DraftSight no longer free

You can type commands as described by Brian or - usually - there's a button. In general it's easier to drive QCAD on the buttons. Commands speed up operations when you know what you're doing but they take some learning.

In line and other drawing modes, Snap and other control buttons appear in the left hand panel. Ringed in green at the bottom are the line angle controls. They are:

• + is OFF, ie draw line at any angle
• red circled cross draws only vertical or only horizontal lines
• red circled horizontal line draws only horizontal lines
• red circled vertical line draws only vertical lines
• fuel gauge-like button allows any line angle to be set

Dave

So to take a perhaps silly example, to draw a hexagon with side length 2 units in DS or AC I would

set ortho on (this stays on nearly all the time until you turn it off)

Click line tool
Click start point
move cursor up,
type 2 <return> (no need to click into command line)
type @2<30<return>
type @2<-30<return>
move cursor down
type 2<return>
type @2<210<return>
click on start point

9 operations. Try as I might, it takes a lot more clicking of various tools and boxes in QCAD. I need to buy the book!

That's one way of doing it! I know you Northerners are tough guys, but that's like learning to swim by jumping off the high diving board at an Olympic Swimming Pool. It's easier to use the shape tools:

Pressing the shape tools button opens up the usual ways of drawing polygons (not just pentagons as implied by the icon):

Clicking a polygon button allows the number of sides to be selected:

Dave

I was using that as an example, the point I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to make is that in DS and AC you can draw a line from a point in a set direction and a set length with 2 clicks and a command line. To do it in QCAD it seems to be 5 clicks and 2 lots of filling in boxes.

I've also tried LibreCad which is very seems very similar to QCAD but doesn't handle dwg at all well, at least for me, it is very clunky if I open a dwg, and won't save in that format

Just to go back to the original comment for a moment. My copy of Draftsight is copyrighted 2012 and, as far as I know, has no connectivity to Dassault Systems. It is a 2D only version. I don't expect this to disappear. Time. of course, will tell.

Rod

My copy of Draftsight is copyrighted 2012 and, as far as I know, has no connectivity to Dassault Systems. It is a 2D only version. I don't expect this to disappear. Time. of course, will tell.

The "Important Notice" I received says "all free versions of DraftSight will cease to run after 31.12.2019", so you could be disappointed come the end of the year - that statement doesn't leave much room for misunderstanding, though maybe not if your copy of DS can't "phone home" ?. I couldn't copy & paste the contents of the message box & have yet to find a way of saving a screenshot as a picture to be able to upload it here, unfortunately.

The reason given for the change to a charging model is due to DS2019 having been "extensively re-written to provide 3D functionality and investing in other technologies including a Cloud based version" - Solidworks Lite, maybe ? It seems a bit mean to me to disable the 2D versions, many of the users of which (me included) would not be interested in the "robust 3D capabilities" for the 2D drawings they produce.

Nigel B

Ah with you. QCAD doesn't seem to support command-line control in that way. Rather it assumes most users will use the mouse, and that advanced users will use a combination of the command line with coordinates selected by mouse, not typed. Although you can enter coordinates by typing them, qcad doesn't let you do entire command and coordinates like 'line 0,0 20,20' in one go. Instead, after you type in a command like 'line', it prompts for 'First Point', then 'Next Point', collecting coordinates one at a time.

The desire to type coordinates may be due to what you are used to : I haven't had to type CAD commands manually since about 1995!

I'm not sure it's helpful to expect packages to compare at this level of detail, QCAD isn't a Draftsight or an AutoCAD clone, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect it to be functionally identical AND to work in the exactly the same way as anything else.

LIbreCAD is a fork of an earlier version of QCAD. It's true Open Software but isn't as up-to-date or functional as QCAD-Pro, which also includes better support for formats like DXF. A shortcoming - last time I looked - LibreCAD didn't have quick command switching or some of the go-faster commands that make QCAD-Pro more productive. Certainly not rubbish, LibreCAD can produce much the same drawings as QCAD but the operator has to work a little harder.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 28/03/2019 13:52:09

My copy is 2018 sp3 and works without an internet connection but comes up with a notice to say that news and community features will not be available. I bet it will stop working though!

