QCAD — QCAD on Linux

QCAD on Linux

This page is for users of the Linux operating system, using the .run installer or a tar.gz archive.

Installing from a Flatpak →Step-by-step instructions to install the QCAD Flatpak from a terminal.Installing on ChromeOS / Chromebook →Set up the Linux environment and install the QCAD Flatpak on a Chromebook.

For brevity, version numbers below are shown as 27.x.x. Replace this with the actual version number of the QCAD release you downloaded, for example 27.0.0.

Getting the correct installation file

The installer for Linux has the file name qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-qt6-x86_64.run, or qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-qt6-arm64.run, depending on the architecture of your Linux system (Intel or ARM).

Alternatively, there are also tar.gz archives for advanced users who wish to install QCAD manually or flatpaks that install in a sandbox with most dependencies.

Installation using the installer (.run)

The recommended way to install QCAD on Linux is on the console. Open a console application such as Konsole or xterm. If you have a USB drive, insert it and copy the correct file to your hard disk, for example:

cd /mnt/cdrom/installation/linux
cp qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-x86_64.run /home/myname

Replace myname with your login name. The exact mount location of your USB drive depends on your Linux distribution. Navigate to where you copied or downloaded the file:

cd /home/myname

Now make the file executable and run it:

chmod a+x qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-x86_64.run
./qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-x86_64.run

This creates the directory /home/myname/opt/qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-x86_64, which contains the QCAD application.

Installation using the tar.gz archive

Extract the tar.gz file into any directory of your choice, for example /home/myname/opt:

cd /home/myname/opt
tar xfvz qcad-27.x.x-pro-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Launching QCAD

Change to the directory where you installed QCAD and launch it from there:

cd /home/myname/opt/qcad-27.x.x-pro*
./qcad

Troubleshooting

If QCAD does not run, you might be missing some dependencies (required system libraries). Check for unmet dependencies as follows:

cd ~/opt/qcad-27.x.x-pro*
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ldd ./qcad-bin $(find . -name "*.so") | grep "not found" | sort | uniq

If you get any “Not found” messages, install the appropriate packages / libraries first.

Uninstalling

When using the QCAD installer, QCAD installs into ~/opt (the opt directory in your home folder). To uninstall, simply remove the QCAD installation directory, for example ~/opt/qcad-27.x.x-pro-*.