I've downloaded and installed the beta Mac OS X version of DraftSight, the free DWG-based 2D editor from Dassault Systemes (OEM'ed from Graebert of Germany). I'm going to run through all the menu items to see what's new or different from AutoCAD for Windows...
Application Menu
All Mac apps share the same menu bar (bad design, in my opinion), and all have an application menu that's made from the name of the app. In this case, it is DraftSight. This menu item holds the Preferences (Options) command, as well as system commands, such as About, Hide, and Quit.
File Menu
New provides access to just two DWT template files, Standard.dwt and StandardIso.dwt. Naturally you can create your own. There is no start-a-new-drawing wizard.
Open opens DWG and DXF files, I think. The dialog box is strange, because it lacks a "files of type" extension filter. All files in the current folder are listed, even though most cannot be opened. Select a JPG and nothing happens.
You can open files regularly, as read-only, or with encoding -- which refers to the text code for international languages.
Save As does have a 'files of type' dropdown, and it supports the following formats:
- DWG -- R12 through 2010
- DXF -- R12 through 2010, ASCII or binary
- DWT
Export exports drawings in a number of bitmap formats (JPG, BMP, etc), PDF, and "Export Drawing," which brings up the WBlock dialog box.
Drawings Now didn't work for me. My understanding it that it should upload the current drawing to Dassault's servers, for viewing by others in their Web browsers or iPads. Same for the Publish eDrawings command; perhaps both are activated once you pay maintenance?
Print brings up the Mac-style print dialog box, with options specific to DraftSight. It is nothing like AutoCAD's Plot dialog box, so be prepared to spend a bit of time learning how it works. I like the way it easily saves print configurations.
Edit Menu
This menu is missing OLE-related commands, which are not possible on OS X. Pasteboard-related commands like Copy and Copy with Reference Point, Cut, Paste and Paste as Block are available.
View Menu
This menu contains 3D viewing commands, even though DraftSight is considered 2D-only. (See more comments about 3D under Draw Menu, below.)
The 3D-related commands include Constrained Orbit (3dOrbit), Hide, Shade (flat, grourard), and Animated Rendering. I was surprised by the name of this last item, because the rendering is not animated movie-style -- more like real time rendering, in which you can interact with the model.
Insert Menu
This menu lets you insert blocks, hyperlinks, xrefs, and images.
Format Menu
Here you have access to properties (layers, linetypes, etc), as well as styles (dimensions, text, etc). The interface is different from AutoCAD, in that most of these items are part of a master dialog box called "Options." So these commands just open the related portion of this dialog box; only Layer has its own dialog box.
The name of the Options dialog box should be changed to match its Mac name, Preferences. It really needs a Find facility, to make it easier to locate specific settings in this monster dialog box.
Dimension Menu
All the usual dimension commands, including some of AutoCAD's new ones, like Jogged and Arc Length, are here. Dimension Styles opens the appropriate part of the Options dialog box.
Draw Menu
The Draw Menu has most of AutoCAD's 2D drawing commands, including Table, Mask, and Region. The Mesh section of the menu is limited in 3D drawing of polyface meshes, like TabSurf. Curiously, the 2D Solid command got stuck in this section.
Thickness is not available at the command line, so you cannot turn 2D entities into 3D.
DraftSight can open drawings of 3D solids and new-style meshes -- thanks to the Open Design Alliance's DWG API. Some do not display correctly, however, such as section jogs not cutting objects.
You can perform basic editing on 3D drawings created by AutoCAD, such as move, copy, change properties (color, layer, etc), erase, and so on.
Modify Menu
Here you have many of AutoCAD's modification commands, including the Properties palette, clipping, ref editing (of "components" nee blocks), trimming, and so on. This menu shows the Graebert heritage in that they forgot to subsitute the AutoCAD names. So you see Pattern (instead of Array), Split (instead of Break), and others.
This CAD program is based on another, named ARES, which has its own set of command names. The names are AutoCAD-ized through aliases, so you can always type the AutoCAD version of a command; no need to memorize a new collection of names!
Tools Menu
This menu repeats the Properties command, accesses the Reference Manager, and sports something called "CCS" -- short for custom coordinate system, which is the ARES name for UCS.
Also on this menu is the Customize command, whose dialog box is very, very different from AutoCAD's CUI command. You can customize command macros (including Diesel), menus, tooblars, mouse buttons (single, double, and right clicks), keyboard shortcuts and overrides, and UI profiles, which are like workspaces in AutoCAD.
Windows Menu
This menu contains a unqiue command, Switch UI Mode. It switches DraftSight's user interface between Mac and Windows styles:
- Mac style -- all user interface elements are independent of one another, irritating, in my mind. Drag the drawing window, and everything else stays in place. Some people like this, apparently.
- Windows style -- this mode is called "fixed style toolbar mode" curiously enough, and only comes into effect after you quit and restart DraftSight.
Help Menu
The help is fairly comprehensive, although it lacks any reference to system variables. And the section on system requirements still lists the specs for Windows and PCs, instead of OS X and Macs.
- - -
In summary, DraftSight for Mac is similar enough in most areas for AutoCAD users to adapt quickly. The two areas that will probably be initially problematic are the very different Options and Customize dialog boxes. For Windows users, the Print dialog box will also prove to be a challenge, initially.
