DraftSight no longer free

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

Posted by Limpet on 07/04/2019 19:31:57:

Am I missing something or am I just "special" but my version of Draftsight is still fine even after having to re-download it about 2/3 months ago after a big PC crash ( total reload of everthing). No problems at all and no messagesasking for money.

Look out for an email entitled "A New Era for DraftSight: Important Product Updates" which carries the bad news. The bit that this thread is about is in (their) italics.

Brian

We are also investing in other technologies including an upcoming cloud-based version of DraftSight and much more. Therefore, we want to make you aware that DraftSight 2019 for Windows^® is offered in paid versions only, and all free versions of DraftSight (2018 or earlier) will cease to run after 12/31/2019.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Thanks for the link Russell.
After checking the FreeCAD forum which only mentioned how it couldn't bee done I found the tutorials mentioned an add-in at the very bottom of the page. I have noticed my drawing was done in 2011 and I haven't used DS since so my usage and hence value from a paid package would be rather low.
I had a quick go at doing the 3D examples for Alibre in FreeCAD and it seemed to go ok though I imagine it isn't as good at assembling parts.

[Derek JohnsonParticipant @derekjohnson58813]

Hi

I have used DraftSight for about 4 years on clock and workshop related bits.

Currently trying Solid Edge 2d 2019. It imports DraftSight drawings and old AutoCad drawings very well.

The installation of Solid Edge is not complete – all the "Learn Tab" items won't connect to the web.

Re-installing many times does not fix the problem.

On the Solid Edge Forum there was only one other user with the same fault – and no solution.

Is there a Solid Edge 2d 2019 user out there who could help? Does your system connect to the web when you press F1 ?

Many Thanks

Derek

[Andy VeilParticipant @andyveil87690]

I am quite new to CAD programs but had to use one to get my aluminium parts cut at fractory. As they do it all online, they want proper drawings and I started learning/using DS as well. I am now between 2 options – either switch to LibreCAD or Fusion.

I've heard a lot of good about Fusion. Saw the Autodesk guys at a fair and had a chat with them about my problem. I know they're biased But they did say that Fusion is fast overtaking their other popular paid solutions. What do you think? Open-source vs free version which may got paid again? I would need to start learning 3D modelling for Fusion, so that's in

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 23/05/2019 17:10:27

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Hi Andy,

I (and a fair few others) use QCAD which is LibreCAD's older brother. QCAD also has a free community edition, plus a commercial version (about £30), that adds some worthwhile features. All three of them are competent 2D engineering drawing packages. QCAD is actively maintained. LibreCAD looks stalled at the moment: I couldn't download the latest stable version and the PPA site says it hasn't been updated for 166 weeks. That said, version 2.1.2 in the Ubuntu Repository looks in good shape. QCAD is my go-to tool for drawing single engineering objects, scale plans, templates etc – anything from back of an envelope to proper projection drawings with layers, dimensions, hatching and a version number! Simpler and easier to learn than Autosketch, which has too many unrelated bells and whistles for me.

I also use Fusion 360 which is a much more powerful 3D CAD tool. It comes into it's own for complex objects and especially Assemblies. For example, Fusion lets you model the individual parts of a machine and then model them together with approprate joints such that the machine can be animated. You can see if moving parts are going to collide without making a real one. Fusion can also produce rotatable photo realistic images, do stress analysis, produce 2D drawings, and output CAM instructions.

Although I find Fusion fairly intuitive, 3D CAD can be a steep learning curve, and the package has multiple capabilities. Getting to grips with it is a hefty investment of time and energy and you might have better things to do. MEW is running a course on Alibre at the moment; also very capable and well worth a look, but Alibre will eventually cost money.

Of concern is that Autodesk might change their minds about the free licence currently on offer. Draftsight was free for a long time before users got that nasty message. A pessimist might expect Autodesk to pull the same trick – get you hooked, and then demand money. For that reason I also keep up-to-date with FreeCAD, it's more obviously in development and whilst not in the same league as Fusion & Co functionally, it's genuinely free. An optimist might think Fusion a good bet because Autodesk are implementing a clever long term strategy: they don't intend ever charging hobbyists and students, the plan is to put loads of self-trained Fusion people on the job market, such that employers switch to Fusion to reduce their eye-watering training costs.

