rattleCAD

In 2008, Manfred Rosenberger began developing rattleCAD as open-source software for bicycle do it yourself (DIY) makers and bike shops, hosting source code and binary code on SourceForge since January 2010,{{Cite web |date=2019-02-05 |title=rattleCAD |url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/rattlecad/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=SourceForge |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2015-09-12 |title=Introducing rattleCAD: open source frame design software |url=http://www.spanner.org.uk/2015/09/introducing-rattlecad-open-source-frame-design-software/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=Spanner Bikes}}{{Cite web |author1=Trisha |date=2018-06-25 |title=RattleCAD: Portable Bicycle Frames Design Software |url=https://www.trishtech.com/2018/06/rattlecad-portable-bicycle-frames-design-software/ |language=en |access-date=2023-10-25}}{{Cite journal |last1=Castro |first1=Hélio |last2=Putnik |first2=Goran |last3=Castro |first3=Alrenice |last4=Bosco Fontana |first4=Rodrigo Dal |date=2019-01-01 |title=Open Design initiatives: an evaluation of CAD Open Source Software |journal=Procedia CIRP |series=29th CIRP Design Conference 2019, 08-10 May 2019, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal |volume=84 |pages=1116–1119 |doi=10.1016/j.procir.2019.08.001 |issn=2212-8271|doi-access=free}} as an alternative to only few existing proprietary apps in this field at the time, such as BikeCAD, one of the oldest CAD software specific for bicycle design, developed by a Canadian bicycle rental businessperson and a programmer Brent Curry since 2002,{{Cite web |title=www.bikecad.ca {{!}} Bicycle Design Software |url=https://www.bikecad.ca/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=www.bikecad.ca |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Bicycle Forest: About |url=http://www.bikeforest.com/about.php |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=www.bikeforest.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2010-02-22 |title=BikeCAD lets you design your dream bicycle online, for free |url=https://newatlas.com/bikecad-frame-design-software/14268/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=New Atlas |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last1=Masoner |first1=Richard |date=22 February 2010 |title=Free online bike design tool – Cyclelicious |url=http://www.cyclelicio.us/2010/free-online-bike-design-tool/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=ONLINE Course. Bicycle Design and Frame-Building |url=https://etbicicleta.com/courses/online-course-bicycle-design-and-frame-building/?lang=en |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=ETBICICLETA |language=en-US}} and Linkage, a CAD and CAE software for bicycle design and bicycle suspension simulation,{{Cite journal |last1=Waechter |first1=Matthias |last2=Riess |first2=Falk |last3=Zacharias |first3=Norbert |date=2002-01-01 |title=A Multibody Model for the Simulation of Bicycle Suspension Systems |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/vesd.37.1.3.3539 |journal=Vehicle System Dynamics |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=3–28 |doi=10.1076/vesd.37.1.3.3539 |issn=0042-3114|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Segľa |first1=Štefan |last2=Antonescu |first2=Ovidiu |last3=Orečný |first3=Martin |last4=Elbaghar |first4=Abdel |date=2015-03-31 |title=Optimization of a Motorcycle Rear Suspension Mechanism with Four-bar Linkage |journal=Acta Mechanica Slovaca |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=52–59 |doi=10.21496/ams.2015.007|doi-access=free}} developed by a Hungarian software developer Gergely Kovacs.{{Cite web |title=Linkage: Suspension Bike Simulation and Design Software - Home |url=https://bikechecker.com/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=bikechecker.com}}{{Cite web |last1=Kovacs |first1=Gergely |date= |title=Racooz software: Linkage, Freeware |url=http://www.racooz.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029000038/http://www.racooz.com/ |archive-date=2008-10-29 |access-date= |website=racooz.com}}{{Cite web |date=2020-08-22 |title=Linkage: Suspension Bike Simulation and Design Software - Bikometry |url=https://bikometry.com/linkage-bike-suspension-software/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last1=Benziger |first1=Macrae |date=18 March 2021 |title=Mountain Bike Suspension Linkage and Frame Design MQP |url=https://digital.wpi.edu/downloads/0v838356t?locale=en |website=Worcester Polytechnic Institute |type=Major Qualifying Project |format=PDF |quote=In order to design an enduro mountain bike that maximizes uphill and downhill performance, I plan to combine features from various other bicycle designs. I will use a suspension design software specifically created for mountain bikes called Linkage X3. This software will be used to create a 2D simulation of a suspension design created to have the optimal amounts of bottom out resistance, pedaling support, and small bump sensitivity.}}

