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Draftsight 2019 - no longer Free 3

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SBaugh

SBaugh

Mechanical
Mar 6, 2001
6,686
If you are not aware, as of the latest download of 2019 Draftsight it is no longer going to be free.



Draftsight-_no_longer_free_vobeia.jpg


Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar
"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
Click to expand...
faq731-376
 
Not surprised. The apparent point of any free software by a for-profit group is to undercut the competitor's sales. If marketing determined that this was not working, then there's no point in making it free anymore.

Cloud-based = permanently paying to access your files. It's a legal form of ransomware.

CAD companies are all tightening up as they can no longer provide the levels of growth they once did as the market fills. This will continue to pressure the low end users out of the market.
 
So I am no longer going to be able to use my DS 2105. This really pi$$es me off. Suppose I'll be looking for my next, free, .dwg compatible for my hobby use. If any...

Regards,

Mike

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
 
I have already downloaded LibreCAD - Looks great for a free source 2D software.

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar
"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
Click to expand...
faq731-376
 
3DDave
You know I have never thought about it like that but you are absolutely correct! We have no plans to switch to cloud CAD. I bet all these changes are going to force a reaction from hackers to find a way to break into versions of CAD that more secure nowadays and are not on the cloud. More power to them if they do, because like you mentioned its a legal ransomware and its right for us not to own the files that we create.

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar
"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
Click to expand...
faq731-376
 
If the pricing wasn't per year I'd buy a copy as Draftsight's support for importing/converting/exporting between different versions of DWG is excellent. this is what I mainly use it for. Can LibreCAD even write out an Autocad dwg ? Trueview will prob do as a viewer but it's no substitute for Draftsight.
 
I'm not surprised either, but I'm glad- I can finally make the business case to move our entire engineering staff over to AutoDesk. Thanks, Dassault.
 
Instead of Draftsight you can use Solid Edge Free2D:
That is free professional 2D CAD plus free Viewer (Solid Edge, Parasolid, STEP, STL, JT, IGES, DWG, DXF).

For professional 3D cloud CAD my favorite is Onshape:
FreePlan with full CAD functionality, sheet metal and PDM. Available for open source and public projects.
 
Is Solidedge 2D completely free for commercial use ? I've been looking for the EULA but it points you to the full Solidedge EULA.
 
"Solid Edge 2D Drafting
Free 2D CAD Software
Whether you need to use 2D CAD software across your company or for a specific 2D design process, Solid Edge 2D Drafting provides production-proven 2D drafting software - for free."
 
*&%@#(*!!
I just smashed my face into this too. I use DraftSight about 10 times a year to cobble up a cnc router part or a field wiring diagram. I've always cursed the Dassault idiots because on two computers at least one would be whining about needing to be "activated" every rare time I opened it. Really aggravating, especially since the activation process was broken about half the time. So today the same thing 'you must activate (again!)' but with that nasty in-[!]red[/!] you shall bend over after December.

I thought about using a cracked version to keep the files on MY computer instead of their cloud. Hilariously my anti virus program found and nixed the keycracker every time it opened. It would appear and in the time it took to read the file name it would vaporize it and my antiV would pop up a window to inform me of a 'save'.

I'm glad to hear there are some alternatives. I'll be trying them soon.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
I found a cool piece of free 2D CAD software. Nanocad - Thus far I like it better than Solid Edge 2D or Libre

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar
"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
Click to expand...
faq731-376
 
I hope nanoCAD doesn't pull the same trick on us. It's also twice the price of DraftSight.


As for DraftSight ransoming our drawings, is that really true?? Can't we store them on our hardware and access them with any DFX or DWG tool? This is not like Fusion360 where you really are ransomed except they have a really generous licencing agreement. (Free for hobbyists or companies doing less than x$ business.)

I'd probably go with DraftSight except their licensing sucks for me. I work on drawings at home and at the office and they're allowing only one CPU period. So that would mean I'd have to buy 2 copies even though only one would ever be running at a time. Lame.

nanoCAD does offer floating licences except they demand the floaters be on the same network. LAME. What the hell's wrong with them? How hard is it to keep track of how many copies of a license are running on the planet?

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
Except for the lack of a DWG output I'm liking LibreCAD!!

Some of the features are better than these paid packages.

I'm not actually seeing a problem with a lack of a DWG output. I'll never use AutoScrewYou and all the other packages like my CAM stuff demands DXF anyway. Oh and they liked the DXF files I generated in LibreCAD.

LibreCAD is nice and small too. It opens my DWG files just fine too.

Thanks again Scott for pointing it out.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
There is also the "portable" version of LibreCad available. Can be run from a USB stick, (without installing it to the computer). I tried it, works OK, but I had problems when I tried to print in an exact (100%) scale. I was not able to achieve it. It could be a printer or driver problem.
 
Hi gearguru.

The shine is wearing off now. The zooming is annoyingly slow on my fast machine and just fine on my slow machine...[bugeyed]. It's also annoying that a little fly-over doesn't appear stating in text what a particular button does. Most other CAD programs seem to provide that and it makes for about 10X faster training and almost immediate use.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
Looks interesting. I'll try it. I agree with you, the LibreCad is not very user friendly.
Thanks for the link.
 
In a fit of frustration with some of Draftsight's own idiocy I downloaded the trial form of ACAD Lite. Geez what a difference! I haven't used Autocad in about 8 years and I was instantly back on track getting the job done in about a third of the time and with NO frustration.

Now I'm faced with contemplating a subscription to ACAD LT. "Summer sale", whatever the hell that means, is $800 for a 3 year term. I can probably rationalize that over $180 for, say, NanoCad with it's horrid licensing limits(*).

(*) All other CAD packages seem to require you run "server" software to share the license on other hardware and uselessly the computers must all share the same network. This is completely incompatible with the premise of working on my office computer OR my home laptop. This means I have to buy two seats to do my normal one-individual CAD. This makes all the cheap packages considerably more expensive than Autocad itself.

Autocad's single license runs on anything you have anywhere you have it. It simply "phone's home" to check out 'one user'. It runs on web-browser tech and so can even run on the likes of a cellphone. If you cloud-ize your drawing storage you can Acad edit your drawings anywhere any time.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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