I must purchase a new CAD program soon. I won't spend much money on it simply because it will be used rarely I could spend a hundred or two on it. The drawings would be fairly simple. I don't need 3D, but it would be nice.
Although some of the stuff I will be designing may look complicated, it all breaks down to component parts. And the parts are all fairly simple and straightforward in terms of design and construction. I just need to draw the component parts for the fabricators. Most of this project will be made from square tubing with assorted wood parts.
I have had extensive mechanical drawing experience in high school and beyond. I have used a few CAD programs years ago. I used Generic Cad and TurboCad.
I had an old TurboCAD around here that would not work with XP. I understand that IMSI was bought out and service/support has declined. That is what has me concerned about both TurboCAD and DesignerCAD.
DesignerCAD looks good to me. I am just concerned about support, etc.
I bought a copy of CADpro and it sucked big time. A certain number of the functions simply did not work at all. I contacted the manufacturer by e-mail and nobody responded. After repeated attempts to contact them failed, I gave up on them. It wasn't a bad program if it worked as advertised. But it didn't.
I guess this is the face of much software these days. Pitch a flawed product and perform zero support functions. I wonder where they learned that business model?
And if all else fails, there is always DeltaCAD. It looks kinda simple, but it will work, I am sure. I was just hoping for a little more features and maybe some 3D capabilities.
Any responses or suggestions would be most appreciated. I want to get the program fairly soon. This will allow me to learn the software before I need to produce the drawings.