It does seem very unfair as, although Qcad will read and work on simple drawings some of my drawings are virtually unuseable in Qcad as it confuses layers and uses different font styles and sizes for dimensions. Perhaps it will be worth exporting all my drawings in various dxf versions before Draftsight goes tits up.

On the other hand perhaps some kind hacker will come up with an unlocked version that will keep working.

Russell

I'm a total beginner at QCAD and have only read the first few pages of the e-book, but this worked for me to draw line by line a hexagon with 20 unit sides:

LA30 20 (I would like to be able to enter this, and probably can)

90 (it snapped automatically)

150

210

270

330

What surprised me was that I didn't at any point have to hit , and what pleased me was not having to type "@" or "<" (as in "@20<30" ). I wonder if there is any way to make each line spring from the end of the previous one (perhaps I should read the section on polylines?).

I get the feeling that with practice it will be as quick as anything else, and it is probably faster to learn, but it is going to take a while to get used to it as I have been using the same AutoCAD/DraftSight interface since taking my C&G on AutoCAD R14.

Brian

EDIT: to remove accidental winky

Edited By Brian G on 28/03/2019 14:28:33

Is it 'fair' to make something freely available, then withdraw it?

It seems to be a frequent thing these days. A program I use has shifted to a yearly subscription model, but (a) it's only £10 and the (b) 'free' version has been 'frozen' rather than withdrawn - it just tempts you with all the extra goodies in the 'pro version'. This does seem 'fairer' to me me.

I do think that not making it clear a program you might invest a lot of time and data into could cease to be free is unfair. I particularly worry about programs that push their free version hard but use evasive language when asked a direct question, like this example:

"While I can't necessarily make any promises that ********* will indefinitely have a free tier, or who meets the guidelines for a free tier (current entitlements here), please know that we are extremely committed to serving the enthusiasts, hobbyists, startups and smaller businesses."

Neil

I'm with you there Brian. I've been using Autocad and then Draftsight since 1984, Autocad version 1.4 I think. It's difficult for this old dog to learn new tricks!

Russell

Anyone looking for a good free 2d CAD programme should check out Siemens Solid Edge 2d. I used it a lot before I went to 3d Solid Edge.

Try FreeCad 0.18 with the workbook DRAFT selected. Stick with the drawing approach for a bit and you will find a very useful tool. If you wish you can convert instantly to 3D or just save your file as 2D.

Here is brief overview of 2D :- **LINK**

Interesting to compare the behaviour of the "evil empire" in relation to its popular program MS Money which was always paid for until Microsoft discontinued it but made a perfectly usable "sunset" edition available free.

Just had a quick look at FreeCAD and see it has an architect mode that seems to make drawing connected walls easy. Could be good for designing sheds

.

Ahh ... The old "MEW Digital Archive" question

MichaelG.

Russell, what problems have you find with layers when reading Draftsight dwg files in Qcad?

Eric

My apologies, I hadn't considered that my use of angle brackets to show keyboard commands would be processed as empty HTML markups. The real operations to draw a hexagon were slightly longer as below:

So far I have found that multi-line text from DraftSight is coming out as a single (very) long line, and that some linetypes haven't worked. Layers seem to be OK, but although it looks like QCAD can support multi-line text, and if not I can simply go back to the old way of entering one line at a time).

The biggest loss seems to be in dimensioning, as QCAD doesn't appear to support alternate (mm/inch) units, but instead requires the alternate dimension to be entered manually by editing the dimension. All drawings from DraftSight only show the first dimension when viewed in QCAD.

I think QCAD will be able to satisfy my needs but my first action will be to print all my existing drawings to PDF so I have a reference copy that I will be able to check if I need to edit them later in QCAD.

Brian

+1

I suggested it in this thread too along with a link.**LINK**

(its the first post today, not sure how to link down to individual post level)

BR
Simon