DraftSight is a 2D and 3D CAD solution for architects, engineers and construction service providers, as well as professional CAD users, designers, educators and hobbyists. DraftSight lets users create, edit, view, and markup any kind of 2D and 3D DWG file with greater ease, speed, and efficiency. Its familiar user interface helps to facilitate a quick transition from other CAD applications. DraftSight Offerings: DraftSight Professional: the advanced 2D CAD drafting…
$249
per year
FreeCAD
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
FreeCAD is an open-source CAD software that specialized in 3D design. New features are added to FreeCAD by an active community of developers.
N/A
Revit
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk’s Revit is a Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool. It enables architectural, MEP, structural, and engineering design, and provides analysis to support iterative workflows
$350
per month
Pricing
DraftSight
FreeCAD
Revit
Editions & Modules
DraftSight Professional
$249
per year
DraftSight Premium (3D)
$549
per year
DraftSight Enterprise
Contact sales team
DraftSight Enterprise Plus
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Monthly
$350
per month
1-Year
$2805
per year
3-Year
$8415
per 3 years
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DraftSight
FreeCAD
Revit
Free Trial
Yes
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
DraftSight Professional, and Premium are available to purchase online directly. DraftSight Enterprise and Enterprise Plus are available to purchase through local resellers.
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Pricing available for monthly, annual, or 3-year subscriptions. Longer subscriptions offer greater discounts.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DraftSight
FreeCAD
Revit
Considered Multiple Products
DraftSight
Verified User
Executive
Chose DraftSight
DraftSight gives much of the functionality of AutoCAD, for a much lower price. It is not in any way comparable to Revit, but Revit is overkill for the types of projects I work on.
DraftSight is very similar to AutoCAD, so any knowledge or experience will easily transfer between the two. Free programs like FreeCAD are very different from DraftSight and AutoCAD, so any experience you have with those two will not be easily applied to the free software.
I have no need for the functionality of AutoCAD or Revit to accomplish the tasks I need. DraftSight is far more economical and provides what I need it to do.
I personally enjoyed AutoCAD more as that is what I used throughout my education. However, it is much more expensive for nearly the same product as Draft Sight. Revit is its own type of software and isn't easily comparable to something like DraftSight. Draftsight was just …
Comparisons done with AutoCAD, FreeCAD & LibreCAD. Until DraftSight sales & support address a query raised on more than occasion, I am not willing to recommend full replacement of AutoCAD with DraftSight Pro.
Verified User
Project Manager
Chose DraftSight
Being a user for almost 10 years of DraftSight, the ease of use, the distribution of functions, etc. make switching to another program a bit painful and in need of a learning period.
Most free CAD alternatives had serious drawbacks. We used some of them for some time before we ended up choosing DraftSight. DraftSight is surprisingly more intuitive than other well known and used applications.
As a designer I've used more expensive and complex CAD applications …
DraftSight attracted me for being the best free alternative when I've started using. More robust tools like AutoCAD, Vectorworks, SOLIDWORKS have more features, but since I'm not a hardcore user anymore, DraftSight definitely fulfills my needs. Now that it is paid, it is still …
On Linux PC, we have replaced DraftSight with ARES, which works fine. We have also tried BrisCAD. It's great software, multi-platform, but according to the users, more difficult to learn for those who already had AutoCAD/DraftSight knowledge.
From product design, including production drawings to lay out of large (10m x 1m footprint) layouts DraftSight is a cost effective solution providing all appropriate interfaces for BIM.
The level of detail during rendering (while it can be slow) is good for visualization and for use in installation and training materials
I see FreeCad as the perfect solution for a startup with limited resources that want to save as much as possible and doesn't mind using non-standard 3D CAD software, i.e., it's not required by customers to use specific software for compatibility. It's perfect for hobbyist use and makers who don't care about brands and pay monthly fees. I see it as very well suited for small businesses that need FEA (finite element analysis) and can't/don't want to pay huge amounts of money for it, just like us. I see FreeCad as less appropriate for big corporations or well-established businesses that need standardized solutions, compatibility with clients or good version management. Don't get me wrong, it can get the job done, but it will be much slower than state-of-the-art CAD systems.
Revit is very well suited to creating designs and construction documents for standard buildings. Buildings that need to utilize phasing in their construction process are also well suited to this software. Revit is not as well suited to buildings that have irregular shapes or components that need to be highly detailed.
Revit allows users to create real buildings and is very much rooted in making functional buildings.
Revit allows users to collaborate both within their own firms and with other types of firms as well. This is particularly useful for coordinating buildings between architecture and engineering firms.
Revit integrates fairly well with other programs such as AutoCAD and Sketchup. This allows us to bring in elements modeled in other programs into our revit models.
The text search and replace is very crude and barely works. Needs a major revamping.
The layout tabs are very clunky and hard to use. Needs to be fixed.
DraftSight will fix a problem in one version, mess it up in another version, then fix it again later on. And so forth, and so forth, and so forth. Very poor software update control.
Versioning - Revit is not backwards compatible. This creates issues if you are working with people who are using older versions as you cannot save to a previous version. I understand why this is and I do not see this ever changing, however, Its very annoying.
