ArcheOS Theodoric CAD metapackage

Hi all,

with this post I would like to start a series of report about ArcheOS 5 (Theodoric) development, both to keep you informed on the state of the art of the new release and to have more feedback from the community (nowadays ATOR reaches about 7000 or 8000 readers per month). 

As most of you know, Fabrizio Furnari had the good idea to reorganize ArcheOS software selection into different metapackages (divided by the topic already used for the archaeological menu). This will optimize the software management (from the developers point of view) and will spare users time during the installation process (everybody will be able to install just the applications he really needs).

Today I will shortly describe the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) metapackage. For thins kind of software we decided to proceed on the path of ArcheOS 4 (Caesar, beta release), confirming the choice of LibreCAD, for 2D operations, and FreeCAD for 3D. 

In the image below, you see, for example, the use of LibreCAd to rebuild a 2D Cartesian coordinates system, trough triangulation (it can be useful in those cases where it is impossible to use total stations or GPS to record Ground Control Points, for photomapping, or other archaeological elements).

Building a Cartesian coordinates system through triangulation in LibreCAD

In this other screenshot, you can see the use of FreeCAD during the architectural documentation of the church of S. Maria Assunta in Riva del Garda (Trentino, Italy).

FreeCAD (Architectural documentation)

Unfortunately, for this category of applications, we are not yet able to evaluate, from an archaeological point of view, the software BRLCAD, which seems to have great potentialities. For ArcheOS Theodoric release, we decided to exclude BRLCAD form the software selection, but it is till under observation. 

We will go on testing the use of BRLCAD for archaeological purposes, but if someone of you has the necessary knowledge for the application of this software in cultural heritage (or has some feedbacks about it), please contact us (or simply reply this post). Thanks to your help we hope to improve ArcheOS faster and faster!