From 31 March to 1 April 2012, the app was exhibited at the European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition (EHBE) in Schwäbisch Gmünd.{{Cite news |last1=Rosenberger |first1=Manfred |date=3 March 2012 |title=rattleCAD - Bicycle FrameBuilding CAD - News: rattleCAD on EHBE |url=http://rattlecad.codesmith.at/3.6/news.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331130006/http://rattlecad.codesmith.at/3.6/news.html |archive-date=2020-03-31 |website=rattlecad.codesmith.at |quote=rattleCAD is invited for a presentation at the European Handmade Bicycle Exhibition in Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany).}}

On 11 April 2012, app has been presented at the Bespoked 2014 (the UK handmade bicycle show) in London.{{Cite web |date=11 April 2014 |title=Bespoked 2014 - Events Talks |url=http://www.bespoked.cc/eventstalks.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525094056/http://www.bespoked.cc/eventstalks.html |archive-date=2014-05-25 |website=bespoked.cc |quote=Friday 11th April: 16.00 - 17.00 - RattleCAD - Bicycle Design Software - In this talk rattleCAD will be presented with its main features and the parametric model based on stack and reach will be discussed against seat and toptube length.}}

On 8 July 2017, Rosenberger presented rattleCAD at the EuroTcl 2017 (15th European Tcl/Tk User Meeting) in Berlin.{{Cite web |title=EuroTcl 2017 - Program |url=https://ssl.webpack.de/www.eurotcl.eu/eurotcl-2017/program.html#Rosenberger |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=ssl.webpack.de}}{{Cite web |last1=Rosenberger |first1=Manfred |date=8 July 2017 |title=Refactoring approaches for rattleCAD, a domain specific CAD-application written in pure Tcl |url=https://ssl.webpack.de/www.eurotcl.eu/presentations/EuroTcl2017-Rosenberger-rattleCAD.pdf |website=eurotcl.eu |type=Slides |publication-place=Berlin, Germany |via=15th European Tcl/Tk User Meeting |quote=rattleCAD is an open source CAD software that supports bicycle frame builder in building customized bicycle frames. Based on a wireframe geometry rattleCAD visualizes the new bike with all its parts and creates drawings for the workshop. rattleCAD is written in pure Tcl and is hosted on SourceForge.}}{{Citation |title=EuroTcl 2017: Refactoring approaches for rattleCAD (Manfred Rosenberger) | date=13 July 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgtIh2anmL8 |access-date=2023-10-25 |language=en}}

On 7 July 2018, at the EuroTcl 2018 (16th European Tcl/Tk User Meeting) in Munich, Rosenberger presented the cad4tcl – an open-source CAD graphics library for Tcl/Tk, extracted from the main rattleCAD source.{{Cite web |title=EuroTcl 2018 - Program |url=https://ssl.webpack.de/www.eurotcl.eu/eurotcl-2018/program.html#Rosenberger |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=ssl.webpack.de}}{{Cite web |last1=Rosenberger |first1=Manfred |date=7 July 2018 |title=A CAD-like graphic package for Tcl/Tk |url=https://ssl.webpack.de/www.eurotcl.eu/presentations/EuroTcl2018-Rosenberger-rattleCAD.pdf |website=EuroTcl 2018 |type=Slides |publication-place=Munich, Germany |via=16th European Tcl/Tk Users Meeting |quote=rattleCAD is an open source CAD-application to design bicycle frames and used the standard tk::canvas for the rendering of the grahics. (...) In my talk I will present and discuss the package cad4tcl.}}{{Citation |title=EuroTcl2018: A CAD-like graphic package for Tcl/Tk (Manfred Rosenberger) | date=14 July 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XNUvHGLOuk |access-date=2023-11-01 |language=en}}

On 10 December 2018, first rattleCAD 4.0.0 preview release has been rolled out.{{Cite web |last1=Manfred |first1=Rosenberger |title=rattleCAD 4.0 |url=https://www.rattlecad.com/docs/features/changeLog.txt |website=rattlecad.com |type=Changelog |format=TXT}}

In January 2019, rattleCAD 3.6.30 has been released. It was the last open-source release.

