CAD Freeware

superscaper

Anyone know of any decent free CAD programs that preferrably support dwg format? Legal note: it would be for commercial purposes, but as I'm starting out self employed, can't really afford Autocad etc

espresso

Can't personally recommend any of these but maybe worth a look here.

superscaper

espresso wrote:

Can't personally recommend any of these but maybe worth a look here.

Yeah I came across that while googling as well, some of the links are out of date and I've only used TurboCad out of those although the lite version no longer exists. Don't really want to try installing and learning all of them but I'll see if there are reviews for the ones they list (that are still available :rolleyes: ). Thanks again espresso.

superscaper

Well if it's possible to get hold of Autocad (you never know, maybe client will be generous with expenses) seeing as it's industry standard, what's the best way to learn how to use it. Maybe taking into consideration: My past experience being taught CAD on very old version of TurboCAD at uni.

redux

I don't know any of them, but I wouldn't skimp on it for professional use. If there's some function you can do much more quickly in one program than another, it would pay for itself in saved time. And you can rationalise it that as a business expense, the taxman will be paying a share

There are trial versions of TurboCAD for 15 days; there's also a competitive upgrade option on Professional. Maybe you could buy an old edition pretty cheap to start with - 10.2 Deluxe is around for $30