As someone who isn’t inside the world of education, I’m amazed by the number of schools that use Techsoft 2D Design.
Is anyone able to give me a potted history, how it came to be so ubiquitous and what is good and bad about it?
My son says it’s easy to use, but I’m guessing it’s a simple matter of getting in first - if they produced materials to match a subject specification before other providers managed, then schools are going to adopt them for an easy life.
I don’t know, but they may also provide free licenses for schools, which is always a big pull when your budget is tight,
2D Design has been around in all the time that I have been teaching (20 years). I would say historically it was used because it was fairly easy to use and as it is basic runs on quite low spec machines (so when they get moved out of ICT rooms and down to the Tech blocks it still runs). There are some pains with it such as only one undo which the next version (3) will probably fix. It is not free but it is not mega money which was probably a plus in the early days. When I first started using it there was not that much competition, it was 2D Design or Autocad which tended to be far too complex for some of the kids, in the early 2000’s the big 3D CAD packaged used in schools was ProDesktop (free) but in my experience this was still used alongside 2D Design. This was then replaced with Solidworks for the schools who could afford it and then Sketchup. A lot of schools have gone down the route of Fusion 360 now which can combine 2D and 3D drawings so probably starts to kill off 2D Design (my school doesn’t as the IT Tech’s will not let us use it).