File:RattleCAD 4.0.22 Free.png

In 2019, Rosenberger announced ceasing open-source development and switching to proprietary development model for the next rattleCAD 4.x releases on the new website.

{{Blockquote|text=rattleCAD 4.0 will not be free and open source anymore. Basically, there will be timely limited licenses for rattleCAD - a kind of user fee. This will allow me to continue to develop rattleCAD in the future. Since last autumn (2018) a lot has been done in rattleCAD.|author=Manfred Rosenberger}}

Since then app provided via Gumroad as a limited freeware version{{Cite web |last1=Marculescu |first1=Ana |date=21 July 2020 |orig-date=12 March 2017 |title=rattleCAD |url=https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Others/rattleCAD.shtml |website=Softpedia}}{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD |url=https://www.bytesin.com/software/rattleCAD/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=BytesIn |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD |url=https://rattlecad.en.lo4d.com/windows |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=LO4D.com |language=en}} under donationware payment model (later freeware version replaced with a more restricted demoware version) and as commercial editions for private and professional use under subscription payment model.

As of June 2023, project page on SourceForge still actively used as a discussion board by users and app developers.{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD / Discussion |url=https://sourceforge.net/p/rattlecad/discussion/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=sourceforge.net}}

Despite the fact that all the old source and binary builds licensed as an open-source has been deleted from SourceForge by developer in 2019, few code snapshots of original code and a fork of rattleCAD 3.x, hosted on GitHub,{{Citation |last1=wonderificdave |title=wonderificdave/rattlecad |date=2022-12-04 |url=https://github.com/wonderificdave/rattlecad |access-date=2023-10-25}}{{Citation |last1=wonderificdave |title=wonderificdave/rattlecad-import |date=2019-10-03 |url=https://github.com/wonderificdave/rattlecad-import |access-date=2023-10-25}}{{Citation |last1=Khan |first1=Rashid |title=RattleCAD TF |date=2022-12-04 |url=https://github.com/rashidkpc/rattlecad-tf |access-date=2023-10-25}} and binary of the last open-source rattleCAD 3.6.30 and older releases, still circulated on the internet as of October 2023,{{Cite web |title=Download rattleCAD |url=http://www.softsea.com/download/rattleCAD.html |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=www.softsea.com}}{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD |url=https://download.cnet.com/rattlecad/3000-18496_4-75766239.html |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=Download.com |language=en |quote=Version 3.4.00.49 has added additional Bent of ChainStay in RearMockup.}}{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD Review |url=https://rattlecad.findmysoft.com/? |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=rattlecad.findmysoft.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=RattleCAD 3.6.30 |url=https://taimienphi.vn/download-rattlecad-5591/-3630-phien-ban |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=taimienphi.vn |language=vi}} are now collected on the Internet Archive.{{Citation |last1=Manfred Rosenberger |title=rattleCAD |url=http://archive.org/details/rattlecad |access-date=2023-10-29}}

{{Video|title=Design your bicycle - the rattleCAD method (3.4.01.38)|video1=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMbzEKe4HN8|width=238px|float=right}}

rattleCAD provides all the tools needed for design bicycle from preliminary design of basic geometry, adjusted to cyclist body size,{{Cite web |title=Road Positioning Chart |url=https://www.parktool.com/en-int/blog/repair-help/road-positioning-chart |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=Park Tool |language=en}} to producing full assembly and frame manufacturing documentation:

• Step-by-step GUI for bicycle design.
• Parametric design for basic geometry, then used to calculate detailed bicycle geometry, including shop drawings for frame tubes cutting.
• Vector graphics representation of CAD data.
• Catalog of bicycle parts CAD blocks.
• Automatic generation of manufacturing 2D plans and documentation.
• Export FreeCAD Macro, via rattleCAD 3D (extra plugin), to generate 3D model of bicycle frame and whole assembly model inside FreeCAD app.{{Cite web |last1=Manfred |first1=Rosenberger |date= |title=rattleCAD - Bicycle FrameBuilding CAD - Feature - rattleCAD 3D (Plugin) |url=http://rattlecad.sourceforge.net/features_plugin_rattleCAD_3D.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603133516/http://rattlecad.sourceforge.net/features_plugin_rattleCAD_3D.html |archive-date=2018-06-03 |access-date= |website=rattlecad.sourceforge.net}}{{Cite web |title=rattleCAD 4.0 - Bicycle FrameBuilding CAD - Features - Mockup 3D - using FreeCAD |url=https://www.rattlecad.com/docs/features/feature_mockup3D.html |access-date=2023-11-01 |website=www.rattlecad.com}}{{Cite web |date=8 February 2017 |title=rattleCAD - Oversice Road Frame |url=https://grabcad.com/library/rattlecad-oversice-road-frame-1 |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=GrabCAD 3D CAD Model Library |quote=This is an oversized Frame exported from rattleCAD via the rattleCAD_3D plugin.}}