To keep life simple, it might make sense to choose the minimum the part-cutter will put up with. If he only needs properly scaled 2D plan drawings, LibreCAD/QCAD is easier to learn than Fusion.

Producing good engineering drawings can be quite hard; there are do's and don'ts. A basic book might help get you started.

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 23/05/2019 19:11:21

[Andreas VellingParticipant @andreasvelling81669]

Alright, thanks for the recap. I already thought so as well – that 2D is probably wiser to stay with unless I really need the 3D one. I'll definitely check out QCAD and choose one of the 2 then.

When it comes to engineering drawings, the same laser cutting site has their own instructions. Lucky for me, they don't want any measurements, only cutting lines. That's why someone like me, without an actual engineering background, can get his stuff produced. But thanks for the tip. If I ever need to turn to traditional manufacturers, I'll know where to turn to.

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

Crikey, a disappointment for cheapskates everywhere! 😀

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Ron ColvinParticipant @roncolvin83430]

Posted by Barrie Lever on 08/06/2019 18:40:25:

Fusion 360 will be next, now that the stupid little spat between Dassault and Autodesk is probably over.

You will hear the cry's all over the country then.

Maybe not. I use Onshape rather than Fusion 360, but the free use for non-commercial users is pretty much the same deal. I do not believe that model engineers, that are predominantly older chaps (Not being a sexist here and I realise that one of most accomplished model engineers in Britain is a woman) are the principle targets for these free arrangements. The vendors of these products are trying to win over young people with design aptitude, being well aware that once someone has invested time and effort into learning a program they have an incentive to stick with what they are familiar with. These youthful users may well be in commercial positions later on to specify the software the companies that they are working for will be using.

[GreensandsParticipant @greensands]

Hi – Anticipating the worst, I am considering having to conver all my current .dwg Draftsight files into an older version of Autocad e.g. ACAD 2000-2002. Is there a quick (or batch) way of making the conversion of the 50 or so files I have or do I have to go through the individual Save-as routine for each individual file?

[GreensandsParticipant @greensands]

I am currently running a 2017 edition of the 'free' Draftsight 2D software package but does anyone know whether it will still be accessible after Dec 31 2019?

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

As far as I know, all free versions of Draftsight will stop working on the anointed date.

No-one got back to Greensands query, I have had no problem opening dwg produced by Dratsight with other CAD programs, typically Qcad and Solid Edge 2D, I'm going to switch to one or the other.

[mgnbukParticipant @mgnbuk]

I had a look at the Drafsight website yesterday & see that the free version is no longer available – the "free" option now is for a 30 day trial, then an ongoing $99 a year. As I said initially, the "pop-up" that appeared for me which prompted this thread stated that all "free" versions would cease to function at the end of the year – nothing on the website suggests otherwise.

Nigel B

[Rod AshtonParticipant @rodashton53132]

I switched to QCAD pro 4/5 weeks ago. It is amazing after a few hours of intro. what nice little touches there are in the workflow. Need to get used to the way of working. But finding new stuff all the time. I have been CAD/CAM ing for 40 plus years and that is the best £30 I have spent on software. No connection to the company whatsoever. Just a happy customer.

[Andy CarlsonParticipant @andycarlson18141]

I've just found this thread. This is something I came across when the messages started to appear earlier this year. I think that several others have made the same decision as me.

I stopped using DraftSight straight away in order to flush out any problems while I could still fire up DraftSight if the need arose.

I now use QCAD free. I use the ODA file converter when I want to convert a DraftSight DWG into DXF. To answer a question posed a couple of weeks back, this can do batch conversions. I have not converted all of my files because converting isn't the full story – they also need to be checked one by one to see if any problems have occurred.

