CADTutor Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Dassault Systemes, the makers of Solid Works and Catia now have a free 2D CAD product that reads and writes DWG files. I haven't had a chance to test it yet but it does look interesting and has an interface that may be familiar to AutoCAD users. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Has anyone tried this out yet? If not, take a look here: http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/free-cad-software/ It looks as though it may be the most feature complete/robust free 2D CAD software available - although I have yet to try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 I tried it out during the trial period. It wasn't bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I liked it better that Doublecad XT. No lisp or vba if I remember correctly, but other than that it worked fine. It makes use of Ruby Scripts, so if you are familiar with that you can get around the lisp thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazer Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Interesting, looks and feels the same as autocad, lots of the hotkeys are the same, all the basic commands, are there. I would say after a few hours play you could be quite productive with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 It's very nice, I've posted about it in a few posts before as an alternative from looking for a cheap DWG editor. I am glad to see it. This should put AutoDesk on notice. LT for over $1000? I agree in that I like it better than DoubleCAD XT but I wished DraftSight could save .skp files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 I tried it out during the trial period. It wasn't bad. Is the program "free" or just a "free download" that comes with a trial period? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Is the program "free" or just a "free download" that comes with a trial period? Draftsight is free Tank. I used it for a while before buying Bricscad for my laptop. It works very well, just no lisp or vba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Cadder Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Is there a concern as to how accurately it (DraftSight) would interpret Autocad dwg files? From what I've been told, Even though it's the same format, once imported to another program other than ACAD, it's interpretation of that format, will vary, once imported into a different program other than ACAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I used it on several drawings and never had a problem with it. There's no lisp or vba though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I have yet to really do a file read comparison but I might take a look at it today at lunch and report back what I see. I do think it is a great alternative to LT especially for the cost difference. Is there a concern as to how accurately it (DraftSight) would interpret Autocad dwg files? From what I've been told, Even though it's the same format, once imported to another program other than ACAD, it's interpretation of that format, will vary, once imported into a different program other than ACAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_O'neill Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I have yet to really do a file read comparison but I might take a look at it today at lunch and report back what I see. I do think it is a great alternative to LT especially for the cost difference. Absolutely. I do not see why anybody would buy LT for what....$1200, when this is $0. By the same token, Bricscad is around half the price of LT and you get LISP and VBA, and 3d and rendering if you need it. I liked it a lot better than Doublecad XT. I used Draftsight on my laptop for a while till I bought Bricscad. I do enough 3d work that it was handy to have 3d capabilities if I met a client for lunch or at his location so that's why I finally sprang for something with 3d. Draftsight doesn't put huge demands on a system, so the lighter weight machines can run it. There are some sacrifices in that it doesn't support dynamic blocks so if you are a big fan of those, you're out of luck. I don't know if LT does that or not, don't recall. Bricscad doesn't do that either, but they have promised it in upcoming releases. For the money though, Draftsight is a good buy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANIEL Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I'm going to see if i can get our LT users to give this shot. Thanks for heads up on this software as well as all the feed back on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 ... Bricscad is around half the price of LT and you get LISP and VBA' date=' and 3d and rendering if you need it. [/quote'] I watched the new direct modeling video from BricsCAD the other day. That looks pretty cool. Very similar to Inventor/Fusion/123D. Looked like a very nice feature. http://youtu.be/bjv2N0Un_I0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 In AutoCAD 2012... In current DraftSight.. We have lines, rectangles, spline, hatch, gradient hatch, dims and colors. Created in Acad and opened in Draftsight. The spline is there just does not show up in the jpg for some reason as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Cadder Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I'd be curious to know if you could do an ID check in the two programs and see where the geometry landed in each...On the surface it looks great. I hope that made sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I need to make a file in Acad, open in draftsight, save and then open in Acad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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