CAD and the Jeston Nano

I'm not home right now so I can't test it, but this freecad looks promising (assuming, of course, that you have ubuntu installed)

Oh, and I think I saw a mention of QT5 somewhere connected to freecad, which I seem to remember (possibly incorrectly) having to do with ROS visualization, which could come in handy even if you dont bother with ROS

Posted by: @spyder

I'm not home right now so I can't test it, but this freecad looks promising (assuming, of course, that you have ubuntu installed)

I'm trying to install freecad but I'm running into some problems:

I get the following message:

james@Jetson-Nano:~$ sudo apt install freecad
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
freecad : Depends: freecad-python3 but it is not installable or
freecad-python2 but it is not installable
Recommends: calculix-ccx but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: graphviz but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I have Python2 (2.7.15+) and Python3 (3.6.8) installed.  But they aren't freecad-python.

Do I need to install a special freecad version of python3 first?

Posted by: @spyder

(assuming, of course, that you have ubuntu installed)

Maybe I'm starting with the wrong system image file?

I downloaded and installed the system image that Paul McWhorter suggested from the NVIDIA site.

It's says it's ubuntu:

james@Jetson-Nano:~$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="18.04.2 LTS (Bionic Beaver)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS"
VERSION_ID="18.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=bionic
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic

But maybe this LTS (Bionic Beaver) version won't work for these CAD software?

I've been trying to install OpenSCAD as well, and I keep getting errors with it as well. 

Here's the error I get for the OpenSCAD:

james@Jetson-Nano:~$ sudo apt-get install openscad
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package openscad is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'openscad' has no installation candidate

If I need to download and install a different OS image I can do that.  I'd like to get some sort of CAD working on the Jetson Nano.  I tried using Fusion 360 via the web browser by my Internet connection is way too slow for that.  So I'm looking for a 3D Cad alternative that I can run directly on the Jetson Nano without any dependency on an Internet connection.

OpenSCAD looks promising.  I kind of like the idea of a CAD package that is driven entirely by mathematical equations.  I think I can deal with that.  But one that I can draw with the mouse would be even better.  It's a little less taxing on the gray matter. ? 

@robo-pi

I'll test it when I get home and report back. I'm still 2 hours out

@robo-pi

Ok, I tested it on mine and ran into almost the same problem you did. The exception being that mine didn't ask for graphviz (probably cuz I installed it for ROS), and the only difference between our ubuntu versions is that mine is

PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS" 

The rest is the same. So I looked in the software store, and found blender right there. Now, I've used (or, rather tried to. It's insanely complicated, and jam packed with options. Heck, it can even make 3D cartoons) Blender before, but only briefly. For me it was like giving a monkey control of a space shuttle, which means that you'd probably like it

It installed for me with no problem, and it opened FAR quicker than it did on my windoze pc

I looked at a couple other programs in the software store, and the ones called "cad" were actually only 2D, not 3D. Unfortunately I didn't see a searchbar in the software store, which seems odd

Give Blender a shot, and see if you like it. It might do what you want. It seems to do EVERYTHING if you can find the right button

Posted by: @spyder

Give Blender a shot, and see if you like it. It might do what you want. It seems to do EVERYTHING if you can find the right button

I've messed with Blender before.  It is pretty awesome.   Not really designed for CAD, it's more for freehand sculpting, but it can be used for CAD too.  

Just as a first thought I would think Blender would really bog down in the Nano, and that's one reason I didn't even think of using it on the Nano.  But I'll certainly check it out.   If I can get Blender to run on the Nano without any major problems that might turn out to be pretty nice actually.

I want to start drawing up some serious drawings for some of my robot parts and I wanted to get a cad package squared away first so I can stick with the same CAD software.  I would love to use Fusion 360, but there's no way I know of to get that to run on a Nano.   Maybe if you have a really fast Internet connection you could use Fusion 360 on a Nano running Fusion 360 in a browser.   But my Internet here is extremely slow.  Like 2 Mps.   It's coming in over a phone line.  One of the downfalls of living in a very rural area.   I was going to consider a satellite link, but then there's the forest trees that just happen to be in the line of site to geostationary satellites.   So I'm kind of stuck with 2 Mps Internet speed.

I'll see if I can install Blender on this thing.

I see it's even on the software install list so I can just do it that way.  That'll be easy if it works!  I got it downloading right now.  We'll see how that goes.

