Thursday, August 15, 2019

DraftSight is no longer free

Remember when I wrote that article about DraftSight, and I was excited because it was an AutoCAD clone, but it was free? And remember when I wrote some follow-up articles uncovering all of DraftSight's hidden 3D design features, even though Dassault Systèmes told the world that it was just 2D drafting software? Well, DraftSight has grown up.

DraftSight 2018 is the last free version of DraftSight. Starting with DraftSight 2019, all future versions will cost money. Not only that, but all pre-2019 versions of DraftSight will stop working, or "cease to run", as the announcement says, after December 31, 2018.

Click here for the official announcement. (In case that link stops working, here's what it looked like in October 2018.)
DraftSight announcement


Dassault Systèmes are, of course, perfectly justified in charging money for DS. DS is professional-quality software, that's for sure. It was written by hired engineers in a for-profit company, and they deserve to make a profit on it. Not only that, but DS 2019 now officially includes a full complement of 3D design tools; it's billed as "a 2D drafting and 3D design experience."

And, considering the prices of comparable software, DS 2019 may still be a bargain, compared to the competition:

  • $100/yr for the Standard version, 2D only, for hobbyists, students and teachers.
  • $200/yr for the Professional version, still 2D only.
  • $500/yr for the Premium version, which includes the 3D tools.
Are there free alternatives? Well, sure, all of the AutoCAD clones that existed before DraftSight are still there. But the state of the art has progressed since DraftSight was first released in 2011. Now, designers are doing 3D CAD and then converting their creations into data files for 3D printing, CNC milling, and other automated manufacturing processes. But there's still a need for the 2D drawings, and so the higher-quality 3D CAD packages (the ones that cost money) can also generate the 2D drawings from the 3D models.

Next, I'm going to tell you about the new CAD solution that I'm going to use.

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