topic Re: Alternative to DraftSight to view DWG files (for Mac OSX) in Collaboration with other software

Alternative to DraftSight to view DWG files (for Mac OSX)

fuzzytnth3 — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:34:19 GMT

Anyone found an alternative to Draftsight now its not free and they have gone down the subscription route?

Apps I have tried but don't totally float ma' boat, are :-

AutoDesk 360 - Works but it's Cloud based so you have to upload to the Cloud. Just to much o' a faff! I just want to check over a DWG I've just published to make sure it's tickety boo before I send it to someone.

LibreCAD - works fine with DXF but despite what it claimed it did not like our DWG files because they were more recent than AutoCAD 2007 and while we could export our DWGs at some ancient version to suit LibreCAD we can't ask all our Consultants to do the same.

Microspot DWG Viewer 2 - Just terrible considering they want £48 and it can't handle Paper Space at all! Hellish interface clunkier than a very clunky thing.

QCAD - Costs £33 so not horrendous cost wise but DraftSight was free QCAD has a rather funky approach to Model Space and Paper Space which I suspect will confuse some. Good interface generally and fairly intuitive other than using "Blocks" for Model and Paper space.

Re: Alternative to DraftSight to view DWG files (for Mac OSX)

fuzzytnth3 — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:53:45 GMT

Well after a bit more rummaging I came across eDrawing Viewer which I used to use yonks ago.

Out of the apps I've tried this lunchtime this is the winner. While it only lets you view the DWG (you can't edit or draw) it does at least handle Paper Space and Model Space simply and it does have some basic Markup Tools which lets you create dimensions to ensure your DWG has exported at the right scale.

http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-mac.htm

Re: Alternative to DraftSight to view DWG files (for Mac OSX)

Erwin Edel — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 14:55:48 GMT

I'm guessing AutoDESK DWG TrueView doesn't have a Mac version

It's what I use on windows, it's 'lightweight' in the sense that it boots up quickly (at 2 GB or more for the download it's definitely bloatware for the functionality it has).

It's free, so if you don't mind running a windows partition on something like VirtualBox, that might be a quick option.