Updated 2014-07-30 (see below)

Background

An error makes DS 5.1 crash when opening drawings with inserted images or when trying to insert an image. This error was confirmed for W7 (https://swym.3ds.com/#community:70/iquestions:22438), but this tutorial was written for Ubuntu-Linux on 64-bit machines, where the problem also accurs.

The insert image command is very important, as OLE-objects don't work on DS for Linux (compare: https://swym.3ds.com/#post:27799). So inserting images is the only way, for example, to make use of spreadsheets. For that reason most of my drawings would have been unusable, if I hadn't had a copy of the DS 4 .deb file. (If somebody needs it, please contact me). But in the future this version might be disabled, so there has to be a way to get around the error. As the development team pointed out, it is not a DS-bug, and for that reason can't be solved.

Another, related, error is that my 5.1 installation on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr appeared to have some issues with the window manager, as it looked like Windows 95.

Origin

Investigating, I found out that DS 5.1 works without problems on 32-bit machines (confirmed by the development team). As DS isn't released for 64-bit, Linux users had to install ia32-libs before installation in the past, to make it run on 64-bit. So the bug seems to be there, in the emulation libraries.

Most important information in this context is, that ia32-libs are deprecated, and no longer included in Ubuntu. They were replaced by an out-of-the-box 32-bit funtionality. As I found out, this is not the origin of the insert-image-error, but the origin of the poor window rendering.

Install ia32-libs on Trusty Tahr

For that reason, to get a nice display back, you might want to install the ia32-libs. Do it typing the following commands (one by one) in the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get install libc6:i386

sudo -i

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d

echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring main restricted universe multiverse" >ia32-libs-raring.list

apt-get update

apt-get install ia32-libs

rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ia32-libs-raring.listapt-get

update

exit

This will install the good old ia32-libs from the Raring Ringtail sources on Trusty Tahr. If you are affected by the display issue, you will have the nice windows back now. Note: As you install outdated packages, this workaround might be obsolete soon.

Workaround for insert image issue

But the insert image command issue will not be solved by this step! And I still haven't found out, how to solve it. But you can deal with it. Let's have a detailed look at the Crash. DS crashes when an inserted image should be rendered. This means

1. that an inserted image on a sheet will not produce a crash, when you are on another sheet (or in model space).

2. that inserted but switched off images also don't crash.

To open a drawing with images do the following:

1. Change filename of the image on disk (you have to know which).

2. Open the drawing. The image will be replaced by the images path.

3. Open Tools - Properties sidebar and switch off the visbility of the image. Save.

4. Change images name on disk back again.

With this method you can open your drawings and keep on working. You won't see the images content, just a dummy rectangle.

To insert a new image:

1. Open a file with image as described above.

2. Clipboard copy an image.

3. Insert it into the new drawing.

4. Define a new path in Tools - References sidebar.

To print out a drawing with an inserted image, you will have to switch visibility on again:

1. Change image name on disk

2. Open DS and switch on visibility of the image.

3. Activate another sheet (not model space!). Create a new empty sheet, if there isn't another one.

4. Change image name on disk back again.

5. In Tools - References sidebar reload image. Don't change to the images sheet now, as this would cause a crash.

6. print

7. I recommend to select a pdf-printer as output medium. 

8. In printer menu select  "Print selected sheets" on the right and define sheet and saved printer configuration. Accept.

The pdf-output will render the image correctly on the sheet.

Happy drafting on Linux.

Update

Updated Version 14.04.02 of Ubuntu Trusty Tahr won't accept Raring Ringtail repositories any longer, and for that reason ia32-libs. The following command pasted in terminal installed in my case the missing libraries to install Draftsight 5.2 on 64-bit-Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libc6-i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libsm6:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libxext6:i386 libxrender1:i386 libx11-6:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 lsb-core

Also, Draftsight Version 4 won't install any more, because of an unresolved  dependency (libtasn1-3). I tried to solve this issue without success.

Greetings