DraftSight
Encyclopedia
DraftSight is a free 2D CAD
(computer-aided design or computer-aided drafting) product for engineers, architects, designers, draftspeople, students and educators. The product was developed by Dassault Systèmes
and lets users create, edit and view DWG and DXF files.
DWG files contain the binary data for CAD design and it is the drawing format for many CAD programs. DWG is a long-time abbreviation for "Drawing." A DXF, or Drawing Exchange File, is used to convert CAD files into a generic format that can be read by another CAD software product.
DraftSight competes against more than three dozen 2D or 2D/3D hybrid products on the market. General availability of DraftSight for Windows was released in February 2011 and was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.
Languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Russian.
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
(computer-aided design or computer-aided drafting) product for engineers, architects, designers, draftspeople, students and educators. The product was developed by Dassault Systèmes
Dassault Systemes
Dassault Systèmes S.A. is a leading company specializing in 3D and PLM software.Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling...
and lets users create, edit and view DWG and DXF files.
DWG files contain the binary data for CAD design and it is the drawing format for many CAD programs. DWG is a long-time abbreviation for "Drawing." A DXF, or Drawing Exchange File, is used to convert CAD files into a generic format that can be read by another CAD software product.
DraftSight competes against more than three dozen 2D or 2D/3D hybrid products on the market. General availability of DraftSight for Windows was released in February 2011 and was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.
Languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish and Russian.
Portability
DraftSight loads quickly and has a file size of 45 MB. The activated DraftSight application folder takes up 160 MB.File formats
DraftSight allows users to access legacy DWG/DXF files, regardless of which CAD software was originally used to create them. According to industry estimates, there are more than three billion DWG legacy files in existence.Platforms/operating systems
DraftSight runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (general release), Mac OS X and Linux (Mac and Linux are currently in beta).DraftSight functions
- Read and write support for DWG/DXF files
- File | Save to DWT/DWG/DXF files back to previous versions ( need email activation)
- Create binary or ASCII DXF files
- Attach image files (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, & .tiff)
- Attach external reference drawings
- File| Print to .plt, .jpg, .pdf, .png, & .svg file formats.
- Save as .wmf?, .jpeg, .pdf, .png, .sld, .svg, .tif, & .stl
- Multi-page PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
creation - Publish to eDrawings or Drawings Now
- File | export | Export To *.bmp, *.emf, *.jpg,*.pdf, *.png,*.sld,*.svg, *.tif file formats.
Release History
- Initial beta release for Windows: June 2010
- Mac beta I release: September 2010
- General release for Windows: February 2011
- Linux beta release: March 2011
- Mac beta II release: March 2011
Features
DraftSight was designed for professional CAD users and includes the following features:- Cartesian coordinate system
- Command-line input
- Traditional toolbars and menus
- Wheel-mouse pan & zoom
- Blocks & reference files
- Layers & layer manager
- Polygonal ViewPorts
- ViewPort locking
- Freeze, lock or turn off layers per ViewPort
- Background masks for notes
- Property manager
- View proxy objects
- Dynamic pan & zoom
- Command aliases
- Menu files
- CTB and STB print style tables
- SHX and TrueTypeTrueTypeTrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
fonts - LineStyle files
- Hatch pattern files
- Templates
Online user community
Dassault Systèmes hosts an open, on-line SwYm (See What You Mean) community for DraftSight users to ask questions, express opinions, collaborate, solve problems and share ideas. According to Machine Design magazine, engineers are increasingly turning to industry-specific social networking sites to collaborate on projects. The community also holds an abundance of training resources.Tutorials/training
Dassault Systèmes offers free video DraftSight training resources. Additional training resources are available at no cost in the online DraftSight SwYm Community.Education
- DraftSight is free for individual students and educators
- DraftSight Premium for Education Classroom Pack and Campus Pack includes telephone and email support, access to DraftSight APIs, network licensing and curriculum and additional online training through No-Cost Community Support.
Technical support
- No-cost community support
- DraftSight Premium Pack: Fee-based telephone and email technical support with network licensing and access to DraftSight APIs