DraftSight: Cost-Effective and Competitive 2D CAD

There are many reasons companies still choose 2D CAD as their primary design tool.

DS SOLIDWORKS has sponsored this post.

Despite the meteoric rise of 3D CAD solutions beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the present day, 2D CAD tools remain incredibly popular across a wide variety of industries, with many compelling use cases for their continued use. There are many reasons companies still choose 2D CAD as their primary design tool even today.

Ease of Use and Familiarity

Most designers initially learn 2D CAD before stepping into the world of 3D, either on the job or during education. Especially for veteran drafters with decades of experience, 2D CAD is often the simplest and most familiar interface for bringing designs to life.

Industry-specific Deliverables

Many industries, particularly architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and related sectors require industry-specific deliverables such as floorplans, which are most effectively represented in 2D. Similarly, small to medium-size manufacturing shops often produce relatively simple, flat designs through the use of laser cutters or water jets, which do not require 3D models.

Continued Work with Legacy 2D Design Data

Organizations that have been around for many decades often have large archives of 2D CAD files from previous designs. In many cases these design files still need to be viewed or edited, even if the company has since moved on to designing with 3D CAD. Keeping a 2D CAD solution on hand for these situations can greatly simplify the revision process for legacy data.

Cost Relative to 3D CAD Solutions

The cost incurred by working with 3D design software can be prohibitive, especially for large teams and organizations working within small budgets. In general, the cost of 3D CAD solutions is significantly higher than 2D CAD and in situations where 3D CAD is unnecessary there is a tremendous amount of capital to be saved.

DraftSight is a professional-grade, general purpose 2D CAD application providing all the industry-standard tools to view, create, edit and share both DWG and DXF files at a fraction of the cost of ownership when compared to similar competing programs.

It should also be noted that certain versions of DraftSight actually include 3D CAD tools. Organizations who are not already heavily invested in 3D CAD may benefit greatly from being able to work with 3D file formats, including DWG, SAT and STL.

3D plant layout represented in DraftSight.

3D plant layout represented in DraftSight.

In this article, we’ll examine the similarities between DraftSight and other 2D CAD options along with valuable productivity tools and review the available licensing options to help your organization maximize productivity and collaboration while minimizing cost.

Interface and Learning Curve

A familiar interface can mean the difference between a two-day and a two-month learning curve, and this time is precious whether onboarding a new drafter or switching to DraftSight from a competing CAD program. DraftSight’s interface should look very familiar to the vast majority of experienced 2D CAD users and has various customizable interface modes to select from based on each user’s preference.

Working within the DraftSight user interface.

Working within the DraftSight user interface.

Importantly, the same can be said for those users who prefer to use the command window to enter command aliases, aka nicknames, as opposed to accessing them through the ribbon. DraftSight has made it a point to include command aliases commonly found in other 2D CAD programs, allowing experienced users to work with their existing knowledge and further shortening the learning curve.

Working with the Command Window in DraftSight.

Working with the Command Window in DraftSight.

Reusing Existing Data

In the same way that experienced users can leverage their existing knowledge of other 2D CAD programs in DraftSight, existing data can often be reused to further improve design and collaboration efficiency.

Legacy Drawings

As one would expect, any existing DWG or DXF file can be opened and edited with DraftSight, regardless of its platform of origin. This enables and streamlines collaboration with coworkers, other departments, or even other companies who are not using DraftSight as their main CAD platform. This capability also includes read/write capability for legacy versions of DWG and DXF formats going all the way back to R12, first introduced in 1992.

Available DWG and DXF version types within DraftSight.

Available DWG and DXF version types within DraftSight.

Library Assets

While many types of reusable library assets exist, static and dynamic blocks are typically the most common, representing a collection of geometry and/or other entities that function as a single object, improving design consistency and making repeated use very efficient. DraftSight features a Design Resources tab specifically for this purpose, allowing blocks and other assets to be previewed and reused at will. Additionally, any existing blocks (including dynamic blocks) from other platforms can be used without any loss of functionality.

Reusing blocks from the Design Resources Library in DraftSight.

Reusing blocks from the Design Resources Library in DraftSight.

Customization Files

Regardless of the platform chosen, CAD users typically invest a significant amount of time customizing their interfaces to suit their needs and improve their efficiency while designing. This often includes custom menus, keyboard shortcuts and command aliases, but in many cases also includes aspects of the document standards required by their company such as line types, fonts, etc. Recreating these customization files can be extremely time-consuming, but fortunately DraftSight supports the direct import of nearly all of them.

Notably, customization files for command aliases are not supported, although DraftSight does support the manual creation of new aliases if required and contains many familiar command aliases from other CAD programs out of the box. You’ll also find that AutoLISP and Visual LISP routines are supported, meaning that the hard work spent developing them won’t be lost when switching to DraftSight. (Be aware that some small adjustments may need to be made to the routine for full compatibility, and always remember to check your file location settings.)

Finally, for those with programming experience, DraftSight includes a fully featured API for automation of common tasks and even the development of your own add-ins.

Productivity Tools

There are a handful of features available in DraftSight that are nowhere to be found (or found in a less-capable form) in other 2D CAD programs and while relatively simple tools, they can make a big difference in the efficiency of the design process, especially over the course of weeks or months.

