CAD software

[Terence Miller]

Hello List:
  
  Does anyone have any feelings about the CAD software they use?
  
  I just attended an all-day seminar that emphasized the value of  precision in our work and reminded me that much of what we do is really  based on geometry. 
  
  Put those together and there seems to be a real use for CAD software in the shop.
  
  
  I hate spending money, and I especially hate spending money on a  pig-in-a-poke**. If you haven't already noticed, the software industry  has forced the P-I-A-P market model upon us. Not only can you not try  the product to see if it fits, many 'License Agreements' remind you  that you do not own what you have just purchased. (and NO you can not  return it if you have broken the seal the envelope!) Imagine yourfavoriteclothingstore without dressing rooms...and as soon as you touch a product you have to buy it.
  
  Even if software is availabe as 'freeware' it often takes 20 hours or  more of mucking around in the program to get a sense of whether it will  be useful to your project. And then there is the issue of actually  working efficiently inside the program...was it written by a human  being who actually has to face the problems the software is supposed to  resolve, or by the youngest programmer chained to a bench in some  programming galley off the coast of wherever? Oh, and does the original  language for the programming, menus and documentation happen to be  English? (always a nice but unexpected touch.)
  
  So, any leads for useful CAD software?
  
  thanks
  
  Terry
  
  
  **Wikipedia has a cute article on 'a pig in a poke'.
  
  
  
  
  
  ** see Wikipedia for a cute description
  
  
  
       
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