Finding Success With DraftSight—Customer Stories
By: The DraftSight Team
Today, making smart technology investments is a critical component of alleviating business challenges and driving growth. DraftSight 2D software is helping companies in multiple industries improve their products, increase their productivity, and reduce their costs. Let’s look at four customers that are transforming their businesses with DraftSight 2D CAD.
Using 2D When it Makes Sense
Young Industries, Inc. is a manufacturer of custom-designed equipment for handling dry bulk materials in the chemical, petrochemical, ceramics, and coatings industries. Although the majority of Young Industries’ design and engineering work is done in 3D using SOLIDWORKS software, the company still has needs that are better addressed with 2D tools. “There are certain tasks—modifying legacy drawings, creating simple layouts or sketches, or developing P&IDs,that we consider ‘quick and dirty,’ for which it’s faster and easier to use 2D,” explains Young Industry Engineer Ryan Vandine.
By using DraftSight software for 2D tasks, and SOLIDWORKS for 3D needs, such as large-assembly design, Young Industries is maximizing design productivity. There are other tasks for which 2D is preferred, such as bringing in DWG and DXF files from customers. “Where it makes sense, we want to leverage DraftSight,” adds Young Industries Sales & Marketing Director Dick Ambs.
2D drawings remain critically important as a preferred method of sharing design data as they facilitate easy communication and exchange with design and construction engineers, vendors, and contractors. When hard copies are preferred on the job, 2D drawings still come in very handy.
MAC Design and Build creates custom cabinetry, furniture, doors, and built-ins to support its home and business furnishing and remodeling company. “95 percent of our jobs required a drawing,” shares owner Amanda Casterlin. “There are a bunch of older houses in Florida, where we are located and do business,” Casterlin adds. “Adding new furnishings and features—such as barn doors, kitchen islands, and built-ins—requires customization, and customization requires drawings. DraftSight [Professional] is driving a substantial volume of business for us at a much lower cost than anticipated.”
Improve ROI
Bill’s Custom Fab, Inc. provides custom design and fabrication services for creating structural steel components for a range of diverse applications. By transitioning to DraftSight design software, Bill’s Custom Fab has increased design efficiency and improved its return on investment (ROI) in its 2D design software.
Licensing changes with its former CAD provider led Bill’s Custom Fab to re-evaluate its 2D design solution, according to Estimator David Yerks. “I had used my previous CAD for 30 years, but licensing changes made it time to look for another solution,” Yerks recalls. “We looked at a bunch of CAD systems, including one which specializes in steel construction, but they were going to require a greater IT investment. I had used DraftSight software previously, and had noticed the enhancements with each release. That’s why I suggested it as our next 2D solution: DraftSight gives us all the 2D functionality and professional tools we need, doesn’t require training because it operates just like our legacy CAD, and supports profitability. By moving to DraftSight Professional, we are substantially improving the ROI for our CAD investment.”
A number of CAD providers have discontinued network licenses. For big companies with casual users, network licenses can make a huge difference in extending team access to CAD without overspending on unused seats.
These savings may allow businesses to add more seats, upgrade hardware or other software, or add peripherals. Whether savings are re-invested, or saved and added to the bottom line, the savings are real with DraftSight.
Data Compatibility
In addition to functionality and ROI, the deciding factor in Bill’s Custom Fab’s move to DraftSight software was the solution’s stability, data compatibility with major CAD formats [including DWG and DXF files], and the ability to run LISP macros and routines, “With so much capability, it’s just the right choice for our growing company at the moment,” Yerks continues.
DraftSight is fully compatible with DWG and DXF-file formats. Legacy entities, layers, plot styles, Xrefs, and blocks will all transition, making it easy to seamlessly go back and forth between DraftSight and legacy software. In some ways, DraftSight handles DWG files even better with the ability to save a file all the way back to an R12 drawing file.
Griscia Pastacaldi Naval Architecture (GPNA S.R.L.) is a naval architecture design firm focused on innovative yacht design based in Italy. For GPNA, the ability to effectively communicate and share design ideas and drawings across the design team—as well as with customers—is critically important to the company’s development process. “Because GPNA works with external partners—with roughly 90 percent of the effort outsourced—we needed a flexible, user-friendly 2D design application that allows us to collaborate on, coordinate, communicate, and manage yacht design projects as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.” - Griscia Pastacaldi, Owner/Lead Designer, GPNA.
“The flexibility of DraftSight for sharing information and data—typically in DWG format—across the design team makes yacht development more efficient, which is why I encourage my partners to use DraftSight. The software also ensures that we effectively communicate with customers at every step along the way,” Pastacaldi continues. “Our clients always appreciate the clarity of our technical drawings and being kept apprised of our progress, which helps to increase customer satisfaction, which is the ultimate goal of our work.”
