Computer Aided Design CAD on Linux
January 28, 2025 3:08 PM   Subscribe

This morning my PC threw up the dialogue to upgrade to windows 11 - and then helpfully told me my machine wouldn't support windows 11 (why is this company so terribly useless). My core question is there anyone here running CAD software on Linux in a professional capacity (and generally running a business using Linux), and how is that working out?

I have a core piece of software (Vectorworks 2018) unsupported on windows 11 (more recent versions are but offer no advantage, and I cannot afford a new PC). I intend to continue using VW for the foreseeable future - a decade anyway. I know several people who are running vectorworks on versions of Linux.

I am sick of the continual effort required to keep windows functional for my workflows (even more so when it forces hardware upgrades), and increasingly I'm using open source software so Linux feels like a next logical step.

I believe my version of Windows does not have Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL, so that is not an option.

I asked a question on my CAD forum a discussion which mentions running the software in a virtual machine (which I know even less about than Linux), but that sounds problematic. So my solution is probably Linux, intially as a dual boot system - which sounds like anotyher whole lot of stuff to learn.

And now my startbar with all its useful essential shortcuts has vanished - and looks like a huge palava to recover it.

If it matters my current OS is Windows 10 Home Version 22H2, running on Intel64 Family 6 Model 158
posted by unearthed to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
As you may have seen, there is some history of people running Vectorworks under Wine, the windows emulation layer. This is not a virtual machine and should be fairly performant.

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=488
posted by bug138 at 3:47 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]


I believe my version of Windows does not have Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL, so that is not an option.

That would still have the thice-damned Windows as its underlying OS, so that wouldn't change one iota.

I asked a question on my CAD forum a discussion which mentions running the software in a virtual machine (which I know even less about than Linux), but that sounds problematic. So my solution is probably Linux, intially as a dual boot system - which sounds like anotyher whole lot of stuff to learn.

Fortunately, nearly all of the better-known Linux distributions (distros, in short), Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, OpenSUSE and Arch, have installers that basically ask "I see Windows here, do you want to keep it?" and create a dual-boot setup when you answer "Yes". So that part at least doesn't require any deep Linux knowledge to get you started, and creating an USB stick with an installer on it is not rocket surgery either, even on Windows. On top of that, these distros have extensive fora, howto's and other helpful info sources.

So, the first steps of getting out of the Windows arena carry as good as no risk and little effort.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:42 AM on January 29 [1 favorite]


My suggestion for dipping your toes in to Linux is to add another drive to your computer and install it there. Most modern Linux distros do have the option of installing alongside Windows on your primary drive, but because Linux and Windows use different filesystems, this means resizing and repartitioning your primary drive. This usually goes seamlessly, but when it does not, it is usually catastrophic. Also, should you decide Linux is not for you, removing it and restoring your computer back to how it was before can be messy.

Adding an entirely new drive for Linux and installing it there still gives you the option of choosing which operating system to boot into on startup, but should you decide Linux is not the way to go (or even, that particular distro of Linux is not the way to go) removing it and reverting back to how your computer was originally is generally just a case of changing the boot drive option in your UEFI/BIOS settings, or just removing the "Linux drive" you added.

I don't have specific CAD software suggestions for you, but WINE is pretty straightforward these days, and capable of getting quite a lot of WIndows applications running (and very well!) on Linux.
posted by xedrik at 8:06 AM on January 29


Hello, fellow old VectorWorks user, for me it's 2016 on Mac. I have the triple whammy of 1. that version of Vworks only runs on old Macs, 2. with a version of MacOS so old that web browsers don't work, and 3. I only use it 10 days of the year, so it doesn't pay enough to get on the $1500 yearly cost of the latest version.

I do not have a direct answer to your question about Linux. However, I have found workarounds to keep my old VectorWorks alive and useful through use of an older computer, network file sharing, and network screen sharing. I'll leave it at that and if you might find this useful, you can MeMail me and i'll give you the full setup.
posted by sol at 8:46 AM on January 30


Response by poster: Thank bug13 yes I had seen that, and have just seen from here [VW forum] VW up to 2019 can be made to run on Wine.

Stoneshop - the thrice-dammed windows, thanks, that clarifies what I've just been reading. Yes, a USB type approach seems to make the most sense for my case at the moment.

xedrik So this would be a completely separate SDD, and reverting by "just removing the "Linux drive" ".

Virtual machines sound like they suffer too much lag for (inefficiently written, and I think the 3D is an effect rather than as in other CADs) things like Vectorworks, and sound like a GPU is needed which I'd rather avoid at the moment as $$ here.

Thanks sol, until 2020 I was running VW2012 and had written flags and warnings across my system not to update various frameworks in order to keep VW healthy. It's a weird program but sadly I haven't found anything better, but I am very slowly moving to doing more and more in QGIS. I've not seen anything in subsequent VW versions offers anything I need.

I keep hoping that Rhino will develop a workflow that works for my sort of landscapes/planning but I've been hoping for 20 years and I don't think it'l ever get there.

I can imagine (worst case) running an offline windows to run VW so I'll take up your offer and memail you later.
posted by unearthed at 11:30 AM on January 30


Dual-booting Linux is an easy option to test before Win 10 shuffles off, as others have outlined. I'm adding the following just in case it's useful for you or anyone finding this Ask down the line...

It might be worth doing a bit more digging around your system before writing off the Win 11 upgrade. As far as I can figure the "Family 6 Model 158" you describe is a Core i5 9500 which is listed as supported by MS.

I'm holding onto Win 10 for as long as possible, but did have the same "not supported" result when I tested the Win 11 install process. This surprised me as it was on a machine that's not that old. I had to dig around in the BIOS and enable TPM (Trusted Platform Module) to pass the install check.
posted by protorp at 3:06 PM on January 30 [1 favorite]


Daily-driver Linux and CAD user here.

If running this particular piece of software is critical to your livelihood, I am not sure I would mess around with Linux on the same machine at all. I know you say you can't afford a new PC, but... I think you really need to consider springing for a second computer here (which need not be fancy—heck, a Raspberry Pi 5 would do fine, or a cheap ex-corporate x86 clunker) for use as your daily driver, Internet-connected machine, and then take your Vectorworks machine and firewall it off, make some good backups, and basically encase it in amber.

To the extent possible, this could be your opportunity to 'freeze' your CAD workstation, which ensures you're off the upgrade treadmill for good, and can evaluate other solutions without risk.

I think you'll find dual-booting to be pretty obnoxious pretty quickly, and you'll end up staying in one environment or the other most of the time (probably the Windows one, if you have to use the software there). Running a VM or using something like WINE to run Vectorworks from the Linux environment is likely to be a lot more pleasant... but I don't know how well that'll work or what the configuration learning curve is like. (From trying to run some Autodesk stuff in WINE, it was not an insubstantial investment of time.)

But if you do want to dual-boot as a stopgap, I'd at least get a second hard drive for the alternate OS. (Not a backup drive, but a decent SSD.) It just makes everything cleaner to have each OS on its own physical drive, and it also lets you take the second (Linux) drive out and move it to a second PC at some point down the road when you're ready to purchase hardware, leaving the Windows system still intact. (There would likely be some BIOS/EFI boot-sector stuff that has to happen on both systems, but the data wouldn't have to move.) One of the many nice things about Linux is that it's more loosely tied to the hardware of a particular installation than Windows.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:32 PM on January 31 [1 favorite]


Just stumbled on this and thought it was relevant to the "general running a business" part of the question.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:55 AM on February 1


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