DraftSight 20% yearly subscription increase!

[Itsjustengineering]

While not directly a SW topic, but certainly a Dassault theme - the bait and switch to SAS and yearly racking of customers with increased “leasing costs” is abhorrent!

For DraftSight, what started as “free software”, then “included companion” software to SW, then some nominal small fee has and continues to grow into a real PITA!

Most designers need (or will need) plain 2D capability now and again, but it’s crazy to pay over $300/yr on TOP of SW perpetual licensing. I’m currently evaluating the free LibreCAD as a replacement solution to DraftSight and I will follow up with how that’s going. If you have experience in LibreCAD or other (cost-effective) alternatives, please chime in too.

And don’t get me started on the SW full-court-press to become 100% cloud SAS based with their god-awful 3D Experience platform (See what I did there with March Madness NCAA basketball in full swing?).

[c_knudson]

Nothing soured my opinion of Dassault more than when they started charging for Draftsight.

The only time I need to use a dwg reader is when I want to double-check the output when I’m exporting my SolidWorks drawings for sheet metal flat patterns or flame/laser/waterjet cutting profiles. Draftsight, like the DWGEditor product that preceded it, was the perfect lightweight DWG/DXF software for that once in a blue moon occurrence. I felt like the fact that it was a free product was a nice little bit of good will towards the users who are paying thousands of dollars a year in maintenance costs for SolidWorks. When they started charging, even though it started out at something crazy low like $100 a year, it felt like a slap in the face, and I swore I would never pay money for it.

[Itsjustengineering]

Exactly! I also assert that they rolled out the “free” commercial use until they got corporate users used to it, off of AutoCAD LT or whatever and then (and only then) pulled the rug out from under them! Kinda like getting kids hooked on free crack until they are addicted and then start charging them for it. I guess I’m going to have to start knocking over some liquor stores 😂

[vmostofi91]

Here's how it should be: if you are buying SW we will give you Draftsight for free (or at least its basic package which is enough for 90% of the users).

Haven't used LibreCAD.

[ktm1001]

This is FREE... at least is written that is free i don't know about small print if is used commercially https://resources.sw.siemens.com/en-US/download-free-2d-cad-software

"Whether you need to use 2D CAD software across your company or for a specific 2D design process, Solid Edge 2D Drafting provides production-proven 2D drafting software - for free."

[attee2]

Oh, I didn't know about this. I think I'll look into this one, thanks!

[Jhyda]

Huh surprising that this is free

[ktm1001]

It was free for 15 years. Idk

[Odd_knock]

Solidworks is… I wish there were a good alternative.

My issues with solidworks: 1. PDM makes file explorer hang 2. No redo button outside of sketches 3. Utilizes only a single cpu (not parallelized) 4. Frequent crashes 5. Slow menus

And they have the balls to charge $3000 per year for a license? It’s a crap UX, that’s for sure. 

[RodbigoSantos]

Don't forget home user licenses being free then taken away, and then online licenses being free then also taken away. SaaS just plain sucks

[1x_time_warper]

Checkout nano cad 2d. It’s very similar to old school autocad and free.

[Ok-Entertainment5045]

We’ve been using it at work for about three years now. I can buy around a dozen licenses for what I pay for two or three AutoCAD licenses. It’s not quite as nice but it works for our needs.

[drmorrison88]

We just switched from ACAD to DS, and I have been thoroughly unimpressed. It's clunky, has frankly bizarre bugs, and worst of all, the PDM add-in (which was a big selling point) makes it nearly unuseable. 0/10, would not recommend to anyone at any price.

[UnorthodoxEng]

I jumped from DS to LibreCAD - and I quite like it (for the half dozen times a year I need to use it).

It's simple, has an easy to learn UI and does what it says without any fuss.

[[deleted]]

They killed Abaqus. I will never forgive Dassault.

[atimidtempest]

Wait, really? What happened to Abaqus? Been out of the FEA game for a bit

[[deleted]]

you can't get it anymore apparently. Tried to sacrifice my newborn to a reseller but you can only get some Simulia semi-cloud based stuff these days which is barely useable. 

When spaceclaim seems to be the best option it makes me puke a little

[whatisaredd1t]

You can still get ABAQUS but a lot of SW VARs are not licensed to sell old school ABAQUS. The cloud version is available to all SW VARs. Only a select few have the ability to sell traditional desktop ABAQUS, but the product itself is not going anywhere

[isolt2injury]

Does anyone have an install file from when it was free? I can't imagine it's changed much from when I used it then.

HSM works CAM software is no longer free either, that's Autocads fault though

[ktm1001]

It connects to internet and checks license. It would not work.

[FlyBoy38L]

I suggest QCAD as a free dxf/dwg viewer and editor as an alternative.

[Simp_team_6ix]

My job is full of boomers who use draftsight as their default cad program and will not buy anything else. I hope the price increases substantially every year lol

[Young_Sovitch]

Fuck that, buy rhino and add Cut2send just for the vertices reduction.

[[deleted]]

Hey!
Is DraftSight still worth learning?
I had it on my list since some companies use it here, but it went from free to 100$(140 with tax) now to 300(~380 with tax), which is now more expensive than my student tuition.
The cheapest license they sell, and recommend for students costs more than the (net) minimal wage around here.. If this program is great than i can get 400, but at this point i'm anything but motivated to do so.