Design and Process Logo Select to return to home page
Design and Process Logo Select to return to home page

DraftSight Essentials Course Overview

The DraftSight Essentials course is designed to teach participants how to use SOLIDWORKS DraftSight, a drafting automation software tool, to optimize their drawings and designs for manufacturability. This course aims to help users maximize quality, avoid rework, and decrease time to market by providing an in-depth understanding of DraftSight’s capabilities in creating and managing 2D drawings.

About DraftSight:

DraftSight is a comprehensive tool for computer-aided design (CAD) that supports reading and writing various 2D formats, including DWG, DXF, and DGN. It serves as an ideal companion to other SOLIDWORKS products, such as SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic for system engineering and SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD for manufacturing and plant layout, facilitating seamless integration across different stages of product development.

Skills Learned:

  • Learn the fundamentals of DraftSight for efficient 2D drafting and design.
  • Understand how to optimize drawings for manufacturability, enhancing quality and efficiency.
  • Explore DraftSight's compatibility with various 2D formats for broad application.
  • Create and utilize existing libraries of Blocks, Attributes, and Entity Groups
  • Discover how DraftSight integrates with other SOLIDWORKS products for a comprehensive design and manufacturing solution.
DraftSight Essentials Training

Course Duration

2 Days  (7 hours/day)

Prerequisites

Experience with the Windows® operating system.

Have read/undertaken the coursework prior to class attendance.

Onsite Training

Course Examples

DraftSight Essentials Course Syllabus

Lesson 1: User Interface

  • User Interface
  • Pointing Devices
  • Title Bar
  • Toolbars
  • Dock and Undock
  • Tool palettes
  • Customize - Tool palettes
  • Exercise 1: Mouse Gestures
  • Exercise 2: Tool Palettes

Lesson 2: View Commands

  • Viewing Drawings in DraftSight
  • Dynamic Pan
  • Dynamic Zoom
  • Zoom Window
  • Zoom Fit
  • Rebuild
  • Display Quality
  • Zoom Previous
  • Named Views
  • View Tiles
  • Viewports
  • Exercise 3: Zoom and Pan
  • Exercise 4: Views

Lesson 3: Coordinates

  • DraftSight Coordinate System
  • Cartesian Coordinates
  • Inquiries
    • Distance
    • Area
    • Get Properties
    • Get Time
  • Units
    • Unit Length Types
    • Angular Unit Types
  • Base Angle
  • Coordinate Entry
  • Quick Input
  • Entity Snaps
    • Esnap From Point
  • Drawing Boundaries
  • Exercise 5: Inquiries
  • Exercise 6: Entity Snaps and Coordinates

Lesson 4: Creating a Simple Drawing

  • DraftSight Drawing Basics
  • New Drawings
  • Lines
  • Delete
  • Selection Methods
  • Rectangle
  • Circle
  • Undo / Redo
  • Arc
  • Polygon
  • Exercise 7: Create a simple drawing

Lesson 5: Modifying Entities

  • Modifications
  • Move
  • Rotate
  • Mirror
  • Stretch
  • Copy
  • Scale
  • Quick Modify
  • Power Trim
  • Exercise 8: Move and Rotate
  • Exercise 9: Mirror and Stretch
  • Exercise 10: Power Trim & Scale

Lesson 6: Properties and Layers

  • Layers
  • Layer States
    • Show or Hide Layers
    • Freeze and Thaw Layers
  • Locked Layers
  • Layer Manager
  • Entity Properties
    • Color
    • Line Style
    • Line Weight
  • Properties Painter
  • Merge Layers
  • Exercise 11: Layers and Properties

Lesson 7: Dimensions

  • Dimension Styles
  • Smart Dimension
  • Linear Dimension
  • Angular Dimension
  • Diameter Dimension
  • Dimension Palette
  • Continue Dimensions
  • Split Dimension
  • Exercise 12: Dimension Style
  • Exercise 13: Dimensioning
  • Exercise 14: Modifying Dimensions

Lesson 8: Text

  • Text styles
  • Simple Notes
  • Notes
  • Note Formatting
  • Smart Leaders
  • Curved Text
  • Find and Replace
  • Spell Check
  • Exercise 15: Adding Text
  • Exercise 16: Format Text

Lesson 9: Blocks

  • Make Blocks
  • Paste as Block
  • Insert Block
  • Edit Component
  • Assign Attributes
  • Update Block Attributes
  • Block Attributes Display Mode
  • Edit Attributes
  • Exercise 17: Creating and Inserting Blocks

Lesson 10: Custom Blocks

  • What are Custom Blocks?
    • What is an Element?
    • What is an Activity?
  • Edit Blocks
  • Mirror Element
  • Mirror Activity
  • Visibility States
  • Toggle Visibility
  • Exercise 18: Creating and testing a Custom Block

Lesson 11: Entity Groups

  • Entity Groups
    • Creating Entity Groups
    • Entity Group Selection
    • Entity Group Display Mode
    • Entity Group
  • Edit Entity Group
  • Exercise 19: Creating and Editing Entity Groups

Lesson 12: Printing

  • Printing in DraftSight
  • Print Previews
  • Print Configurations
  • Quick Print
  • Manual setup
  • Additional Options
  • Style Table
  • Exercise 20: Manual Print

DraftSight Essentials Course Schedule

Select to download Solidworks DraftSight syllabus PDF

DraftSight Essentials Class

Design and Process Logo select to return to home page

Onsite Training Group Request

Training Quote Onsite