[Beefy]

I've got Alibre Design and it's 2D sketching is based on constraints. You draw for example a rectangle and then dimension it and position it with constraints. I find it relatively easy. Changing dimensions is also intuitive and easy.

I've just started learning Draftsight and what a brain twister after the above. I'm slowly getting there and it seems it's almost the opposite of constraint based sketching. You need to construct everything in the right place to start off with and modifying afterwards seems a bit more difficult. I've still got a lot to learn on this.

Has anyone lived on both sides of the fence. Is one method better than the other or do they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Keith.

[ger21]

AutoCAD 2013 allows you to do both, as you can add constraints after the fact, if you're so inclined.

I think that whatever you're used to will seem better, provided you're good at it.
Personally, I prefer the non constrained method, as it let's me draw exactly what I want. I don't like having to draw something, and then figure out the size later.
Modifying is easy when you know how to use all the tools available.

[Beefy]

Thanks Gerry.

I'd certainly like Autocad 2013 to have the best of both worlds but for now I'm just looking for a free solution to have 2D sketching on all my computers. My current license is only for one computer. Still have to pay for Alibre Professional when I can afford it (about $2K).

I can see some benefit to Autocad style sketching in that the whole drawing doesn't move unexpectedly as it sometimes can with constraint based sketching. I find I have to lock a lot of the entities in an Alibre sketch so when I place a certain constraint or measurement the whole sketch doesn't move unexpectedly. Worse is if you don't notice one of these unintended moves (was very small) but find out later and don't know at what point it happened.

Keith.