DraftSight vs. TurboCAD

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.

Incentivized

It is fully capable of all the design work you can give it. I have even designed houses with it. Turbo CAD Pro Platinum is all I have used for going on 3 years now. I don't know if other versions can do or can't do. If you are a graphic designer, you would need to port the files to a higher end program to manipulate the colors and renderings. For engineering and in-house work it is perfect.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Good scale tools
• Easy to pick up
• The exporter

Incentivized

• The layers palette icons are confusing and it requires too many steps to create a new layer. I shouldn't have to open the layer manager to create a layer.
• Converting splines to polylines and arcs (quickly and easily) that can be cut on CNC equipment. This is a nut no CAD package I've come across has been able to crack to my expectations. I need less "workarounds" and a more straightforward workflow with tunable options for this very frequent process.

Incentivized

• Shortcut keys more in line with AutoCAD.
• 3D rendering could be simpler.
• Updated interface.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

TurboCAD does all of the things we need it to do and some. The wide variety of options to create specificity in each of our projects is a large plus. The reason it was given a 9 is because the learning curve can be a little steep and sometimes certain processes are not as intuitive as they could be

Incentivized

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.

In general it's very quick to load drawings...now it depends a lot on the file we're opening or working on.

Incentivized

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.

Based on some knowledge of AutoCad, using Draftsight took a short time before I felt comfortable using it.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

TurboCAD is a well-priced solution for a small business, it comes standard with 3D modeling compared to DraftSight which does not. The user interface could be updated along with industry-standard shortcut keys but for the number of drawings we do, this package fills the gap. The DXF / DWG feature could be worked on too, as above, trying to get in line with other packages like AutoCAD & DraftSight would make the whole package better. All in all, I believe that TurboCAD has a valid foothold in the CAD industry.

Incentivized

As a startup, we really appreciate scalable software or tools, and because we use it for diverse types of projects, flexibility is key.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Our maps stand above other business in our same field
• The quality and clarity of the maps allow for more precise budgeting
• Once it the process and program was understood it would take a good hour off of our projects

Incentivized