Using Draftsight with AutoCAD LT files

[scoo9]

Hello All,   first, let me know if this is not the right place for this question. 

 

I'm a designer using AutoCAD LT and within our company, we have any people that views and edits dwg files. Those people are currently using free CAD software called draftsight. However, the free version of draftsight will be going away at the end of this year. So my question is, what is another good free CAD software to work with dwg files?

 

Thanks

[BIGAL]

There not free but can be purchased at pretty cheap price, they have various levels available reflected in price.

 

Briscad, Intellicad, Zwcad, Karelcad to mention a few.

[eldon]

Have you looked at AutoCAD 360?

[rkmcswain]

What type of editing do they need to do?

BricsCAD Shape is free. Might be worth exploring.

[scoo9]

Thanks for the replies

Bigal/Eldon, I'll add these to the list to review.

rkmcswain, most of the people only need to view and measure. We have about 10 people that need to draw moderate geometry (not always simple but not complex).

 

My original list to review.

QCAD

NanoCad

Siemens

LibreCAD

FreeCAD

 

Thanks

[Cad64]

I would put Bricscad at the top of the list, for the people who need to draw.

 

For the people who only need to view and measure, I would suggest "DWG TrueView" and "Design Review" They are both free viewers that allow you to view and mark up files. Here's a link to the download page: https://www.autodesk.com/products/dwg/viewers

[scoo9]

Thanks Cad64 !

[rkmcswain]

2 hours ago, Cad64 said:

For the people who only need to view and measure, I would suggest "DWG TrueView" and "Design Review" They are both free viewers that allow you to view and mark up files. 

 

Note: Design Review only opens DWF (Autodesk's version of a PDF), and DWG Trueview does not let you do mark ups. It's a very basic viewer only.

 

Design Review says you can open DWG files, but what it really does is open the DWG using DWG Trueview in the background, and prints it to DWF. If the DWG is not saved with the proper pagesetup, then this will probably fail. IOW - don't rely on Design Review to mark up DWG files.

[tzframpton]

AutoCAD LT subscription comes out to $30/mo including tax. Easy cost effective way to still use Autodesk products. Same license can exist on multiple machines so as long as one user at a time. Just another option on the paid side of things. I would probably go BricsCAD too, ultimately. 

 

-TZ

[Cad64]

1 hour ago, rkmcswain said:

Note: Design Review only opens DWF (Autodesk's version of a PDF), and DWG Trueview does not let you do mark ups. It's a very basic viewer only.

 

 

TBH, I don't think the OP needs to do markups, just open and view dwg files and take measurements which Truview can do. I thought Design Review could open dwg's but I guess not. It's been a few years since I've looked at it.