DraftSight

DraftSight

Developer(s)	Dassault Systèmes
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Platform	PC, Mac, Linux
Type	CAD
License	Proprietary
Website	DraftSight.com

DraftSight is a free 2D CAD (computer-aided design or computer-aided drafting) product for engineers, architects, designers, draftspeople, students and educators. The product was developed by Dassault Systèmes and lets users create, edit and view DWG and DXF files.

DWG files contain the binary data for CAD design and it is the drawing format for many CAD programs. DWG is a long-time abbreviation for "Drawing." A DXF, or Drawing Exchange File, is used to convert CAD files into a generic format that can be read by another CAD software product.

DraftSight competes against more than three dozen 2D or 2D/3D hybrid products on the market.^[1] General availability of DraftSight for Windows was released in February 2011 and was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.^[2]

Languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Russian.

Portability

DraftSight loads quickly and has a file size of 45 MB. The activated DraftSight application folder takes up 160 MB.

File formats

DraftSight allows users to access legacy DWG/DXF files, regardless of which CAD software was originally used to create them. According to industry estimates, there are more than three billion DWG legacy files in existence.^[3]

Platforms/operating systems

DraftSight runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (general release), Mac OS X and Linux (Mac and Linux are currently in beta).

DraftSight functions

• Read and write support for DWG/DXF files
• File | Save to DWT/DWG/DXF files back to previous versions ( need email activation)
• Create binary or ASCII DXF files
• Attach image files (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, & .tiff)
• Attach external reference drawings
• File| Print to .plt, .jpg, .pdf, .png, & .svg file formats.
• Save as .wmf?, .jpeg, .pdf, .png, .sld, .svg, .tif, & .stl
• Multi-page PDF creation
• Publish to eDrawings or Drawings Now
• File | export | Export To *.bmp, *.emf, *.jpg,*.pdf, *.png,*.sld,*.svg, *.tif file formats.

Release History

• Initial beta release for Windows: June 2010
• Mac beta I release: September 2010
• General release for Windows: February 2011
• Linux beta release: March 2011
• Mac beta II release: March 2011

Features

DraftSight was designed for professional CAD users and includes the following features:

• Cartesian coordinate system
• Command-line input
• Traditional toolbars and menus
• Wheel-mouse pan & zoom
• Blocks & reference files
• Layers & layer manager
• Polygonal ViewPorts
• ViewPort locking
• Freeze, lock or turn off layers per ViewPort
• Background masks for notes
• Property manager
• View proxy objects
• Dynamic pan & zoom
• Command aliases
• Menu files
• CTB and STB print style tables
• SHX and TrueType fonts
• LineStyle files
• Hatch pattern files
• Templates

Online user community

Dassault Systèmes hosts an open, on-line SwYm (See What You Mean) community for DraftSight users to ask questions, express opinions, collaborate, solve problems and share ideas. According to Machine Design magazine, engineers are increasingly turning to industry-specific social networking sites to collaborate on projects.^[4] The community also holds an abundance of training resources.

Tutorials/training

Dassault Systèmes offers free video DraftSight training resources. Additional training resources are available at no cost in the online DraftSight SwYm Community.

Education

• DraftSight is free for individual students and educators
• DraftSight Premium for Education Classroom Pack and Campus Pack includes telephone and email support, access to DraftSight APIs, network licensing and curriculum and additional online training through No-Cost Community Support.

Technical support

• No-cost community support
• DraftSight Premium Pack: Fee-based telephone and email technical support with network licensing and access to DraftSight APIs

screenshot of draftsight in windows 7

References

1. ^ List of computer-aided design editors for architecture, engineering and construction
2. ^ DraftSight Surpasses One Million Downloads
3. ^ Estimate of the number of DWG legacy files.
4. ^ Machine Design Magazine: “DraftSight has a social networking side.”

External links

• Official website
• DraftSight download
• DraftSight video tutorials
• DraftSight SwYm community
• Dassault Systèmes