Free DWG API in development

ODA and Bricsys form their own ITC, and now ODA gets a second competitor (after Autodesk):

HT to Normand Chamberland to alerting us about the free DWG API project, GNU LibreDWG at www.gnu.org/software/libredwg

GNU LibreDWG is a free C library to handle DWG files. It aims to be a free replacement for the OpenDWG libraries. GNU LibreDWG is based on LibDWG, originally written by Felipe Castro. 

LibreDWG is in alpha development stage. There are no binary releases yet. GNU LibreDWG is currently being maintained by Rodrigo Rodrigues da Silva and Felipe Correa da Silva Sanches.

DWG R13, R14 and 2000 are currently supported, with progress on DWG 2004; the Reed-Solomon encryption added to DWG 2007 is a problem. Some documentation is, unfortunately, in Esperanto, the failed universal language.

There is a English wiki at groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibreDWG, and the programmers are looking for AutoCAD-knowledgable types to explain CAD concepts to them.

Looks like OpenDWG now has another competitor.

Comments

[Norm C.]

Funny, I hadn't seen that Esperanto page. But it looks like the English link has the same content. And all the documentation from the successor project LibreDWG seems to be in an actual living language (English).

It surely won't ever be a real contender (but of course you knew that already :-P), still it might develop to be useful to small free and open source projects.

[Norm C.]

Which makes me think, I've updated my link to the general public info page as you did, instead of the Savannah project development page. Thanks.

[Henrik Vallgren]

The license model is GPL which makes it uninteresting for almost any potential user.

[Steve Johnson]

I wonder how long it will take for Autodesk's lawyers to shoot off a Cease & Desist letter over the DWG part of the LibreDWG name? I don't think Autodesk has any right to claim exclusive use of the DWG abbreviation, which long predates Autodesk. But that's the position Autodesk is taking and those lawyers need to keep billing for something, no matter how silly it makes their client look.

[J Gerth]

Henrik

The notion that GPL licensing makes software libraries 'uninteresting' seems rather preposterous on the face of it -- considering the number of FOSS and commercial entities that utilize GPL and other FOSS licensed software in their operations.

Especially in the context of ralph's current headline post (2010/03/11), the GPL nature of the GNULibreDWG is highly interesting. It's doubtful based on current practices if Autodesk's heirs and assigns will will be of much use recovering design data from v2007 dwg files in 2062.

[Norm C.]

I think Henrik meant that the GPL is an extremely limiting license, it means only projects licensed under the same GPL can use it - thus a lot of potential users won't benefit from it. The Lesser GPL would be less restrictive.

[Steve Johnson]

It's unlikely that many people will be particularly interested in a library that doesn't support any of the current century's DWG formats. I support oben formats and love to see underdogs succeed, but I can't see much hope here.

[Steve Johnson]

*open*

[CADDIT]

It fits. Esperanto is more or less an academic exercise - like their library itself. Compressed DXF would already be more productive.