JReality CM Creator

Distribution

In addition to addressing the commercially-under-served early stages of the design process, CM Creator helps fill another sparsely-populated region of the CAD spectrum, namely, the availability of portable, open source CAD software.

Portability and System Requirements

CM Creator is highly portable. The downloadable binary execution files run on all major computer platforms: Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, and Linux. The reason there are separate distribution files for each platform is that the installation and execution scripts vary with platform. However, the executable CM Creator binary files are identical on all platforms.

This remarkable portability is not a feature of CM Creator itself, but of the Java programming language in which it is written. Consequently, the system requirements to run CM Creator are:

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 8 or later;
a display screen with 1024 x 768 or higher resolution;
standard keyboard and mouse.

One platform not currently supported is the Internet. Because the Java Runtime Environment is Internet-capable, CM Creator could be adapted to Internet-based execution. However, this is not recommended since graphical response time would be seriously degraded. Highly interactive CAD tools such as CM Creator are more productive when installed and run locally.

Open Source

CM Creator is open source software licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL). This is also commonly called "free software," where "free" means "the source code is freely available." The term does not imply "zero cost" even though much open source software, including CM Creator, is zero cost.

The complete source code for CM Creator can optionally be downloaded from the same location as the executable files. The source code is heavily commented for several reasons.

Comments encourage and assist other developers to contribute to CM Creator.
They enhance the value of CM Creator as a learning vehicle for technical studies students who have need of an easy-to-learn and highly affordable CAD tool in their course work, and computer science students who might benefit by studying (and criticizing!) the design and implementation of an operational CAD program.
Comments allow technically proficient users to better understand the CAD tool they are using, including being able to investigate the cause of any error messages that may arise.
They permit other CAD vendors to study CM Creator's operation with an eye to enhancing their own offerings with any of CM Creator's technologies or techniques they may find useful.
Last, but not least, comments help me understand code implemented months or years ago.