.Net CAD vector graphics library

Question

What is a good .Net vector graphics library that can be used for CAD like applications, and has a reasonable set of features specific for this type of applications, like computational functions (area, lengths, boolean shape operations etc).

One good solution would be to use WPF as it's vector graphics based, but it's very much UI oriented and not so much CAD functionality is present by default (like manipulating shapes, editing etc).

So I was wandering if there's good library out there for this purpose.

Answer 1

I had it wrong the first time. it was Gtk, the Gtk library is what Gimp is based off of which is a pretty mature library. it's C# .NET wrappers are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gtk_Sharp

Answer 2

Don't overlook WPF - you're right that most of the hype is around GUI layout, but it does have some powerful stuff for pure graphics. In particular, check out Geometries, Transforms and Shapes.

Answer 3

I can tell you what you don't want and that's the AutoCAD route. It does have inbuilt functions for areas, tangents, shape operations etc and could be useful but it is probably too complex and too expensive for that I am guessing you want to do. See my answers here and here for questions already asked about AutoCAD interfaces.

I am not aware of it but there may be something out there utilising SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics. That's an open-source standard.

If it's complex 3D stuff then maybe Blender may have something to offer you. Here are a couple of pages by the CG Society and The Dream Team with comparisons of various 3D packages.

Answer 4

You could possibly write a .Net wrapper to the popular Cairo library:

http://www.cairographics.org/

I suspect that could be a bit of a hassle though.

Answer 5

Topology Framework .NET:

It comes from a GIS background, but provides functionality for polylines, polygons and all sorts of geometries. Also algorithms (point-in-polygon, shortest-path etc) are provided.

http://code.google.com/p/tf-net/

Answer 6

Check out this www.vdraw.com

Answer 7

I recommend Eyeshot from devDept, a very good component with a really easy API. Cost money, but has a very nice sales model (per developer, free distribution).

Answer 8

Maybe you could use Cadability dotNet. it is commercial but has a lot of features..

Answer 9

Check this http://www.seedrawex.com/

Answer 10

check here:

TCAD component http://www.codeidea.com