DraftSight no longer free

I had reason to open Draftsight today & there is a message informing that all free versions of Draftsight will cease functioning at the end of this year.

The least expensive version will be DraftSight 2019 Standard edition at $99 a year.

Looks like I will have to get to grips with DesignSpark Mechanical sooner than I thought !

Nigel B

For free to hobbyists, Fusion 360 is the way to go in my opinion, not that it's easy to learn but Lars Christensen videos are a great way to start.

I've managed to draw a couple of parts for my next project, the support is terrific and it really does get easier.

Brian

Just opened mine and cannot see a message - is it hidden somewhere?

Just opened mine and cannot see a message - is it hidden somewhere?

A pop-up window down the RHS of mine headed "DraftNews" & then in red "Important Notice" appeared when I opened the program. I am using DS 2018 X64 SP3

Fusion 360 no use in my working environment, I'm afraid Brian. I use DraftSight for the odd drawing I need to do mainly for maintenance purposes, but with the odd project. I have downloaded DesignSpark Mechanical, but now find that requires a £500+ "upgrade" to get 2D.

Time to trial QCad & LibreCad for basic 2D, I think.

Nigel B

Looks like I will have to hurry up and convert all my drawings back to AutoCAD R14. I'm pretty sure I can dig out my dongle and a spare XP licence to run it on.

Brian

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I also got the message. I've deleted with win 10 uninstaller but ioUninstaller reported lots of rubbish left behind and it very kindly deleted it all for me. Glad I did not invest to much time in THAT one.

Rik

Edited By Rik Shaw on 25/03/2019 17:49:28

"Heaven help the Fusion 360 users if Autodesk pull the same stunt"

Just a matter of time I suppose. Sooner or later they are going to want some cash from you. Can't blame them - they are not a charity.

Rik

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Well that's a bit of bad news. Can I just alter the clock on my PC so that we never get to 31/12/19? I'm slowly learning Alibre, and prepared to pay their one off price, but $99/year is a big ask

I will put AutoCAD R14 on hold for a bit as Longbow doesn't work on dongled versions, and I am not that keen on going back too far on Windows. I have just used ODA File Converter (formerly Teigha) to convert everything to DXF (remarkably simple as it does a complete folder as a batch job) so I can guarantee access to them whatever I do.

Having done some testing, QCAD free opens the DXF files with a few linetype issues, but FreeCAD doesn't seem to handle the dimensions and text. QCAD Professional will open and save DWG, so I'm about to bite the bullet and pay EUR 33 + VAT for a lifetime licence and a year's updates. Even if I buy a new version every three years, it would still only cost 1/3 as much as Draftsight.

Brian

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It's been a while since I tried QCAD, but it does look very promising

I was originally put-off a little by seeing that the CAM add-on was rather old, and compatatively expensive.

... I now see that it was updated in July 2018 **LINK**

https://www.qcad.org/en/products/qcad-cam

... Has anyone tried it ?

MichaelG.

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P.S. ... Note the prominent disclaimer:

https://www.qcad.org/doc/qcadcam/QCADCAM_Tutorial_en.pdf

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 26/03/2019 10:49:59

In addition to stopping the free version they are stopping support for Linux and MAC.

Russell

I would REALLY like to claim that 33/(3 x 99) = 1/3 was a deliberate mistake and not the reason I rely on CAD and Excel so much

Brian

So I've downloaded QCAD trial version. When using Draftsight I have snap settings for end, intersect and centre. I think grids are an invention of the devil. I don't seem to be able to set QCAD so that it doesn't snap to grid even when the grid is turned off, and it will only let me set one (end, centre intersect) snap at once, selecting a second turns off the first. So far I'm not impressed! Surely it must be me doing it wrong

Edited By duncan webster on 26/03/2019 18:58:56

Err, possibly. I like the way QCAD works.

• The 'AUTO' setting does the all the common sensible snap combinations and can be configured in Application Preferences

• Otherwise selection of a particular snap turns the others off which is usually what's wanted. Most of the time AUTO gets it right but total control is available whenever necessary.

With CAD packages, it's easy to get hung up expecting them to work just like the last one. Actually, they have to be driven a bit differently. If the software behaves unreasonably, check the manual - there's always a learning curve, and beginners often stall, crunch gears, indicate with screen-wipers and jump red lights...

Dave

Thanks SOD, followed your instructions and it's now a lot better . Probably too used to AutoCad, ProgeCad and Draftsight, all of which worked pretty much the same way. QCAd is backwards, In Draftsight to draw a line say 2 units long you select ortho (on most of the time) then click where you want it to start, move in the general direction, type in line length and hit return, with QCAD it appears you select vertical or horizontal from the menu, tell it how long and then click the start point. No doubt I'll get used to it, but if it ain't broke why fix it

Edited By duncan webster on 27/03/2019 00:47:47

Duncan,

If I can just chip in here - I've been using QCAD Pro for a number of years and have been very pleased with it. The use of the line tool which you describe is only one way to draw a line. You are not restricted to vertical or horizontal constraints. Using the "line from two points" icon (top one on the menu) allows you to select anywhere on the drawing, with or without the use of snaps, to start the line with the first left click, then reposition the pointer to the end point and left-click again. Further movement of the mouse creates another line, starting from the end point of the previous one, unless you right-click to deselect the tool. I personally use all the snaps except "points on entity" as this suits my drawing style. I consider the £25 I've just spent on my annual renewal as money well spent. That is not to say that I won't be taking out a lifetime licence for Alibre Atom this month, when my trial period runs out, but, until I become more proficient at dimensioning my sketches in Atom, I prefer to export DXF files to QCAD for final presentation.

John

I'm backpedalling furiously, QCAD seems not that bad! One of the features of DS I used a lot was the ortho button, I could then restrict lines to being horizontal or vertical (most of them are in reality) and either draw them a set length or between 2 clicks. If I keep looking I might find a similar feature in QCAD, at the moment I have to do 2 menu clicks, one to select the line menu, 2nd to say what type of line.

The £25 annual fee seems to be to keep on having updates, otherwise it's a one off 33 euros +vat, which is well within budget. Birthday coming up soon, so I'll probably treat myself

Postscript, I've just found that right click brings up the last few commands (not sure how many yet), so drawing lots of vertical and horizontals will be much quicker

I just bought the e-book as well as the software. There is a preview here. It looks like good value, and easier for me than a printed copy as I normally keep one monitor free for documents. One of the first things I found is that a 2-point line can be started by typing LI. There are plenty of others such as LH for a horizontal line.

I'll let you guess the command line for a vertical line

Brian