Autodesk - They are the 800 pound gorilla in the industry. The lack of competition inhibits development and it seems Autodesk has put more effort into its BIM 360 platform and Revit development has suffered because of it. I would like to see better competition so Autodesk would step up its game.
We will almost certainly be renewing all of our current seats of Revit and will likely be adding seats as we look to get more and more of our staff trained and using Revit. The software is starting to become the standard for our projects as we move forward as more and more of our clients are requesting or accepting use of it
Easy if you know how to use CAD software. But is not very difficult to learn using DraftSight if this is your first CAD software. As soon as you get in to it the work flow will save you a lot of time and its simple interface is very nice.
Usability is awkward. Perhaps if you learn it as your first CAD, it will feel OK. Still, it comes from commercial CAD products like mine (Onshape, Solid Works, Inventor, Solid Edge). You will feel it is less intuitive, with a less polished UI, difficult to customize and, this is a subjective one, less serious. I'd love to see it improve the usability and UI. I believe the engine behind it is powerful, but how you interact with the software is still lacking.
It is a professional environment, but far from easy and overly complex in many places. The system is often too deep in settings and overrides (see Visibility/Graphics in combination with linked files, filters, color overrides and view templates). I don't really like the dialog-in-dialog interface and its spartan looks. But it works well overall if you know what you are doing.
Revit seems to always be available when I need it. I have not experiences an outage. There are occasions where we need our internal IT department to trouble shoot a file on our Revit dedicated server and that sometimes causes a delay however that is not a software access issue
Revit is a fairly graphics heavy piece of software. It is powerful in its capabilities but as a result it takes a lot of the graphics card, the memory, etc. For all that it can do and the specs of my computer I find it pretty good from a performance standpoint
Technical support seems to be overseas with broken English and difficulty to read English. I asked for a trial license to try the fix but it was declined. Ask pratiksha.dahotre and gayatri.keskar for details. In summary, they released a broken version, I helped to fix by providing feedback and error logs. They claimed it is fixed but I can't test it.
Autodesk has always had a good support system in place. There is a massive user base for Revit, and there are thousands of forum threads and other discussions online about any and every problem that you could ever run into. For being such a large program with so many different options, there aren't many roadblocks or pitfalls that users can fall into.
The training was Revit Essentials and it was very beneficial. I would say that it is best to get the training right before you know you will be using Revit as learning the basis then applying what you learned immediately is the most effective and best value for your money.
The online training is hit or miss. I feel that its better to be live to be able to pace and ask questions to a live person as you are learning hwo to do things. Its not natural to learn Revit especially if you know AutoCAD so my suggestion is the live training
Take time to get used to where commands are and how the interface can be customized to suit your needs and work style. The keyboard commands are very helpful and can make work more efficient if time is taken to learn them.
Implementing Revit as your main drafting software (i.e. moving to BIM from CAD) may be a tough decision if you have learned drafting. It is a different way to approach and think about developing a project. However, if you are able to adapt to a new way of thinking and get used to it by working through a few projects than it is as efficient as CAD in most areas in general and will also be both better/worse in some areas
While SketchUp is free, DraftSights cost is minimal and its abilities are much greater. It is so much easier to layout and modifies a system design. Since DraftSight is compatible with all versions of CAD, it makes it easy to collaborate with customers on their specific system design. We spend less time and see greater sales on our projects.
Freecad is used often when receiving files from multiple sources and the need to work with cad in various forms from meshes to solid cad. Often when receiving scans of 3d objects the format is easy to work with and convert to traditional cad later on. There is no other cad that can bridge the gap between all the cad formats that we found yet.
Revit is used primarily for creation of contract documents and documents that need to be used to build in the field. Sketch Up is great for a quick concept sketch, but lacks the details that Revit has which are needed to construct. AutoCAD is a great tool for details as well, but does not have as many building capabilities as Revit.
It's a typical contract for cad software. It was inexpensive at the time I started. But now the more useful features are on the more premium (priced) version.
While I am not directly involved with the deployment of Revit, it seems that our internal IT department has appreciated the ability to increase or decrease the number of seats. I have never had an issue with the deployment if and when needed, especially regarding the availability of a set
Quite responsive when I have an issue, and with little to no delay in responding. They are professional and know the software so have been able to solve all of the issues that I have had with both using the software and also with making revisions as required. Non-technical issues like invoices have also been resolved quickly.
Draftsight has been very cost effective, it was free a few years ago then £79 a year, which it still is if you have the standard version. Now the minium level is Profession edition at £159+ VAT per year. Which is still very good value for money, just more that what we currently pay with the standard licences we have.
Though implementation of Revit is usually front heavy which means a lot of effort is put in at the front end of the project, the return of investment towards the remainder of the project is really good. All the effort in decisions made at the beginning of the project pays off with Revit incorporating all the building information in the model so the team can glean from this throughout the life of the project is a major plus.
A major negative is the many false assumptions that comes with using Revit on a project. Just like any other computer application, Revit is only a tool. It's only as good as the operators who implement this tool. Revit is not a cureall for fixing all the problems that still can come out throughout the life of a design & construction project.
A major positive for our office involving the use of Revit is the ability for our staff from multiple offices to work on the same project central file. We don't need to maintain an expensive server. With the addition of Collaboration for Revit the entire project can be stored in the cloud for our staff to access and complete the project faster than ever.