DraftSight also provides Young Industries greater flexibility to work with multiple 2D file formats and design entities. Young Industries can more effectively manage its trove of 2D legacy data and library of 2D design entities, both of which contribute to accelerating proposal development. “With DraftSight, we can manipulate past projects and our design library of P&ID symbols to save time and effort,” Vandine says. “In short, DraftSight gives us greater flexibility to work with 2D file formats and design entities more quickly and easily.”
In addition to core 2D design, documentation, and drawing capabilities, DraftSight integrates seamlessly with other Dassault Systèmes and SOLIDWORKS solutions and services, including SOLIDWORKS PDM and the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform, supporting easy collaboration and management of DWG file designs.
Faster, Error-Free Design
Thanks to its professional-level power, DraftSight is a perfect solution for many different applications. Using DraftSight Professional software, MAC Design and Build has created error-free, dimensionally correct, to-scale drawings of its custom woodworks more quickly and cost-effectively, cutting drawing time in half since implementing the software. “With the additional automated features in DraftSight [Professional], I’ve been able to cut design time down to roughly three hours or 50 percent, which enables us to do more projects more efficiently and grow the business.” - David Cusick Jr., Senior Draftsman, MAC Design and Build.
“Because our business is 100 percent custom builds, we have no room to re-order something that doesn’t fit,” Amanda Casterlin notes. “Our cabinets and woodworks have to fit and be free of errors,” Casterlin stresses. “We need drawings to show the client a representation of how a piece will look for approval, but we also need drawings to tack up on the wall so the production staff can build error-free, dimensionally correct woodworks to scale. DraftSight Professional allows us to cost effectively meet both requirements.”
DraftSight software has also enabled GPNA to accelerate development, control costs, and grow the business. “DraftSight allows my company to design more quickly and cost-effectively,” Pastacaldi says. “From a productivity standpoint—compared to the other 2D design systems that I’ve used—DraftSight enables me to save more time,” Griscia Pastacaldi adds. “I estimate that working with DraftSight reduces design time by 25 percent. Because the software is less expensive than other solutions, I’ve also cut development costs by 10 percent.”
Seamless Transition
Bill’s Custom Fab experienced a seamless transition to DraftSight—with no downtime or training requirements—because DraftSight’s user interface and capabilities are similar to their legacy CAD. “With DraftSight Professional, we can do everything that we used to do, with an improved ROI,” Yerks stresses. “We can open all of our legacy 2D CAD drawings, as well as 2D building drawings that we receive from architects and structural engineers.With DraftSight, everything will feel familiar, allowing teams to get acclimated in hours, not days. Workflows should transition; the same commands still work in DraftSight. Existing Dynamic Blocks®, customizations, keyboard shortcuts, LISP routines and Script files will all work fine.”
SIDEBAR: “The software is so intuitive that an engineer can learn it in a day or two” J. Tyler Thompson, Vice President of Operations, Young Industries.
In DraftSight, GPNA found an intuitive, user-friendly drafting experience. “The [legacy CAD] software had become increasingly complex to use in a way that I disliked, with too many commands that take up too much space from the working area and a loss of intuitiveness of the commands themselves,” Pastacaldi recounts. “I heard about DraftSight® 2D design software from Dassault Systèmes and initially thought that the software might be too specialized toward mechanical design/production because of other Dassault products.” Yet, as part of his assessment of the best 2D package for yacht design, Pastacaldi started to experiment with DraftSight and was pleasantly surprised by what he discovered. “In DraftSight, I found the intuitive, user-friendly interface that had been lost in AutoCAD,” Pastacaldi stresses. “DraftSight is easy, fast, and user-friendly, and offers a wide view of the working area. I quickly found out that if you are able to use AutoCAD, you can immediately start using DraftSight. After evaluating several systems, I chose DraftSight 2D design software to create beautiful, but also well-engineered and reliable, yacht designs.”
Contribute to Business Growth
Using DraftSight software as GPNA’s primary design tool has produced the efficiencies, flexibility, and communication capabilities that GPNA relies on to fuel, support, and maintain growth. “The company has grown at a rate of roughly 20 percent each year, and DraftSight plays an important role underlying our continued growth and success,” Pastacaldi says. “DraftSight is clearly innovative technology in its simplicity, intuitiveness, flexibility, and usefulness,” Pastacaldi notes. “With a productive tool like DraftSight, we are able to continue to push what is possible in yacht design.”
SIDEBAR: “No matter what project we are working on, DraftSight Professional software is worth every penny that we pay for it because we continue to operate our shop efficiently and complete all of our different types of work just like we’ve always done, but with more efficiency.” – Yerks, Bill’s Custom Fab.
Give DraftSight a Try
DraftSight makes it easy to create, edit, view, and mark up any DWG file with speed and ease. With DraftSight’s familiar user interface and common commands, your team will be acclimated in hours, not days. Your team will also gain some time with DraftSight’s productivity features and automations.
Your team can download DraftSight’s Free-30-day trial to put DraftSight through its paces.
