I remain (as always since I stumbled upon it) grateful for QCAD's existence, since it enables expressing 2D relationships among shapes much more fully than any other software I've yet used. I actually use it more for art purposes, though I appreciate its engineering potential too. Software like Inkscape by contrast is far too tedious to express precise relationships in and hence hard to get truly clean geometry in compared to QCAD. QCAD's art potential is greatly underestimated I think and not enough people know about it and how wonderful the software is.
More to the point of this specific thread though: There is still a simple feature that I very much want in QCAD and which is present in LibreCAD (and also in a user-made custom script someone on the forums told me about, but not as seamlessly and quick to use as in LibreCAD). Specifically, the ability to draw tangents from the endpoints of polylines that are perfectly tangent to it yet allows you to place the endpoint of the resulting arc anywhere (not constrained by a specific angle or height or whatever else).
To see what I mean, open LibreCAD and click the Polyline tool and find the "Line" dropdown menu on the top bar and click it and change it to "Tangential" instead. This mode results in by far the most pleasant line drawing experience of any such tool I've encountered, including in vector art programs. It automatically places straight lines when the line you draw is straight but draws perfect arcs that are tangential to the current endpoint yet can be placed anywhere you want.
QCAD's current workflow for the equivalent effect is honestly perhaps 10x more tedious and slow. LibreCAD's "Tangential" polyline mode behaves far better and is far more expressive and efficient. Even QCAD's user-made script that enables itself when installed and when the QCAD tangential arc tool has a radius set to zero is not close to as good, since it cannot in contrast handle straight lines seamlessly nor is it remotely as fast to draw with due to the fact that QCAD requires you to constantly re-click the line or arc that you want the tangent to come from whereas LibreCAD's tangential mode remains active until you are done (just like the regular line mode and such in QCAD). It would be more consistent (and far faster) if QCAD behaved similarly.
Don't underestimate the potential of this feature! Go try it yourself and see compare how much easier it is to draw perfect curved shapes for art with it. I like it even more than vector art Bezier curves such as in Inkscape since the arcs are more predictable and clean typically (much less "wiggle" and no constantly fiddling with "weights"). It is seriously a wonderful way of working with lines.
QCAD is overall a much better program than LibreCAD though (unsurprisingly considering it is the authentic original) and I like it much more, but I am constantly wishing for a much more expedient way of working with continuous chains of lines that have to remain tangential to each segment's endpoint and LibreCAD's workflow for that is much better. I suppose I could switch back and forth when needed, but it would be nice if QCAD had this feature, especially considering how essential it is to working with curved lines without wasting tons of time for no good reason.
Anyway, thanks again for this awesome software and congrats on the new releases! Have a great day/night/etc!
