DraftSight Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Score

8.8 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for DraftSight are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Cost-effectiveness: Many users have praised DraftSight for being an economical option compared to similar CAD software, making it a cost-effective choice for small businesses. Some reviewers have mentioned that the affordability of DraftSight played a significant role in their decision to choose it over other options.

Stability and performance: Users consistently mention that DraftSight is stable and reliable, with no crashes or technical issues. Several reviewers have specifically highlighted the software's stability, noting that they have not experienced any crashes while using it. This aspect has greatly contributed to the positive sentiment surrounding DraftSight.

Compatibility with AutoCAD: The ability of DraftSight to open both old and new DWG/DXF files has been highly appreciated by users. Many AutoCAD users feel that this feature makes the transition to DraftSight seamless and efficient. Additionally, several reviewers praise the inclusion of commonly used AutoCAD commands in DraftSight, which further enhances its compatibility with industry-standard drawing file types.

Reviews

417 Reviews

Great Value Industry Standard CAD

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use DraftSight for quick, familiar 2D drafting, utilizing familiar commands at an outstanding price.

As a previous AutoCAD user, I can highly recommend this product. I use it daily and will continue to do so.

Pros

Simple interface
AutoCAD similarities
Native DWG file type
Import/Export

Cons

Better technical support
No phone support
Offer a paid support option

Likelihood to Recommend

2D layouts where DWG is required to share with other organisations.

Import 2D drawings created by Fusion 360 for further manipulation & notation.

Verified User

Project Manager (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

A great software tool

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

August 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

<div>BCL uses DraftSight for product design, large scale (500m²+) site layouts and assessments in both .dwg and .dxf formats.</div><div>Product development is in both 2D and 3D.</div><div>

</div><div>It is cost effective and versatile to use without the issues of some 3D work for the more traditional user. I have used both SolidWorks and Inventor and DraftSight offers far more options without needing a bank of computers to process things, just may laptop with a RTX 2070 card.

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Pros

2D Design
3D Design
Large area 3D assessment

Cons

Faster rendering
Better options for custom toolbar control
Reduced log in, I don't always want to log into 'ContentCentral'

Likelihood to Recommend

<div>2D design work</div><div>3D design work</div><div>Large area (500m²+) analysis and assessment</div><div>

</div><div>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.</div><div>The level of detail during rendering (while it can be slow) is good for visualization and for use in installation and training materials

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Mark Reynolds

Director at Boundary Concepts Limited (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

DraftSight vs AutoCAD

Rating: 8 out of 10

June 27, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use DraftSight for structural steel detailing, custom fabrication, and custom designed steel products. DraftSight is an affordable replacement for AutoCAD with LISP routine capability in "DraftSight Professional" and 3D capability if using "DraftSight Premium". The cost savings of using DraftSight has allowed us to upgrade hardware sooner than if we were paying for AutoCAD.

Pros

Integrate LISP routines
save into multiple DWG and DXF versions
commands are almost all the same as AutoCAD

Cons

In my opinion, stability is slightly lacking
In my experience, auto-stack dimension feature doesn't seem to work as it should
In my experience, rendering with materials is lacking capability

Likelihood to Recommend

Cost savings compared to AutoCAD is the #1 reason. If you have used AutCAD, you can easily transition to Draftsight within a single day.

David Yerks

Estimator/Project Manager in Engineering at Bills Custom Fab, Inc. (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

View profile

DraftSight helps small company evolve into a global designer

Rating: 10 out of 10

December 10, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We create system schematics, mounting mechanical, and product designs with it.

Drawing clear and accurate schematics is a large part of what we do to help installation of systems go quickly and correctly.

Mounting drawings have the same value, the speed and accuracy of global installations counts on our drawings to be clear and correct for each installation we support.

Pros

Runs smoothly
Minimal lockups
Runs lean and starts quickly

Cons

In my experience, it crashes when copying text information into a text element

Likelihood to Recommend

I often recommend DraftSight to colleagues that are struggling with other CAD programs or looking to start using CAD more in their environment.

It's easy to use and the learning time is short compared to other CAD software.

Also the transition from AutoCAD to DraftSight is very quick. For those that have used AutoCAD before, the transition is very easy because many of the functions are similar and a lot of the commands are also very similar.

The startup and processing time for actions is short and speeds up the design process.

The cost impact is also significantly less than other CAD software, this helps a lot with multiple users and our operating costs.

Darryle Ziegler, CTS-D, CTS-I

Owner at CAVIAR Systems LLC (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

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DraftSight Review

Rating: 9 out of 10

June 1, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Handle customer graphic requirements of customers accurately and efficiently as it makes it easier to manage and share graphic files. we have short leadtime in some cases to bring the graphic to the printing operations to meet customer expected delivery dates while avoiding of errors that would be costly to us and our customers.