I have no major issues with QCAD. It is different and takes a bit of getting used to. I mainly use CAD for photo etch artwork. This is more about the 'colouring in' than the outlines and this is where I have found a few issues…

In some cases (maybe 5% or so) the conversion has resulted in fills that are not as they were in DraftSight. These have needed manual correction, usually by deleting them and re-creating in QCAD.

The other difference I've found is in the storage of colour info. DraftSight stores layer colours as index colours (red=1, green=3 etc). As far as I can see, QCAD will not do this. It stores all colours as RGB values. None of this causes a problem unless you want to use the colour info for some purpose (which I do). My workflow for the final photo tool uses AutoCAD DWG TrueView to produce two PDF files for the monochrome front and rear masks and this went wrong when I switched to QCAD. So far the only answer I've found is to manually modify the layers back to the corresponding index colours after opening the file in TrueView.

I'm not sure if any of this is relevant to more model engineering uses of CAD, but if you are using layer colours to convey info to another piece of software then it may.

[GreensandsParticipant @greensands]

I eventually found that batch conversion of DraftSight files to AutoCAD2000 compatible could be carried out using AutoCAD DRW Trueview – all quite painless.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I've just come across ProgeCAD Free, anyone know if it is any good?

**LINK**

[AdrianhParticipant @adrianh95127]

I use a free version of Nanocad for 2D work, you register as a hobby user .

[Gerd VanhaevereParticipant @gerdvanhaevere52695]

Draftsight users , team solidsquat -ssq has just released a fix that will

allow you to use draftsight beyond 31/12/2019 .

I don't think I'm allowed to post a link here , but search the net and you will find .

Be carefull though , there are "fixes" out there that contain nasty virusses and stuff ,

But as far as I can tell ,  this one is clean and does the job .

 

Edited By Gerd Vanhaevere on 27/12/2019 16:37:52

[GreensandsParticipant @greensands]

Have just checked out access to my 2017 version of DraftsSght and nothing appears to have changed. All my drawing files seem to be readily accessible as before. I thought we were supposed to have had a problem come the new year?

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

My 2012 version still works.

Rod

[Andy CarlsonParticipant @andycarlson18141]

If you remember how DraftSight works… it pops up a re-registration form every so often (maybe once a year??). At this point I think it talks to the central site.

It *may* be that the appearance of this form will be the point at which it's game over for each of us. If so then it will happen at some random (and probably inconvenient) time in the future.

[Derek JohnsonParticipant @derekjohnson58813]

Greetings All

I did not use Draftsight 2018 for 6 months. Early December I tried to do my last sketch, and part way through Draftsight stopped working. I could still view a drawing but could not work as the command line was missing with the print function disabled .

For the future l looked at Qcad but could not easily print parts of a drawing to scale, so this unfortunately was rejected.

I am now using Solid Edge 2D free to finish my sketch. This will print parts of any drawing to scale. As a bonus it will add imperial dimensions to the mm dimensions (as Draftsight allowed).

I was brought up in the imperial world but now hobby design in mm. My micrometers are all imperial.

Regards

Derek

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Derek Johnson on 09/01/2020 11:13:50:

…

For the future l looked at Qcad but could not easily print parts of a drawing to scale, so this unfortunately was rejected.

…

Derek

Not a feature I use much but later versions of QCAD do that with 'Viewports'? Doesn't seem difficult to use and the dialogue allows any scale wanted. Not sure when Viewports first appeared, I only discovered them after coughing up recently to see what was new 3 years after my last free update.

Dave

[Derek JohnsonParticipant @derekjohnson58813]

Dave

Printing to scale using Qcad

Many thanks for the Viewports Tip – It works !!! using Qcad professional version 3.22

What is confusing for a newbe like me is that under the Printing Help Instructions there is no cross reference to View Ports. Changing the scale under the Printing Command I think is only possible using the scale function on my cheap printer! (not easy).

As I have spent a lot of time on Solid Edge 2D I will stick with this at at the present.

Thanks again for your help

Regards

Derek

 

Edited By Derek Johnson on 10/01/2020 11:16:27

[Author]

Posts