DraftSight Free?

I have a copy of Autodesk Inventor on an old XP machine, however as I'm now using Linux on my main PC I thought I would try DraftSight, I went on the website and chose what was listed as a free download, it downloaded but when I went to install it found it had been put in the Package Manager 'Graphics (non free)' section, has anyone else had this problem, if it is a problem at all?

Thanks

John

According to Drafysights website it isn't exactly free. They provide a version for free and charge for another. This sometimes means that the free one is crippled some how but they don't seem to give any details of the differences on their web site. Not being open source might influence installs as well.

I've looked at some Linux 2D cad packages. Best for me so far is LibreCAD. It's pretty easy to pick up. 2 aspects were not obvious to me. The current reference point moved with what ever I drew. It opens set like that for people that want to draw with the keyboard using co ordinates and sums etc. There is a button to lock it. I'm happier with that pressed.

I couldn't see how to draw things on a pcd. Not tried it yet but it has a copy, rotate, n times feature under the modify button.

I've asked 2 questions on it's forum and both were answered on it's forum.

The only thing I am not keen on is buttons under buttons. They have done it this way so that it can be used on small screens. Some people are trying to persuade then to give an all buttons on display option. As it is clicking on the modify button will bring up a series of buttons that can modify all sorts of things, Lines and circles etc are done the same way.

I do like the way it handles a mix of mouse and keyboard control. There are a lot of snap options.

For 3D the best offer at the moment is probably FreeCAD. Googling Linux 3D cad will probably bring that up, same for 2d packages.  I can't install FreeCAD until I upgrade. Must get round to that.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 26/05/2016 17:06:21

Thanks for that John, I've just looked and found I have LibreCAD already installed, I just hadn't looked hard enough, I'll have a go at it.

John

I've been using Draftsight on Linux for several years now and can confirm that it is totally free. There is a "Pro" version which is paid for but I haven't trie it. I think it is put in the Graphics (non free) section of the package manager as it is not open source.

If you are familiar with Autocad you will find the user interface to be very familiar. It looks and feels just like an earlier version of Autocad and it can read and write Autocad .DWG files as well as many other formats.

I tried LibreCAD some time ago but found the user interface to be rather poor in comparison. Perhaps because I had been used to using Autocad at work since the 1980s.

Russell.

Having used AutoCAD for the last 20 years, I have been trying DraftSight Free on W10, and as Russell says it feels very familiar. I am not sure I would agree with John though about it being "crippled" as the only professional feature I would really miss for modelling projects is attaching PDF underlays.

Brian

Look at ST8 from Solid Edge (Siemens). It is totally free and has a much more friendly user interface than DraftSight.

Look at ST8 from Solid Edge (Siemens). It is totally free and has a much more friendly user interface than DraftSight.

And don't forget Autodesk's Fusion 360. It's a fully parametric 3D CAD system with animation, rendering, and built-in CAM processor (the same one that Solidworks charges an arm and a leg for). Best of all, remarkably, for hobbyists, students, and small businesses (<100k/yr), its absolutely free.

The OP said that he is using Linux. Both Solid Edge and Autocad Fusion 360 are Windoze only.

Russell.

Thank you all for your replies, it looks like I'll be with LibreCAD to start with, I eventually managed to download DraftSight after a few attempts, however although it appears as an 457MB installed program in the 'Package Manager' and is listed in the 'Applications' window it won't launch so I can't do anything with it.

John

As an old duffer close to 70 I am intrigued by those that have the nouse to produce cad drawings in 2D/3D; I am looking at getting into this just for my own interest, not for CNC machining etc... not interest in that depth of hobbying, just really want to produce simple stuff that can rotate & look inside of. I did start a course at college many years ago on AutoCAD... #1 I think... ... shows how long ago that was, but I lost interest once it started telling me to move polar vectors / switch layers, could never remember which layer I'd put something on & having to put that layer on top to get 'X' effect... so people out there what is available, simple to understand, easy to get to grips with & not full of technobabble for this auld duffer... & considering that I'm one of those 'rich' pensioners that Cameron keeps telling us we are... 'free'.

George.

Hi Mechman48,

I am in the same boat as you. Tried all the free software on offer and played with them all. I eventually selected QCAD which can be downloaded as a free package and it runs under Windoze! Got fairly good at using it and then found some of the extra features are "greyed out" so they don't work. Finally bit the bullet and signed up for the full version, it was quite reasonable in price and it works well. Perhaps not the best but it does what I need.

I'm a few years past you and I've worked on CAD for quite a while, 5 years full time on Medusa CAD and about 18 years Autocad and Inventor and I've never heard of 'polar vectors' and would bet none of the lads I worked with on mechanical design would have either, as regards 'layers', for the the work we did which would be similar to the drawings many model makers would do, special purpose precision machines, we didn't use layers either, the lads in the Civil engineering office did, different layers for building foundations, walls, services etc, so don't let it put you off, it's not dead easy to start with, plenty of time spent staring at the screen wondering which icon to click but you should get there.

John

For free - look at one of the 'cloud based' options - Fusion 360 or Onshape. Can't really beat the value.

If you don't like cloud based, things are much more limited - you may find that 'inexpensive' offers quite a lot more than 'free' does. A lot of the free stuff has glaring gaps in functionality (but it all depends what you want to do).

One man's 'simple to understand' is another's 'complex nightmare' - you may have to try several (which is a lot of effort).

If you use Windows, perhaps take a look at Cubify Design (trimmed down Geomagic Design).

Whichever you go for, it helps a lot if there are lots of on-line tutorials available, and a decent user forum (to get free help).

I think that LibrCad is a spin off of QCAD as that was open source. As usual when this happens some on picks it up and continues the opensource version under another name. LibreOffice was less popular than OpenOffice a few years ago and then Apache bought OpenOffice and all of the OS effort switched to Libre.

Some years before this OpenOffice was the one to have and was for a long time too. This sort of thing often happens to open source packages.

Apart from the 2 points I mentioned I found LibreCAD the easiest to pick up effectively of any I have ever looked at or used. There was one other just as easy to use. A strange Unix package that still ran under X Windows.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 28/05/2016 16:44:38

I've got Draftsight free on windows and on Linux Mint 17.3. On locked down windows towers it is a favourite program of mine but on a laptop with mint I have problems with the mouse and the zoom - currently it doesn't work at all. I know normal people make it work well but my computer skills are well below normal and mint is a relatively new experience for me. Like I said though, I really like the program and use it for almost all of my 2D work which for me consists of figuring things out in a drawing for manual work or as a first stage in the CNC process.

It might be worth noting that Draftsight has the pro version on sale for $99USD until the end of this month (May 2016). I'm very tempted. Usual disclaimers.

Andrew Hutchinson

On that last note, the licensed version appears to be a 12 month subscription, so maybe not quite as good a deal as I was making out.

Andrew Hutchinson

There was a problem with the mouse responding very slowly which made it unusable in the previous Linux version, it has been corrected in the latest version. In the problem version it could be corrected by unplugging the mouse before launching the program and plugging it back in when the program has loaded. However you would be better off installing the latest version. That works fine on my laptop and Linux Mint 17.3.

Russell.

I'm running Linux Mint 13 Maya at the moment and DraftSight won't launch, however a friend is sending me a disc with the latest Ubuntu so I'll see how that works out.

John

Further to my earlier post - Cubify Design has become 'Design' from 3D Systems. Just the name changes, sorry for any confusion. - [Thanks Jason].