What’s New in DraftSight and 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight 2024

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As we roll out the new release of our solutions this month, I want to share some insights on what’s new in one of my favorite products.

As you know Dassault Systèmes is all about the experience, so the improvements in the latest versions of DraftSight 2024 and 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight R2024x GA (general availability) improve on just that— the user experience.

If you’re wondering what the difference is between the two versions of DraftSight, our industry-leading 2D drafting and 3D CAD solution, it comes down to the added value of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Both versions of DraftSight have all the same great features, but 3DEXPERIENCE DraftSight includes the cloud-based collaboration and data management capabilities delivered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, amongst many other great features. If you haven’t extended your data to the platform, I highly recommend you do to get the most value out of your data and investment.

Once you have a look at all the new great features, you’ll want to get your hands on the latest versions ASAP! I’ll stop rambling so we can have a look at the top new capabilities. From editing part references and enjoying full support of drafting standards such as ANSI to the ability to import CATIA drawings, create custom component properties for part reference, and more, learn how you can increase productivity and better collaborate with your partners.

  1. Support for CATIA Drawings –collaborate with clarity and precision.

Ensuring you and your partners have the best experience when collaborating is at the top of the list. In DraftSight 2024 you can import CATIA model drawings from a local disk or the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. When you import a CATIA drawing you can expect it to behave as any other DWG file so you can easily edit the drawing.

Import CATIA model space drawings from a local disk or the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

 

  1. Tool Palette Customization –accelerate drawing creation and ensure consistency.

The tool palettes in DraftSight 2024 are designed to heighten your productivity. For starters you can find all your frequently used commands and features in one place. Customization extends to predefined settings including layer, color, and line type and ensures all newly created entities conform to the pre-defined standards across drawings.

Quickly insert an existing palette with the Import Palette functionality.

 

You can also efficiently create new palettes simply by dragging and dropping or importing and exporting pre-existing palettes created in other 2D CAD solutions.

  1. Layer Palette – enhance the legibility of drawings with greater control of how inactive layer groups display.

The new Layer Manager Palette provides quick access to all your layer commands in one place, including layers, layer states, layer previews, or isolating layers.

There’s also a new Merge Layer command so you can merge multiple layers into a single layer for better control and management.

Last, with the new Visibility Enhancement command you can specify how objects in inactive layer groups appear in drawing areas.

Accessibility to the tool palette has been simplified in the new CAD General workspace.

 

  1. Export Sheet Command – rapidly create new drawings from existing files without loss of detail.

Your wish is our command. With all the new commands in DraftSight 2024, you can stay more productive than ever, including when it comes to dealing with sheets. With the new Export Sheet command, you can export all visible entities from an active sheet viewport and entities from the sheets to the new drawing.

In addition, you can enhance the readability of a specific section, area, or view of the drawing with exported entities that are scaled views of model space, title block, and other annotative entities, such as dimensions and notes.

Export all visible entities of the active sheet viewports in model space to a new drawing with the new Export Sheet command.

 

  1. Enhanced User Interface – easily navigate 3D models and reduce eyestrain.

To reduce eyestrain and enhance feature function visibility there’s a new default Dark mode.

There’s also a new View Navigator so you can easily switch between standard and isometric views or parallel and perspective views of a model. Its interface acts as a 3D orientation indicator that lets you see the current view direction.

The user interface features a new default dark mode to reduce eyestrain and enhance feature function visibility.

 

What do you think so far?

There’s more! To see all 10 of the top enhancements click here! Questions? Ask your local reseller.

See my last blog on what else has been done this year, including a look at the latest addition to the DraftSight family, DraftSight Mechanical. And speaking of family, I know many of you in the states will be gathering for holiday this month, so cheers!

Stephen Endersby

Stephen Endersby is a Director of Product Portfolio Management at Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS. A passionate believer in the benefits of design analysis Stephen is confident that every designer can make use structural, motion, fluid and plastics simulation tools to improve their product designs and performance. With over 15 years of experience Stephen has worked with companies of all sizes to help them overcome the many design to manufacture challenges they face. Well versed in the application of technology to deliver end user value and improve productivity, for Stephen technology changes but his desire to deliver solutions and value remains the same.