Free DWG editor from Dessault Systemes

[f700es]

DraftSight

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/draftsight-overview/

 

I just installed it and started playing around, it feels quick and responsive. So far the standard AutoCAD alias I have entered have worked (yes it has a command line). Not sure if this is built on top of a typical intellicad clone but it does seem to be similar. I remember DSS having another dwg editor a few years ago. This seems like a better offering.

 

Real hard to justify LT with continuous free offerings from major players like DSS.

 

[ReMark]

Jeez I was just reading something about this today in an email from Ralph Grabowski.

[DVDM]

I've been playing with it as well and I'm quite impressed. As an Autocad user I feel right at home after a little bit of customizing in the options. It feels light and snappy compared to Acad 2010, yet can do just about everything I could want from it. It's got the odd bug at the moment (still in Beta), but I think it promises to be a great program.

I believe support for Lisp is on the way as well, that would make it better than LT

Downside for me is that it can't edit Dynamic blocks at the moment, which I've only started using a few months ago.

[stevsmith]

We download this for some of our sales staff, it seems to work well on 1 computer compaired to to the other 3 systems we installed it on.

I installed it to my works computer to find that it was completely unresponsive. this may be due to some of the other software I have installed.

[f700es]

Could be, it is in beta so I do not expect it to be error free. It is still an important step. Maybe it will make AutoDesk take notice

 

  stevsmith said:

We download this for some of our sales staff, it seems to work well on 1 computer compaired to to the other 3 systems we installed it on.

I installed it to my works computer to find that it was completely unresponsive. this may be due to some of the other software I have installed.

[f700es]

If they do continue development and release a Mac and Linux version (as they are planning) they will have a winner on their hands

[JD Mather]

  f700es said:

Could be, it is in beta so I do not expect it to be error free. It is still an important step. Maybe it will make AutoDesk take notice

 

I didn't take a look, but Beta, does that mean when it isn't beta it times out and a salesman comes calling trying to convince you to upgrade to SolidWorks or Catia. I guess it is an inexpensive way to get sales leads.... ....once they get into your boss' office (they won't fool with you, you know too much) they are like timeshares salesmen....

[f700es]

It is supposed to stay free but I think they are also looking at an enterprise edition as well. We'll see what happens.

 

  JD Mather said:

I didn't take a look, but Beta, does that mean when it isn't beta it times out and a salesman comes calling trying to convince you to upgrade to SolidWorks or Catia. I guess it is an inexpensive way to get sales leads.... ....once they get into your boss' office (they won't fool with you, you know too much) they are like timeshares salesmen....

[DVDM]

  JD Mather said:

I didn't take a look, but Beta, does that mean when it isn't beta it times out and a salesman comes calling trying to convince you to upgrade to SolidWorks or Catia. I guess it is an inexpensive way to get sales leads.... ....once they get into your boss' office (they won't fool with you, you know too much) they are like timeshares salesmen....

 

Well, at the moment we're paying tens of thousands dollars every year for our autodesk products, and get a call from the rep every 2 weeks asking if all is well, need anything else, get invites to workshops which turn out to be useless salespitches, and get emails with useless tips and tricks... and now Dassault is offering all of that free of charge!

[JD Mather]

  DVDM said:

... Dassault is offering all of that free of charge!

 

Every business has a budget for generating sales leads. The budget won't last long if they don't make some sales of some product.

[f700es]

  JD Mather said:

Every business has a budget for generating sales leads. The budget won't last long if they don't make some sales of some product.

 

True that but I think they already offered this before but not as good as the current one. I think they will offer a pay version with LISP and support as well. I await to see the price for this one.

[stevsmith]

I remember DS's DWGeditor that came free with solidworks. That was a great draughting program although it may not have looked as aesthetically pleasing as Autocad 2009 onwards it had great potential to compete with Autodesk.

Now it seems they are going to step up further with draftsight. I would see it as a major competitor, but then again its like anything else. The top players (eg Autodesk) have monopolised the market.