DraftSight Advisory (Rant)

jmarkwolf

Active User
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Nov 9, 2012
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The following is the account of my personal experience with DraftSight software. I am an extremely unhappy customer.

I recently evaluated DraftSight 2018 SP0. It downloaded and installed properly for me, although many users have problems getting this far. I tested it for a couple hours, loaded many of my AutoCad files without mishap, selected the User Interface most like vintage AutoCad, and life was good.

I proceeded to purchase the Professional/Perpetual version for $300, and that's when my problems started.

1. When I would enable/disable some layers, the screen would be blank when I got back to it. But if I swiped the cursor around the screen the drawing would re-appear where I swiped.

2. Eventually, after loading a file, the cursor would dis-appear entirely when within the drawing area. Move the cursor outside of the DraftSight workspace and the cursor would re-appear.

3. Sometimes when closing the software, I would get a message to the effect "something is wrong and DraftSight needs to close". Well, I was closing anyway so....

4. Sometimes when I launch the software it crashes, sometimes multiple times before it will work. But then all the above issues exist so what's the point?

I double checked that my computer meets or exceeds all the minimum requirements and it does. It works fine for all my other CAD software including my old version of AutoCad. In fact, it worked fine for the first couple hours of DraftSight, so I know the computer is compatible.

Bottom line is I gave them $300 of my money, and I have something that is entirely worthless. Further, I have never purchased software that is so buggy and so worthless.

I am not an un-sophisticated user, I've been using AutoCad and various electronic Cad software my entire career. But have never seen such misbehaved software. I might expect such performance from some $10.95 Cad software from the cut-out bin at Best Buy.

I have posted messages to forums, where I learned that this release is apparently a Beta version and the issues are not uncommon. Wish they had stated that before I bought it.

I have sent emails to customer support at Dassault with no response. I refuse to give them yet more money for phone tech support, at least until such time that they get my software working.

And I have never seen a commercial website so devoid of contact phone numbers. There are none! Even the company that issues the invoice and charges your credit card (CleverBridge) has no phone numbers that I could find! Talk about a fly-by-night operation!

So, be advised, don't buy DraftSight. Use the free if you must, and even then, don't expect much from it. But don't buy it

I am currently awaiting a call back from my credit card company to cancel the purchase of DraftSight.
 
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I'm quite happy with my Hobbyist version of DraftSight, no charge. Its not AutoCad, but for my purposes, flat 2 views, it's fine. Sorry about your problems.
 
I too am quite happy with the free version of 'Draft Sight'. I use it when one of those 'consulting' jobs comes up (infrequently). Works well for me and is compatible with AutoCAD which most of my clients use.

I have no complaints, can't speak for other's results, obviously.
 
Yeah, this recent release has some quirks to it. Had to reinstall it four times until it would take the magic product key. Kept telling me it was already installed on a computer. Like you, sent a email to their support. Next day, pulled Draftsight up, it worked! It's registered, the whole nine yards. I figured support fixed the problem. Three day later get a email from support, telling me what to do. Much for tech support.
 
I am an extremely unhappy customer.

I've seen that before with CAD/CAM software with an incompatible graphics card and/or DirectX and OpenGL not at the latest version.
Is your PC almost brand new and fully updated?
 
3-4 year old HP Pavilion desktop computer with WIN7 Professional, 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB harddrive, Radeon graphics card with latest drivers.

Never had any issue running anything else on this computer, ever, except for occasional funny video artifacts on Solid Works, which is by the way, from the same people that produce DraftSight!
 
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3-4 year old HP Pavilion desktop computer with WIN7 Professional, 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB harddrive, Radeon graphics card with latest drivers.

Never had any issue running anything else on this computer, ever, except for occasional funny video artifacts on Solid Works, which is by the way, from the same people that produce DraftSight!
Not having the model & part number I'm shooting in the dark here, but,
Some Intel based HP Pavilions came with 'dual' graphics. Intel on the chipset and then the Radeon on it's own proc.
A quick check in Device Manager would confirm this. If the intel is present try disabling it.
Might want to try out the drivers over here: http://www.guru3d.com/files/index.html

I always ditch the mfgs drivers and install from there.
Should not matter with a 2D CAD program but one never knows how they did up the video.
 
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