draftsight…where did this come from?
Last week Dassault Systemes released a new product called DraftSight. DraftSight is a free 2D CAD editor that serves the same function as the free SolidWorks 2D Editor (formally DWGeditor) program that SolidWorks offers. While DraftSight offers a nicer and cleaner user interface (see below) it is serving the same purpose as SolidWorks 2D Editor.
Here is the really confusing part, it seems as if a lot of the support and public relations is coming from SolidWorks Corporation headquarters in Concord, MA. All of this made me ask the inevitable question…WHY? When this product was released there was a lot of buzz on Twitter about whether or not this was the death of SolidWorks 2D Editor but again and again a SolidWorks Corporation presence on Twitter said no. So does this mean that there is a group in Concord developing two 2D CAD programs? None of this make a lot of sense to me. There seem to be a lot of unanswered questions about this new software.
What are your thoughts? Have you tried the DraftSight program yet? If so, what do you think? Do you like it better than SolidWorks 2D Editor (DWGeditor)?
11 Responses to “draftsight…where did this come from?”
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Out with the old and in with the new. SolidWorks has never been shy when it comes to replacing technology that has served it’s purpose with better and more reliable tools. A laundry list of these scenarios has played out over the years at SolidWorks. Several examples include:
1. SolidWorks Flow Simulation (FloWorks by Nika) replaced COSMOSFlow (powered by Blue Ridge Numerics)
2. PhotoWorks replaced it’s GPU rendering engine twice (lightworks, mental ray) over the years and no has replaced it with PhotoView 360 a CPU based rendering engine.
3. Workgroup PDM and Enterprise PDM. While Workgroup is still a production product and will continue to be, SolidWorks realized they needed more power and acquired Conisio AB for the next generation PDM system. SolidWorks will soon talk about Cloud based PLM tools for small design teams in Q4 2010.
DraftSight is based in part on technology from ARES GmbH. They have 2D and 3D DWG based products. The product is fresh and has a small footprint (41.9 MB to download the software) and it is multi-platform. I downloaded the Linux version on my Ubuntu distribution and the interface is identical to DraftSight on Windows. It is easier to use and it also opens documents much faster than on SolidWorks 2D Editor.
What this all means is that SolidWorks is not afraid to go with the best technology. They have scouts much like a baseball team and they are always on the lookout for the next big thing. This is part of what makes a champion, or market leader in my estimation.
hey michael,
thanks for the comment. i agree 100% with everything that you said. the thing that i question however is if there are no plans to scrap solidworks 2d editor, why are they supporting and developing two 2d cad editors that are 90% the same product.
this doesn’t make sense to me. i personally hope that they scrap solidworks 2d editor because i think that the draftsight product is way better but it doesn’t sound like that is the plan currently. hopefully i am wrong.
Yeah, I am going full bore with DraftSight personally. The company line is that 2D Editor will continue to be available, but the best option going forward is DraftSight. Sounds like the Workgroup PDM and Enterprise PDM saga. I have added more of these comments to my blog at blog.capinc.com. This is a great discussion with more to come I am sure…
I personally think SW will scrap 2d editor sooner or later…DraftSight is amazing! As you know, DraftSight is still for beta, so they are prolly waiting for something before officially getting rid of 2d editor…
I’m not sure how much actual development is done on the 2D Editor…it’s just rebranded IntelliCAD.
And for that matter, DraftSight is licensed technology too, so there may be not very much SolidWorks R&D going towards either of these tools.
Brian, it’s actually a little different from the ITC products. similar. DraftSight is based on the ARAS framework. Both ARAS and ITC use the ODA DWGDirect code. SolidWorks 2D editor uses the last ITC code and is developed along with CADopia. CADopia is no longer part of the ITC. You can make your own assumptions from that, but was a good time for DS to team up with ARAS.
hey..i think its based on Graebert’s ARES engine..not ARAS
Jason,
DraftSight is a Dassault Systemes-branded product. It’s not a SolidWorks-branded product. It’s something separate that doesn’t fall into one of the SolidWorks/CATIA/ENOVIA/DELMIA/SIMULIA/3DVIA buckets.There’s also a defined group of people dedicated to the DraftSight project, who come from different offices throughout the company and different parts of the organization. Some of them, including the two most publicly-visible people (Aaron and Suzanne) are here in Concord. Some are in Europe. Some are in other places.
DraftSight may serve the same purpose as SolidWorks 2D Editor (or close to it) but the difference with DraftSight is that it’s available to anyone and everyone, not just SolidWorks customers.
I’ve used it some and pretty much like it. Good for simple stuff, but I’m not sure I would get rid of AutoCAD if it were my primary drafting tool (it isn’t).
Here’s a review if anyone wants to see it: http://jcopro.net/2010/12/29/draftsight-review-like-autocad-but-free/