Pros

handling graphic files
share graphic files
send graphic files
identify issues
optimizing press approval of new products

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Director in Finance and Accounting (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Overpowered

Rating: 10 out of 10

December 9, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used AutoCAD for over 5 years. My company uses Draftsight as an alternative of AutoCAD sometimes. It is way less expensive with similar functions. That's why our company uses Draftsight instead of getting a more updated version of AutoCAD, though we have a 2007 AutoCAD. I usually convert the newer version of .dwg files to an older version through Draftsight, or sometimes edit the our production drawing in Draftsight if the changes are not too complicated.

Pros

Cheaper than AutoCAD
Easy-to-use interface
Similar function like AutoCAD

Cons

Likelihood to Recommend

It is good that Draftsight is similar to AutoCAD, easy to pick up when start using Draftsight as an user of AutoCAD but sometimes Draftsight cannot read the font style of the text box from AutoCAD which leads to showing "?????". I have to input the words manually.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

DraftSight! You could be so much better if.....

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 14, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it for Industrial automation design. We use it for complex wiring diagrams and industrial control panel layout.

Pros

Reads and writes Autocad files without a problem.
Flexible user interface with lots of options.
Good tools for 2D design.

Cons

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

We put it through its paces with our drawings and it works fine. We do a lot of wiring diagrams and industrial control panel layout drawings, so we use a lot of its 2D capabilities. I would not use it in a multi-user environment where you have multiple designers working on one project at a time. This software makes no provisions for allowing multiple users to work at the same time on the same drawing and has no native version control. And because of their poor software control, DraftSight many times put out versions that are "crashy", which would make a lot of people very unproductive very quickly. I would look at other products for larger projects like that.

Paul Karnopp, PE

Owner/Senior Engineef in Engineering at Prime Control Systems (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

View profile

Cheap software

Rating: 1 out of 10

September 27, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use DraftSight as a 2D drawing tool. It was purchased to replace the more expensive AutoCAD LT.

Pros

Imports legacy CAD data

Cons

In my opinion, customer support is too time-consuming. When you do get an answer half the time it is related to your question which is pretty good, but who has 16 hours to wait for that?
Interface could be far more stable
Snap settings turn themselves off
Dimension in "paper space" may or may not provide accurate dimensions
Same line weight issues as AutoCAD. by block, by layer, has little effect. Printing line weights can be a guessing game.
Block access is fixed to one location, instead of last used location.
Extreme care is required when mouse picking. Make sure you are not picking in air, instead of the end of a line that is a millimeter away. Even with snap on.

Likelihood to Recommend

I tried to like it, but the puzzling quirks have just wasted too much of my time. Going back to the more expensive and reliable AutoCAD LT.

Verified User

Employee in Engineering (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Great features and functionality at a great price!

Rating: 9 out of 10

June 20, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

<div>Used to create P&ID and schematics for Control Systems. Also used to plan control systems upgrades and piping details.</div><div>Drawings are accessible by other trade groups to aid in location of equipment.</div><div>Drawings are also used for contractors to bid on projects.</div><div>Saves time and money in designing control systems.

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Pros

Layer Management
Contextual application (Right mouse click)
Print layout

Cons

Home by Me window always pops-up on startup! Annoying in my opinion
Why open a No-Name_0 window? I am almost always going to open a file!
Slow to open

Likelihood to Recommend

<div>Part and or schematic libraries are non-existent!</div><div>I had to create all my own P&ID symbols, and then scale them to the appropriate size.</div><div>Not the easiest to create electrical schematics. It works okay, but lacking features specific to schematics.</div><div>Well suited for piping drawings and general mechanical layout.

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Mike Kowal

Controls and Instrumentation Specialist in Engineering at Binghamton University (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

It works good!

Rating: 10 out of 10

June 2, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I'm the only user of DrafSight or any other design software in my company. It is used to edit old mechanical desktop files or customers' Autocad files. I would like to get it into use at a local community workshop, but for them, the price is too much for a non-profit to afford.

Pros

Edit Mechanical Desktop or Autocad files.
Great at editing drawings.
Works just like Autocad, so there's a learning curve.

Cons

It would be nice if DraftSight had the 3D functionality of Mechanical Desktop.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's well suited for users who need Autocad, but don't want to pay Autocad's exorbitant prices. It is no longer well suited for small maker spaces with limited budgets due to there being no free option. Also, DraftSight should also be part of any Solidworks package in order to make maintaining the subscription easier.

Arthur C Gagnon

Design Engineer in Engineering at Wanho Manufacturing, LLC (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

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