rattleCAD supports the next file formats:

• XML – for storing rattleCAD 3.x bike design projects and templates.{{Cite web |date= |title=rattleCAD - Bicycle FrameBuilding CAD - Templates |url=http://rattlecad.sourceforge.net/templates.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318014811/http://rattlecad.sourceforge.net/templates.html |archive-date=2013-03-18 |access-date= |website=rattlecad.sourceforge.net}}
• *.rc4 – JSON-based file format for storing rattleCAD 4.x bike design projects and templates.
• SVG – for import, export drawings and docs, and as a bicycle parts libraries files (CAD blocks).
• HTML – for export project report as a webpage (with a project file and a set of drawings in SVG) ready to publish on own website.
• DXF – for export drawings and docs.
• PDF – for export drawings and docs.
• STEP – for export 3D assembly model.
• Python (*.py, *.FCMacro) – for export FreeCAD Macro to generate 3D models inside FreeCAD.

• Change logs on official site and SourceForge page

cad4tcl{{Cite web |title=cad4tcl - CAD Library for Tcl |url=https://cad4tcl.sourceforge.io/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=cad4tcl.sourceforge.io}} – is an open-source graphics library for Tcl/Tk to build CAD software, developed as a part of rattleCAD. It supports importing SVG and exporting SVG, PDF and DXF files.

svgDOM{{Cite web |title=svgDOM - SVG parser based on tdom |url=https://svgdom.sourceforge.io/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=svgdom.sourceforge.io}} – is an open-source SVG graphics processing and optimization library for Tcl/Tk, developed as a part of rattleCAD.

• FreeCAD
• {{Interlanguage link|FREE!ship|uk}}
• LibreCAD
• OpenVSP
• QCAD
• {{Interlanguage link|XFLR5|uk}}
• XFOIL

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikibooks|rattleCAD User Manual}}

• {{Official website|rattlecad.com}}
• {{SourceForge|rattlecad|rattleCAD}}, official page
• [https://grabcad.com/rattlecad-1 rattleCAD] on GrabCAD, official page
• {{Facebook|id=274884125918265|name=rattleCAD}}, users group
• Manfred Rosenberger on SourceForge
• {{YouTube|channel=UCg03E5W0jq9ocs6yjFZpfFA|title=Manfred Rosenberger}}
• [https://forum.freecad.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=6042 Manfred Rosenberger] on FreeCAD Forum
• [https://alternativeto.net/software/rattlecad/about rattleCAD] on AlternativeTo
• {{Internet Archive|id=rattlecad|name=rattleCAD}}, backup of binary and source releases
• {{GitHub|url=https://github.com/rashidkpc/rattlecad-tf|label=rattleCAD TF}}, fork of rattleCAD 3.5.14 source
• [https://www.bikegeocalc.com/ Bike Geometry Calculator], free online web application
• [https://geometrygeeks.bike/ Geometry Geeks], online bike geometry comparison tool
• {{GitHub|url=https://github.com/mark-bak/BiKinematics|label=BiKinematics}}, open-source program to analyse MTB suspension kinematics
• [https://forum.customframeforum.com Custom Framebuilding Forum], bicycle frame-builders community forum

{{Bike equipment|state=expanded}}{{CAD software}}{{Portal bar|Transport|Engineering}}

Category:Bicycle industry

Category:Tcl programming language family

Category:Computer-aided design software for Linux

Category:Computer-aided design software for Windows

Category:Software using the GNU General Public License

Category:Free software programmed in Tcl

Category:Software that uses Tk (software)