Dassault Systemes Announces Free Beta of DraftSight for 2D Drafting

DraftSight, a new 2D drafting program from Dassault Systemes, is available in public beta for free, and to enterprises for a small fee (to access extended features and support).  It can be downloaded here.  The tool is meant to offer all of the same functionality in AutoCAD, and to read and author data in DWG files just as AutoCAD does.  Despite similarities to SolidWorks' DWG Editor product, DraftSight is altogether separate and different (based on different technology). 

Interesting things to note about DraftSight:

The enterprise version will be offered through all Dassault sales channels

• Professional Channel (SolidWorks resellers)
• Value Channel (CATIA, ENOVIA, etc. resellers)
• Business Transformation Channel (Dassault direct for specific accounts)

Dassault Systemes will provide support directly rather than via Resellers.

• A DraftSight community will set product direction
• The DraftSight download is 42 Megabytes
• A full API (including for LISP) will be available to enterprise users
• Instead of individual activation, enterprise users will be managed via FlexLM license management
• Individual users are required to activate the software, but this only requires inputting an email address
• Integrations for Enterprise PDM, ENOVIA SmarTeam, and other PDM platforms are being considered 

Did we already mention that it is free?  Please contact us if you're interested in DraftSight for the enterprise and you have questions about some of the enterprise features – we'd be happy to help.