Install on Linux

• Linux

There are three ways to install Musa CAD on Linux. Most people should use Flathub. All three include everything Musa CAD needs, so you do not have to install Qt or anything else.

Your graphics driver must support OpenGL 4.5. Mesa (for Intel and AMD graphics) and NVIDIA’s driver both do. If yours does not, Musa CAD says so when it starts.

Option 1: Flathub (recommended)

Updates then arrive with your other apps. Flathub has Musa CAD for both x86_64 and ARM64 computers.

flatpak install flathub org.musacad.MusaCAD
flatpak run org.musacad.MusaCAD

If you have never used Flatpak, Flathub’s setup page shows the two commands to set it up on your distribution. Many software centres (GNOME Software, KDE Discover) can also install it with a click.

What the Flatpak can and cannot see

The Flatpak version runs in a sandbox and cannot see your files on its own. When you open or save a drawing, your desktop’s own file dialog appears, and Musa CAD gets only the file you choose. In practice this means:

• If a drawing uses images or other drawings stored next to it, Musa CAD asks you to choose that folder, so it can find them.
• In Save As, a name you type without .musa is kept exactly as you typed it.
• From a terminal, you must give it access to your files, or it cannot open them:

flatpak run --filesystem=home org.musacad.MusaCAD --check ~/drawings/part.musa

Without --filesystem=home, the same command answers Cannot open file.

DWG files in the Flatpak

The ODA File Converter (for DWG files) downloads fine inside the Flatpak. It needs an X11 display to run. On an X11 desktop that just works. On a Wayland desktop, the converter has to run outside the sandbox, which you allow once with this command:

flatpak override --user --talk-name=org.freedesktop.Flatpak org.musacad.MusaCAD

The DWG Setup window tells you when this is needed. If you already have a DWG converter installed on your system, choose Use a converter installed on the host (Flatpak).

Option 2: the AppImage

One file you download and run. It works on most Linux distributions from the last few years (x86_64 only). Get it from the latest release:

chmod +x MusaCAD-0.8.0-x86_64.AppImage
./MusaCAD-0.8.0-x86_64.AppImage

Good to know:

• The AppImage needs FUSE 2 (the libfuse2 package on Debian and Ubuntu). Without it, run it with APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1 in front, and it unpacks itself and runs.
• It runs natively on Wayland, and on X11 when that is what you use.
• It does not add itself to your applications menu. You can keep the file wherever you like.
• It is the best choice for scripts and servers, because it runs headless (with no screen at all):

./MusaCAD-0.8.0-x86_64.AppImage --plot part.musa part.pdf --paper A3 --landscape

Option 3: the Flatpak file

Each release also has a file called MusaCAD-<version>.flatpak. Use it to install one exact version, for example on a computer without internet. It still needs the KDE runtime, which Flatpak downloads from Flathub if it can:

flatpak install --user MusaCAD-0.8.0.flatpak
flatpak run org.musacad.MusaCAD

Installed this way, Musa CAD still tells you about new versions, but it does not update by itself.

Check that it works

flatpak run org.musacad.MusaCAD --version
./MusaCAD-0.8.0-x86_64.AppImage --version

Both print Musa CAD 0.8.0.

Next

Make your first drawing. If you want to build Musa CAD yourself, see Build from source.