If it's a DOS program with a DOS installer then it will probably work, but keep in mind that DOSBox is intended for games, and business applications are not officially supported in case of problems…

Also CAD programs tend to use the floating point unit (FPU, x87, MCP). And the emulated FPU in DOSBox cannot pass the Intel MCP test program, so I would not use it for anything important.

Thanks for the feedback. I am retired and need to create Building Plans for a addition to my house. So, looks like I need to investigate other applications to do it.

From my experience I can tell that AutoSketch 2+3 for DOS work just fine in DOSBox, judging by the visual result.
That goes for both the normal 8086 and x87 FPU binaries.

However, the official DOSBox isn't intended for anything but games, which the authors often state.
So please everyone be careful with productivity software.

DOSBox originated from about 20 years ago and tried to take as much "shortcuts in emulation" as possible to make the games run smooth.
That's why it does perform so excellent for what it was written for.

Other projects like 86Box or PCem focus on accuracy, but need more resources and a real DOS installation.

Of course, there are other forks/spin-offs of DOSBox that might be modified for other purposes.
But as far as the developers here are considered, those versions aren't "DOSBox".
DOSBox as such refers to the official version only.

That being said, I'm just an user, too. I just tell/repeat what I know/heard over the years.

Good luck! 🙂🤞

geeken4fun wrote on 2023-03-17, 17:23:

Thanks for the feedback. I am retired and need to create Building Plans for a addition to my house. So, looks like I need to investigate other applications to do it.

I researched a number of programs that I had access to, including in DOS, and I went with FreeCAD. I'm not sure if you are retired from CAD and know how to go about doing building plans. Anything this old, short of AutoDesk applications, I don't think will be worth it for something this complicated. I am guessing you don't have that. The best free tool is FreeCAD, which is a modern app. I am probably 90% done with my own project.

https://www.freecad.org/
https://yorikvanhavre.gitbooks.io/a-freecad-m … m_modeling.html

I'd get the base drawing out of FreeCAD as SVG and use Inkscape (similar to AutoSketch) to provide annotations and finishing touches.

_Rob wrote on 2023-03-17, 12:38:

the emulated FPU in DOSBox cannot pass the Intel MCP test program, so I would not use it for anything important.

Neither can native machines past Pentium 2, due to changes in the floating point unit's accuracy. It doesn't mean they are less accurate, they simply don't give the exact results that the test checks for (because it's designed to evaluate an 8087 FPU).
Most of the time DOSBox doesn't use emulated FP at all; the operations are passed directly to the host x86 CPU's FPU. The exceptions are using DOSBox on non-x86 platforms.

the3dfxdude wrote on 2023-03-18, 02:31:

I researched a number of programs that I had access to, including in DOS, and I went with FreeCAD. I'm not sure if you are retir […]
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geeken4fun wrote on 2023-03-17, 17:23:

Thanks for the feedback. I am retired and need to create Building Plans for a addition to my house. So, looks like I need to investigate other applications to do it.

I researched a number of programs that I had access to, including in DOS, and I went with FreeCAD. I'm not sure if you are retired from CAD and know how to go about doing building plans. Anything this old, short of AutoDesk applications, I don't think will be worth it for something this complicated. I am guessing you don't have that. The best free tool is FreeCAD, which is a modern app. I am probably 90% done with my own project.

https://www.freecad.org/
https://yorikvanhavre.gitbooks.io/a-freecad-m … m_modeling.html

I'd get the base drawing out of FreeCAD as SVG and use Inkscape (similar to AutoSketch) to provide annotations and finishing touches.

I'm not sure what the OP uses.
Floor planning was a classic AutoSketch application, though. There exist 3rd party "cliparts" for it.
Same goes for drawing electronic circuits, I think. I do have diskettes with electrical symbols especially for AutoSketch, for example.

Also, some 2D CAD programs had a built-in macro language.
AutoSketch 1.x for Windows was often used in drawing traffic accidents becauseof this, AFAIK.

jmarsh wrote on 2023-03-18, 21:56:

_Rob wrote on 2023-03-17, 12:38:

the emulated FPU in DOSBox cannot pass the Intel MCP test program, so I would not use it for anything important.

Neither can native machines past Pentium 2, due to changes in the floating point unit's accuracy. It doesn't mean they are less accurate, they simply don't give the exact results that the test checks for (because it's designed to evaluate an 8087 FPU).
Most of the time DOSBox doesn't use emulated FP at all; the operations are passed directly to the host x86 CPU's FPU. The exceptions are using DOSBox on non-x86 platforms.

There are 2 versions of the Intel MCPDIAG program that seem to be floating about, with the same (c) dates up to 1991. One directly exits claiming no FPU found in DOSBox, the other does work.

As you can see, it detects a 486 with default DOSBox settings, so I would expect 487 checks, not 8087.

Running the conformance test (screenshot from a DOSBox fork, regular DOSBox has lots of failed tests).

But running the diags, also the forks still have an error:

Results can indeed depend on core/FPU type or platform, but in my tests on Windows with 0.74(-3) and SVN, the MCPDIAG conformance test has no failures with dyn_x86/dyn_fpu_dh and 35 failures out of over 900 Scale tests with normal core -- not what I would characterize as "lots of failed tests".

As for the diagnostic tests, the failed Transcendental test is:

fldlg2
f2xm1
f2xm1
f2xm1

The 80-bit result value that the diagnostic checks for is off by 2 ULP (unit of least precision) compared to the DOSBox result value, which is the same for both normal and dynamic core. The LG2 (log base 10 of 2) constant used by the FPU or rounding error can account for the difference. In any case, such a small difference would hardly be noticeable in applications and games, particularly if the 80-bit value is converted to a lesser number of bits of precision.

As mentioned, a particular DOS based CAD package (dependent on fpu) may specify the fpu precision level at a lower level. For some or all of the non-x86 host systems, it should be possible to add a log statement in the DOSBox code to record the fpu mode as it is set and reset with regard to precision.

If these CAD packages are highly sensitive to fpu accuracy, I wonder whether they would even work on all non-Intel CPUs from that time period. In other words, can non-Intel CPUs pass Intel's fpu test.

I'm willing to give Generic Cad a try with DOSbox, but will the DOSbox OS allow a 3 dics install of it???

There is no DOSBox OS.
Instead of asking read the readme and try it.

I have to agree in one point: try things.
But I don't think the latest release allows switching floppy images, only cds. The manual, although it doesn't contain anything false, hides this small detail. You need an SVN version and none of these is obvious for people not familiar with dosbox. My recommendation is to use something like VirtualBox which is better suited for these kind of things.

konc wrote on 2023-03-22, 08:08:

I have to agree in one point: try things.
But I don't think the latest release allows switching floppy images, only cds. The manual, although it doesn't contain anything false, hides this small detail. You need an SVN version and none of these is obvious for people not familiar with dosbox. My recommendation is to use something like VirtualBox which is better suited for these kind of things.

Thank you for your information.. You plus several other responders have provide a good in site of the capabilities of DOSbox. Appreciate the help from all of you..