Editing QCAD (section)

==Description==
QCAD is partly released under the [[GNU General Public License]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Mustun |first=Andrew |url=https://qcad.org/en/85-new-community-edition-open-source |title=QCAD 3.1 released as open source |date=17 June 2013 |publisher=QCAD |access-date=18 May 2021}}.</ref> Precompiled packages are available for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux platforms, Microsoft Windows OS and macOS.

QCAD is developed by [[RibbonSoft]]. Development on QCAD began in October 1999, starting with code from [[CAM Expert]]. QCAD 2, designed to "make QCAD more productive, more user friendly, more flexible and increase its compatibility with other products" began development in May 2002. QCAD 3 was first released in August 2011 with an [[ECMAScript]] ([[JavaScript]]) interface as major addition.

Some of the interface and concepts behind QCAD are similar to those of AutoCAD.

QCAD uses the [[DXF]] file format internally and to save and import files. Support for the popular [[DWG]] file format is available as a commercial plugin based on the [[Open Design Alliance]] DWG libraries.

Starting from version 3.7 QCAD is distributed as '''Professional Trial''' that works for a limited time, or as '''Community Edition''' as source code only, so users need to self compile or remove the QCAD Professional add-on running in trial mode.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mustun |first=Andrew |url=https://qcad.org/en/download |title=QCAD Downloads |website=QCAD |language=en-gb |access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref>

Although much of the software source is under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL-3.0-or-later]] license there is also significant functionality<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mustun |first=Andrew |url=https://qcad.org/en/qcad-documentation/qcad-features |title=QCAD Features |website=QCAD |date=2021-03-02|language=en-gb |access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref> not available under a [[free software license]].

QCAD has a large library of different templates.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.qcad.org/archives/partlibrary/Architecture-2012-07-09.zip |title=Example Files and Part Libraries – Architecture: Doors, windows, plants, people, etc. |website=QCAD |date=2012-07-09 |language=en-gb |access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.qcad.org/archives/partlibrary/Electronics-2012-07-09.zip |title=Example Files and Part Libraries – Electronics: ICs, capacitors, diodes, etc. |website=QCAD |date=2012-07-09 |language=en-gb |access-date=2021-05-18}}</ref>