DraftSight vs. Revit

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
DraftSight
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
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
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
DraftSightRevit
Editions & Modules
DraftSight Professional
$249
per year
DraftSight Premium (3D)
$549
per year
DraftSight Enterprise
Contact sales team
DraftSight Enterprise Plus
Contact sales team
Monthly
$350
per month
1-Year
$2805
per year
3-Year
$8415
per 3 years
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DraftSightRevit
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDraftSight Professional, and Premium are available to purchase online directly. DraftSight Enterprise and Enterprise Plus are available to purchase through local resellers.Pricing available for monthly, annual, or 3-year subscriptions. Longer subscriptions offer greater discounts.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DraftSightRevit
Considered Both Products
DraftSight
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.
Chose DraftSight
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 …
Chose DraftSight
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.
Chose DraftSight
This is the best alternative to AutoCAD we have found.
Chose DraftSight
Price:value ratio is unbeatable
Chose DraftSight
We moved on from Draftsight even though it was better than AutoCAD.
Revit

No answer on this topic

Features
DraftSightRevit
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
6.7
7 Ratings
10% below category average
Revit
-
Ratings
3D Modeling7.82 Ratings00 Ratings
2D Drafting8.37 Ratings00 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization5.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Parametric Design6.32 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing6.76 Ratings00 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats8.17 Ratings00 Ratings
Assembly Design7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis4.42 Ratings00 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation6.37 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization and Extensions5.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
7.2
6 Ratings
2% above category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings6.74 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.44 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings6.54 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings6.95 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings6.13 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
7.2
4 Ratings
5% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings7.44 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings6.64 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings7.43 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.14 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings7.14 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.43 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.63 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
6.6
4 Ratings
4% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings6.64 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
6.0
11 Ratings
26% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings4.46 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings3.88 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.28 Ratings
Data exportability00 Ratings7.511 Ratings
Construction Project & Field Management
Comparison of Construction Project & Field Management features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
7.5
53 Ratings
1% above category average
Plan distribution & viewing00 Ratings7.951 Ratings
Plan markups & sharing00 Ratings8.144 Ratings
Issue tracking & punchlists00 Ratings7.032 Ratings
Photo documentation00 Ratings8.921 Ratings
Jobsite reports00 Ratings8.218 Ratings
Document sharing00 Ratings7.646 Ratings
RFI tools00 Ratings6.525 Ratings
Collaboration & approvals00 Ratings8.642 Ratings
As-built drawings00 Ratings8.750 Ratings
Mobile app00 Ratings5.017 Ratings
Submittal design and management00 Ratings7.422 Ratings
Checklists00 Ratings7.49 Ratings
Meeting Minutes00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Specifications00 Ratings6.514 Ratings
Change orders00 Ratings6.59 Ratings
Estimating
Comparison of Estimating features of Product A and Product B
DraftSight
-
Ratings
Revit
8.3
37 Ratings
9% above category average
Takeoff tools00 Ratings8.637 Ratings
Job costing00 Ratings7.528 Ratings
Cost databases00 Ratings8.021 Ratings
Cost calculator00 Ratings8.222 Ratings
Bid creation00 Ratings9.116 Ratings
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User Ratings
DraftSightRevit
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(415 ratings)
8.8
(54 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(23 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(23 ratings)
7.8
(7 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(6 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
4.8
(15 ratings)
7.0
(8 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(16 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.3
(6 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(4 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.4
(7 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DraftSightRevit
Likelihood to Recommend
Dassault Systemes
2D design work
3D design work
Large area (500m²+) analysis and assessment
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
Read full review
Autodesk
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.
Read full review
Pros
Dassault Systemes
  • You can easily bring in a dwg format drawing into the programme and it will display the information just as well as AutoCAD.
  • The programme supports shortcut features or one-click buttons for the most commonly used operations.
  • Script files can be used which is a bonus.
Read full review
Autodesk
  • 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.
Read full review
Cons
Dassault Systemes
  • 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.
Read full review
Autodesk
  • 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.
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Likelihood to Renew
Dassault Systemes
It has given us, a small startup, the ability to compete effectively with far larger competitors by evening the playing field at a low cost.
Read full review
Autodesk
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
Read full review
Usability
Dassault Systemes
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.
Read full review
Autodesk
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.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Dassault Systemes
Other than a bug created by a VAR tech support that didn't get resolved until I installed the next version, DraftSight has worked fine.
Read full review
Autodesk
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
Read full review
Performance
Dassault Systemes
In general it's very quick to load drawings...now it depends a lot on the file we're opening or working on.
Read full review
Autodesk
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
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Support Rating
Dassault Systemes
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.
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Autodesk
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.
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In-Person Training
Dassault Systemes
Based on some knowledge of AutoCad, using Draftsight took a short time before I felt comfortable using it.
Read full review
Autodesk
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.
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Online Training
Dassault Systemes
No answers on this topic
Autodesk
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
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Implementation Rating
Dassault Systemes
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.
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Autodesk
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
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Alternatives Considered
Dassault Systemes
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.
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Autodesk
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.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Dassault Systemes
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.
Read full review
Autodesk
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Dassault Systemes
As a startup, we really appreciate scalable software or tools, and because we use it for diverse types of projects, flexibility is key.
Read full review
Autodesk
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
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Professional Services
Dassault Systemes
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.
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Autodesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Dassault Systemes
  • 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.
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Autodesk
  • 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.
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ScreenShots

DraftSight Screenshots

Screenshot of Plate InsertScreenshot of Image TraceScreenshot of 2D and 3D DWG filesScreenshot of HomeByMe Integration