Mouse Gestures

Keeping both hands busy while drafting separates the amateurs from the professionals and customizable mouse gestures make it possible to quickly activate commands with a flick of the wrist. Inspired by the UI of SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, simply right-click and drag the mouse in the direction of the command to activate – that’s all there is to it. Even avid keyboard shortcut enthusiasts will admit that mouse gestures can save a surprising amount of time over the course of a day.

Using Mouse Gestures in DraftSight.

Using Mouse Gestures in DraftSight.

POWERTRIM

Trimming is a very basic drafting operation, but many programs don’t make it as easy as it is in DraftSight. Borrowing once again from the SOLIDWORKS toolbox, the POWERTRIM command allows you to simply click, hold and drag through geometry, automatically trimming it back to the nearest intersection. It’s also unified with the EXTEND command – simply hold Shift during the click and drag. While POWERTRIM is technically possible in other CAD programs, there are a lot of extra steps involved, often requiring the development of a macro to match DraftSight’s built-in capability.

POWERTRIM command in DraftSight.

POWERTRIM command in DraftSight.

TBLAYERS

A concatenation of Toolbox Layers, TBLAYERS allows standards to be defined for different types of entities, including layer and line color/style/weight. The ability to predefine the characteristics of these entities means less time spent swapping layers and digging through options to find the proper settings, keeping you on schedule. Naturally, these settings can be imported/exported to share them with a group of drafters, keeping everyone on the same page and the design work standardized.

Toolbox Layers options available in DraftSight.

Toolbox Layers options available in DraftSight.

Software Performance

Unlike other big-name 2D CAD programs which began their development in the previous millennium, DraftSight was initially launched in 2010, using modern software architecture to improve responsiveness while allowing room for the development of novel features and more modest system requirements at only 4GB of RAM. This means nearly any modern off-the-shelf laptop PC (even Mac, for that matter) can run DraftSight—but be sure to double check the System Requirements Help File before buying a new computer.

Licensing and Cost

One of the greatest impacts of DraftSight and arguably the most popular reason companies of all sizes continue to adopt it in place of other 2D CAD solutions, is the variety of flexible licensing options and incredible potential to reduce the annual cost of design software within an organization. It’s sold by local resellers or can be purchased online

DraftSight Versions

DraftSight is available in Professional and Premium versions. Network licensing is available as Enterprise, Enterprise Plus and DraftSight Mechanical. DraftSight Professional, DraftSight Premium and DraftSight Mechanical have 3DEXPERIENCE options.

These solutions are especially effective for individuals and small teams, as they provide all the 2D CAD capabilities one would expect at the lowest upfront cost.

Naturally, there are various capability differences between the versions of the software. DraftSight Professional being the most basic (albeit very capable). Premium, which you can download for a free trial, adds various productivity tools such as 3D CAD features, 2D constraints, PDF import and much more. DraftSight Mechanical includes all the features of Premium along with specialized tools for creating and managing bills of materials, parts lists and other industry-specific features.

3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight

Especially for many small to medium-size design teams, managing data and product information can be a challenge if a documentation management system has not yet been implemented. Avoiding potential issues with revision control and sharing information is critical, and taking advantage of the collaboration and data management tools featured in the 3DEXPERIENCE versions of DraftSight can improve the transparency and accuracy of the design process from start to finish.

3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight comes with a slightly different licensing structure, utilizing named-user term licensing in which a single individual is entitled to the license. These licenses can be reassigned if needed. 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight can also be purchased in any of the three versions described previously – Professional, Premium, or Mechanical – to ensure that you have the perfect toolset for the job and data management features to keep it organized.

DraftSight Enterprise

DraftSight provides a pathway to software ownership with DraftSight Enterprise versions. This fact alone can have a dramatic impact on software costs, especially over multiple years. In addition, network (shared) licensing allows these same perpetual licenses to be shared amongst a team, meaning that a smaller number of licenses can serve a greater number of users, thereby further reducing the overall cost of ownership. Additionally, casual users who only open DraftSight once or twice a month aren’t paying a steep premium for tokens, which can add up very quickly.

DraftSight versions for networks are ideal for medium to large design teams (4+ users) who wish to share licenses while maintaining ownership of their design software. Three versions are available—DraftSight Enterprise, DraftSight Enterprise Plus and DraftSight Mechanical—and while the feature sets are nearly the same as DraftSight Professional and Premium respectively, they’re not quite identical. This comprehensive matrix of features will help you to compare and contrast all five versions of DraftSight.

Conclusion

Though many companies have adopted 3D CAD as their primary design and engineering solution, there are still many companies and even entire industries which continue to leverage the simplicity, collaboration capability and cost-effectiveness of 2D CAD solutions such as DraftSight. Whether to open and edit legacy drawings, work with vendors or partners in 2D, or design complex schematics and sprawling floor plans, DraftSight offers a familiar customizable interface and powerful tools to get the job done, along with flexible licensing options to suit design teams of any size (and save a lot of money in the process).


About the Author

Jacob Ames is an applications engineer for Hawk Ridge Systems in Bothell, Washington, specializing in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, simulation and 3D printers. Before joining Hawk Ridge Systems, Jacob earned degrees in mechanical engineering and aeronautics from MIT with a focus on renewable fuels.