort of scale 
awareness for image frames in Scribus, it could be quite 
complicated to achieve something useful in the context I was 
describing. Meaning, that close to the scope of the 
certification biz...

Best regards,

Sveinn í Felli