Fresh off its beta launch
last June, Dassault Systémes announced the general availability of DraftSight for Windows, a free 2-D CAD product and community aimed at
engineering professionals, students and educators.
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DraftSight, which
runs on multiple operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows Vista,
Windows 7 and eventually Mac OS, lets users create, edit and view DWG files.
The formal release incorporates a number of user-requested enhancements, among
them, performance and usability improvements in addition to localization of
Help files in a number of languages. There is also new API support (available
for a fee), which lets users write add-on programs for DraftSight, and a
command variables feature, which lets users set and change system variables
directly from the command line.
"Users provided great
feedback that enabled us to identify areas of improvement that we have
implemented into the general release for Windows, increasing the overall
performance and usability of DraftSight," notes Aaron Kelly, senior director,
DraftSight at Dassault Systémes, in a prepared release. To date, Kelly said more
than 400,000 users have downloaded DraftSight.
Accompanying the new release is an
open, online community where users can access support and
training resources as well as interact, ask questions and share opinions with
peers. The DraftSight community is based on Dassault Systémes' SwYm online
collaboration and social innovation platform, which incorporates such Web 2.0
capabilities as rich profiles, blogs, micro-blogging, "iQuestions", wikis,
media sharing spaces (data, audio, video, and even 3D) and status updates
within a unified layout that facilitates collaboration.
In addition to the online community, DraftSight users will be offered a variety
of support options, including no-cost Community Support as well as fee-based
Premium Services that offer telephone and email support, network licensing and
access to DraftSight APIs.
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