Dassault DraftSight Unlocks DWG Files

Citing its customers' need to share and manage "billions ofDWG files," Dassault SystA"mes has announcedthe DraftSight professional grade 2-D CAD tool along with a new onlinecommunity designed to support the product and facilitate collaboration withlike-minded peers.

At the new DraftSight.com,Dassault will deliver a range of collaborative services, as well as fosterinteraction with members who can share opinions and ideas, get training fromblogs, and ask questions of the community for free upon registration. Inaddition, Dassault will leverage the community to offer optional, paidservices, including licensing options, telephone, e-mail and remote desktopsupport, an API extension for customizing the platform and additional offeringsgoing forward, according to Aaron Kelly, senior director, DraftSight atDassault. DraftSight.com community members will also have the opportunity toparticipate in the open product development process for DraftSight, thecomplementary 2-D CAD program.

In conjunction with the community, the release of DraftSightmarks a first for Dassault, which is exploring an open business model with thisproduct. The professional-grade 2-D CAD tool is available to be downloaded forfree as a public beta at 3ds.com. DraftSight,which generally takes only a few minutes to download, provides users with abetter way to read, write and share DWG files. The program's launch is indirect response to customer requests, Kelly says, as users still have a needfor 2-D capabilities along with a requirement to access volumes of DWG files.

"Our customers are demanding a 2-D solution and they havebillions of DWG files on servers and computers that they want to share amongdifferent users, customers and vendors," Kelly explains. In addition, there arestill tasks that are more productive with 2D than 3D, including laying out afactory floor or schematics. "There are still clearly 2-D tasks," Kelly says."People are using 2D and 3D, not 2D or 3D."

DraftSight runs on multiple operating systems, includingWindows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Mac OS and Linux support will beavailable later this year.

Dassault DraftSight Unlocks DWG Files_A