Posted by: @spyder

Give Blender a shot, and see if you like it. It might do what you want. It seems to do EVERYTHING if you can find the right button

Wow!   That was easy enough to install and it appears to be working very well.  I haven't really drawn anything with it yet, I'll have to relearn it again.  But it launched very quickly and appears to be very responsive.  So this may very well do the trick.

 I would have never thought  of installing blender on this little tiny Jetson Nano!   And for some reason I didn't even notice that it was being offered on the software installation list.  I was looking for CAD so I didn't notice Blender.

I think this will work out well.   Although I'm not sure if it has a dimensions annotation feature?  I could be wrong.   I'll have to go through some Blender tutorials to get back up to speed on it.  It's been a while since I worked with Blender.

Thanks for the suggestion!   I would have never thought to try Blender on this itsy bitsy computer.

Posted by: @robo-pi

dimensions annotation feature

Not sure if this is what you want. Sometimes you use too many big words

There seems to be lots of plugins you can install in Blender. All I did was google "Blender dimensonal timeshift" or whatever it was you said

It seems to be able to do almost anything... almost.

I asked it to make me some coffee, and it didn't, which is okay I guess, cuz I don't like coffee

Posted by: @robo-pi

I would have never thought to try Blender on this itsy bitsy computer.

Yea, that's the advantage of 128 core GPU 😉

Posted by: @spyder

Yea, that's the advantage of 128 core GPU

Oh, by the way, I was going back over some of the earlier videos of Paul McWhorter's AI on the Jetson Nano course (in fact this was Episode #1).    When talking about the power supply he says to be sure to use the barrel jack supply with at least 4A capability.   He claims (I don't know if this is true), but he says that if you you a lesser USB power supply even thought the board will still boot up and appear to be normal, it may not use the full 128 core capability.

Like I say, I don't know if this is true, but he does say that this is the case.  So he is demanding that all of his students get the larger power supply, and also drink large mugs of  iced coffee!  ? 

Not sure what the iced coffee is supposed to do?  Boost the number of cores operating in the student's brain?

I'm a tea toddler so I wouldn't know. ?   My brain is probably an old single-core Z80 anyway.  And most of my memory is most likely static ROM with bad connections.

Posted by: @robo-pi

lesser USB power supply even thought the board will still boot up and appear to be normal, it may not use the full 128 core capability.

That actually makes sense. But, I haven't (so far) done anything with it that requires a heavier kick, and, like I said, Blender started up in a surprisingly short time with only the USB. If giving it the barrel kick makes it even faster, the fan might even turn on

The Pi has a command called "htop" which shows the stats for the thing, and I remember something extremely like it for the Nano... had the word "top" in it... but I can't remember it... (hang on... google...)

Here it is... jtop

https://github.com/rbonghi/jetson_stats

Hmm, I can't tell... does it over ride my fancy automagic fan speed thingy ?

Posted by: @spyder

There seems to be lots of plugins you can install in Blender. All I did was google "Blender dimensonal timeshift" or whatever it was you said

Yes, Blender does have the dimension notation feature available as a plug-in.   Only instead of calling it: "The Invasion of the Annotatians from Hyperspatial Dimensions", they just called it "Measure It" ? 

  It's just a simple little add-on:

So it looks like Blender will work just fine as a 3D CAD package on the Jetson Nano.   I think they even offer movable joints similar to Fusion 360.

Posted by: @robo-pi

I think they even offer movable joints similar to Fusion 360.

I would bet that they do, I saw a tutorial about making cartoons with it, and they used joint thingies to keep the toon together as they moved it. It was really cool. They just moved one part, and the rest sorta followed like it was actually attached with a joint

That's obviously not the same thing, but, it seems similar enough

Posted by: @robo-pi

they just called it "Measure It"  

"Measure It" ???

What an astonishingly pedestrian name

Blender is BEAUTIFUL!

I've been up all night taking basic tutorials on how to run it.   It responds lightening fast on this little Jetson Nano.  Of course, I haven't created any seriously complex drawings yet, but so far it's extremely responsive.  This is a nice interface too.   I had no idea that a Jetson Nano would run Blender.   This is GREAT!   I won't need Fusion 360 now.  I'm sure Blender will do everything I need.   This is fantastic.

The one thing I didn't like about Fusion 360 is that they wanted to force you to upload all your drawings to their cloud.   Blender doesn't even use the Internet at all.  It's totally private.  This is much better.