[Tfug] CAD software that is friendly to Linux

[Anthony Hess]

(think my last message got bounced so I apologize if this is a dupe)

Raytheon has a few thousand engineers .. the UA graduates a ton of
engineers ... thats perhaps what Walkup is calling "heavy" (his
background as a hughes exec probably influences that view as well).
If you want to move a company to this town that needs engineers we
have them - although typically they are coming out of college or they
are baby boomers with less than 10-15 years till retirement.
Definitely a big gap in the middle (this exists everywhere, but its
worse here because we don't have much besides Raytheon when it comes
to big companies - we lose the talent to other places).  I guess we
could blame our leadership - they just don't seem to be focused on
luring some of the big southern California companies here that would
love the lower cost of living (they can pay less).  Instead we get
fairly low tech service jobs.  Who knows - maybe once Tucson got that
reputation it was just too hard to change?

Anyway - CAD on Linux.  Pro/E?  I haven't used it in a few years, but
I really enjoyed it once I got to learn it (this was back before it
was so menu driven).  A couple people use that .... no its not open
source and its nowhere near cheap but I don't think that was the
original question.  Good luck getting schools to teach something other
than AutoCAD though - education has to a large degree morphed into
vocational training at the UA and Pima as well as the high schools.
"Windows is what they will use at work" ...

Its funny though, because knowledge gained in one CAD program is
typically highly transferable.  I first learned drafting on paper
before the UA moved to Microstation (I think they use AutoCAD now in
the Civil Engineering department).  Later on I used AutoCAD,
Solidworks, and Pro/E and didn't have much trouble moving between the
three (learning on paper helped me with understanding how you draw the
lines in the first place).

Tony

On 9/15/07, George Cohn <gwcohn at simplybits.net> wrote:
> johngalt1 wrote:
>
> >
> > If you believe the Mayor, Tucson is engineering heavy. But
> > his job is that of a cheerleader and selling the community.
> >
>
> And he won't be satisfied until his developer friends have knocked down
> the last saguaro and paved over it so his car friends can sell more
> cars.  ;-)
>
> I see a lot of "call center" type businesses being promoted.  Since when
> is that high tech?  As an old telecom person, I can tell you that if you
> are lucky, the system being used is server based and runs VOIP.
>
> Otherwise, there isn't a lot of high tech involved.  That gives high
> tech jobs to what, a dozen IT types and the rest are part-timers with a
> pleasant voice?
>
> Sorry for the rant, I'm just getting to be a cynical old fart!
>
> George Cohn
>
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