Draftsight Free No Longer

[JimG]

I've just picked this up on another forum

CAD Software Free Download | DRAFTSIGHT™ - Dassault Systèmes®

It's now going to be paid for by subscription software with the cheapest being £79 p.a.

Existing free versions will be de-activated at the end of this year.

Thank goodness I've still got my twelve year old version of AutoCAD LT, still working.

Jim.

 

[Steph Dale]

Jim,

This has been on the cards for a little while; Dassault have been in an interesting position in that their professional package (Solidworks) is viewed as an industry-standard package, alongside which they offered a (very) stripped-down version for free (Draftsight). There's long been demand for some form of vendor support around Draftsight and as soon as the Professional version was launched a year or two ago (with support and 3D drafting) the writing was on the cards for the free version.

I still wonder about the relative merit of £79/yr - it seems remarkable value for money to me. My guess is that with 3D now included, this is probably the cheapest way to access the ACIS drafting engine that sits at the heart of Solidworks.

Steph

 

[JimG]

I still wonder about the relative merit of £79/yr - it seems remarkable value for money to me. My guess is that with 3D now included, this is probably the cheapest way to access the ACIS drafting engine that sits at the heart of Solidworks.

Steph,

As far as I can deduce, the £79/yr version is 2D only, as is the next up $199/yr (not sure what the £/$ conversion would be). It looks as though you will have to shell out $499/yr to get the 3D facilities according to this page from their web site

DraftSight® 2D Drafting and 3D Design Software | DraftSight.

I also wonder what the new Draftsight 2019 looks like since I'm not sure if its 2D facilities would look anything like the present 2D Draftsight when integrated into a parametric 3D setup. I might just download the trial version to see how it looks. The one thing I do not like with some 3D parametric packages like Fusion 360 is the hoops I have to jump through to do more complex 2D sketches when compared to a good 2D program like the past versions of Draftsight or AutoCAD LT.

Jim.

 

[jjnewitt]

The one thing I do not like with some 3D parametric packages like Fusion 360 is the hoops I have to jump through to do more complex 2D sketches when compared to a good 2D program like the past versions of Draftsight or AutoCAD LT.

Jim you don't have to use the sketching package in Fusion 360 for complicated 2D sketches. You can import dwg or dxf files to the Data Panel in Fusion 360 and use them as sketches for creating 3D drawings. I do a lot of my sketching work, and especially the complex stuff, for fusion 360 in AutoCAD LT. Fusion 360 will apply some of the basic parametric constriants to the drawing which is enough if all you're doing is creating 3D bodies for 3D printing. Unless you wnat to create a design that automatically resizes walls thicknesses, etc when scaling we don't need fully parametric 2D drawings.

Justin

 

[JimG]

Justin,

Thanks for that. I had thought of importing DXFs but was trying to follow the parametric guidelines in Fusion 360 to see how I got on. I'm also finding out other funnies in Fusion - like scaling - where your parametric facilities don't follow through the scaling operation. You also get a load of funnies if you try to scale something which has imported components. I am in the habit of drawing in 2D to prototype dimensions then scaling to the model scale but I now find this very difficult in Fusion 360 and I now draw full scale in Fusion and do the scaling in the slicer. The only hassle is that my slicer - Chitubox - only works in metric so loaded Imperial drawings are autometically scaled down by 1/25.4 and you have to further scale to get to the modelling scale - but it works.

BTW, I've tried the S scale axlebox and spring files you gave me a while ago in my Phrozen Shuffle printer and they worked very well. I wondered if you might find it advantageous to do your own 3D printing.

Jim.

 

[jjnewitt]

Hi Jim,

I wonder why you're having problems scaling. I've regularly copied and pasted axleboxes and the like between drawings and then scaled with no issues. I do combine everything into one body before scaling though so maybe that makes a difference? I tend to draw in 4mm scale as that's what most things will end up being. I did go through a stage of drawing at 12mm to the foot but it got too confusing trying to keep an eye on how big things would end up.

I'd love a 3D printer and I'm amasing quite a number of stl files waiting to be printed. I've got some future projects that are going to rely on supplying things 3D printed but currently I have no where to put one. There may be a house move in the offing which is putting a few things on hold, such as sorting out somewhere to put one. I'll sort someting out eventually.

Justin

 

[JimG]

I do combine everything into one body before scaling though so maybe that makes a difference?

I suspect that that is the difference. I tend to keep everything as separate bodies or components. On occasion I have used rigid group to keep components together when inserting in another design with some success but not always. I'll do a bit more messing around and see how I get on but I suspect that the parametric facility might stop dead after the combine operation and any adjustments might require another combine operation - maybe not. I find that using Fusion 360 is like playing Doom 2 - you thrash around all over the place pressing buttons and features until the door opens to the next level.

I'd love a 3D printer and I'm amasing quite a number of stl files waiting to be printed. I've got some future projects that are going to rely on supplying things 3D printed but currently I have no where to put one. There may be a house move in the offing which is putting a few things on hold, such as sorting out somewhere to put one. I'll sort someting out eventually.

The footprint of these small resin printers is not too large - they tend to be much taller than they are wide and deep. But I find that you do need a fair bit of space handy to handle the cleaning of the prints after production. The resin itself needs to be handled with respect. I use nitrile gloves when working with the machine but on occasion I have touched my skin elsewhere with my gloved hands and got an adverse reaction - hopefully with no long term effects.

Jim.