"All Mac apps share the same menu bar (bad design, in my opinion)"
The Mac menu bar is based in Fitts' Law (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts'_law). By attaching it to the top of the screen, the elements can be reached no matter how much you move the mouse upwards, in contrast with the Windows-style menu bar where you have to specifically target a very small area. In the Mac, the ckick area is effectively infinite, since it has infinite height.
From Wikipedia: "Since the advent of graphical user interfaces, Fitts's law has been applied to tasks where the user must position a mouse cursor over an on-screen target, such as a button or other widget (...) Edges and corners of the computer display (e.g., Start button in Microsoft Windows and the menus and Dock of Mac OS X) are particularly easy to acquire because the pointer remains at the screen edge regardless of how much further the mouse is moved, thus can be considered as having infinite width. Similarly, top-of-screen menus (e.g., Mac OS) are easier to acquire than top-of-window menus (e.g., Windows OS)".
Placing the menu bar in any other place than an edge of the screen is bad design, since it makes things harder to use ;)
"Mac style -- all user interface elements are independent of one another, irritating, in my mind. Drag the drawing window, and everything else stays in place. Some people like this, apparently."
Where by "some people" you mean "all Mac users since 1984" :)
Posted by: Dove | Sep 24, 2010 at 06:29 AM
Here's the problem:
I have dual-screen systems on Windows and Mac. If I want to access a menu item, in Windows, I simply click on the program's menu bar.
In Mac, I first have to click on some aspect of the program's UI (usually the window title bar) and then access its menu bar. Less efficient.
- - -
In Windows, when I move a program (by dragging its title bar), all the program's UI elements move with it.
In Mac, I drag a program, and all the rest of the its UI elements remain behind, which messes up the screen and makes no sense to me.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Sep 24, 2010 at 06:42 AM
As for the Application menu, once you have gotten used a Mac, this is a great design. All applications work in a similar manner, meaning if you learned one, you have essentially learned them all, at least from an interface standpoint. There are ways to modify this behavior through various programs out there.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 24, 2010 at 08:23 AM
Yeah, good points and very true indeed :) The single-menubar in a dual-screen setup is very awkward. It has been suggested to duplicate the menu in each window, but Apple has still to offer a good solution to the problem.
The detached-window interface is... well, strange to those who come from Windows. But to long-time Mac users, the strange thing is having monolithic windows containing sub-windows, palettes, and other UI elements.
Windows identifies the "program" with the "window" - in a sense, the "program" *is* the "window" - so, if you click "close", you are closing both the document and the program. Mac separates the "program" from the "window" - the latter is just an open document, and the former can keep on running even if there's no open documents. The design philosophies involved are so different I wonder a die-hard user of one system will ever feel comfortable with the other.
Posted by: Dove | Sep 24, 2010 at 08:47 AM
I can not get Draftsight to work on my mac ( OSX 10.6.4 ) I get a dialog box that shows "Library not loaded"!! I have tried to install multiple imes with no success. Any thoughts???
Posted by: Mr. Ed | Sep 24, 2010 at 12:23 PM
I am attempting to run the application on a Mac Mini, 1.66 GHz Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 400GB free HD space and OS X 10.6.6.
Every time I down load the app it installs and attempts to load and crashes with a message that it could not run. It then gives me the option to save my work (there isn't any yet) and runs through the send crash report process...
Any ideas? Anyone able to correct this??
thanks
Posted by: jim brown | Feb 14, 2011 at 11:52 AM
I'm very pleased with any free autocad alternative especially for MAC. This program seems to be a little sluggish but I'm not running it on the fastest mac (3 year old macbook).
All functions seem to work oke.
Thanks Dassault!
Now I'm looking for a 3D inventor (STP) look alike in freeware. Is there a challenge for Dassault??
Posted by: EV | Oct 30, 2011 at 07:58 AM
we plan to have Bricscad V12 Platinum for the Mac in Q1 2012. It's is a direct modeler with 3D constraint solving and Design intent capabilities. And yes, it is 100% .dwg compatible.
Posted by: erik de keyser, Bricsys | Nov 03, 2011 at 08:44 AM
I am having no luck at all saving my printing settings in DraftSight. I select the options I want, and then use the + to save a present with a name of choice. However, after exiting the print window and returning to select the same preset, it does not change anything from the default settings. No matter what present I create and select, the default print settings are the only ones I get.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Posted by: Heidi Helm | Nov 30, 2011 at 07:45 AM
I have the same problem on saving print settings. No way to reuse them after a print, and I have to change everyone of them form the start.
Macosx 10.6.8.
Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
Posted by: Lorenzo Daveri | Dec 07, 2011 at 10:42 AM
You need to asked the question on the DraftSight forums.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Oct 08, 2012 at 10:49 AM
I've been a PC draftsperson for years and I'm ready to buy a mac laptop, but I'm not sure which one to buy to efficiently run Draftsight on?
Posted by: Enza | Jan 26, 2015 at 05:05 PM
Dassault Systemes publishes the minimum system requiresments on The DraftSight Web site -> http://www.3ds.com/fileadmin/PRODUCTS-SERVICES/DRATFSIGHT/PDF/End-User-FAQ-DraftSight.pdf
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Jan 26, 2015 at 05:17 PM
how come that when I have saved a drawing it is a nightmare to work on it once it is saved...
I work on Apple's os HiSierra.
when drawing the program works just fine.
Posted by: matjas | Jan 03, 2018 at 11:33 AM