DraftSight 2019 no longer free

[triplus]

We are also investing in other technologies including an upcoming cloud-based version of DraftSight and more.

I guess a subscription business model is what most companies are migrating too these days.

[NormandC]

I bet it's not error/issue free either.

We use DraftSight at work in a very limited fashion, to do some occasional edits of DXF files we generate with our parametric CAD suite (some vendors still require DXFs). DraftSight seems pretty stable, maybe because it is not actually developed by Dassault Systèmes , but licensed from German company Gräbert, which markets its own version named ARES Commander. ARES Commander is fully 3D and requires purchasing.

Gräbert already has its cloud solution, I'm sure DraftSight's version will be based on it.

Mac and Linux users may access DraftSight 2019 Beta below at no cost.

This is puzzling. I bet it's only temporary, until they release a final version...

I guess a subscription business model is what most companies are migrating too these days.

Autodesk did it years ago, they are finally turning a profit again. Adobe did too... But some others are not, thankfully. This is just a plain transparent ripoff to shackle their customers and make them pay more than what they were paying, for absolutely no added value.

[engdham]

Another pretty good alternative:

https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/ ... ree-2d-cad

[NormandC]

Do we really need to encourage alternate proprietary free products here? I'd think that the whole point of this topic is to point out the issue with those products: you never know when it will be pulled out, or when they'll start charging for it.

I use Solid Edge at work every day. Solid Edge 2D Drafting is basically the "Draft" module of the full package, which is the equivalent of the TechDraw workbench, with the same sketch tools as its sketcher and a 2D workspace you can draw into. My biggest gripe with it is that the global origin (0,0) isn't defined in that 2D workspace. So when exporting to DXF, you have no idea where what you've drawn will be located in reference to (0,0).

I compared its drawing tools to the Sketcher, because it works in the same manner with a solver and constraints. Those who are used to an AutoCAD way of drafting (like DraftSight) may be disoriented.

[triplus]

I don't mind if other such solutions get mentioned, although i don't use them ATM. With DraftSight i find it a bit unfriendly, for them to make older versions, to not work anymore. As for the cloud. Hopefully some day technology will mature enough, for FreeCAD to become a player in this area. As (private) cloud can be a good thing. Like NextCloud. Currently it would be hard to argue, NextCloud isn't a good thing. In addition it has some CAD viewing support:

https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/files_3d

Therefore CAD teams can already use NextCloud for collaboration purposes.

[engdham]

Do we really need to encourage alternate proprietary free products here? I'd think that the whole point of this topic is to point out the issue with those products: you never know when it will be pulled out, or when they'll start charging for it.

I use Solid Edge at work every day. Solid Edge 2D Drafting is basically the "Draft" module of the full package, which is the equivalent of the TechDraw workbench, with the same sketch tools as its sketcher and a 2D workspace you can draw into. My biggest gripe with it is that the global origin (0,0) isn't defined in that 2D workspace. So when exporting to DXF, you have no idea where what you've drawn will be located in reference to (0,0).

I compared its drawing tools to the Sketcher, because it works in the same manner with a solver and constraints. Those who are used to an AutoCAD way of drafting (like DraftSight) may be disoriented.

I understand your point,

but I'm supposing that like me, other FreeCAD users occasionally need to work with 2D (damn, even 3D) dwg's, and now, we're like, orphans...

I'm glad I found nanocad in this topic, it's not like Draftsight but possibly will do the job. I hope I can measure something in 3D.

In the best of my wishful thinking, FreeCAD will handle those files well in the future.

[Opus]

Do we really need to encourage alternate proprietary free products here?...

I would like to see more collaboration between LibreCAD 3 development and FreeCAD, but there is nothing yet.

[looo]

Or someone starts to implement a low level drafting wb. Current draft objects are a bit too heavy for doing tasks normally done with AutoCAD or draft sight. I always wondered what the difficulties of a AutoCAD clone would be. In my eyes it should be pretty straightforward.

- compile libredwg
- write dwg importer
- copy AutoCAD commands one by one

Or use librecad and build a autocad equivalent ui in freecad. Does librecad have python bindings?

[NormandC]

Does librecad have python bindings?

Not as far as I know, LibreCAD 2.x doesn't even have scripting. LibreCAD 3 will have scripting with Lua.

[yorik]

This is very good for open-source tools. We'll have to work hard to make 2D drafting better in FreeCAD! And others like LibreCAD should see some new interest too