If you don't have a CAD program at home or on your Mac... try this for FREE

[c0mp13x]

We use AutoCAD, Solidworks and Revit as design tools where I work, but I don't have the $4000 to buy a copy of one of these CAD programs for home use.

SolidWorks' parent company, Dassault Systems, is now giving away a 2D AutoCAD clone, in an effort to win over users and move them on to their 3D tools. This program, DraftSight, creates and opens AutoCAD '.DWG' files natively, while having 80-90% of AutoCADs 2D functionality.

DraftSight not only opens the new 2012 AutoCAD drawings that vendors send me, but does something AutoCAD can't... run on the Mac, Linux and PC.

Grab it while it's still free:

http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview

[smilingcat]

Thanks for the link. I will take a look at it. Even though I already am using Salome (freeware based on OpenCascade). Advantages for me with Salome is that it is integrated with mesh generator for finite element analysis both structural and computational fluid dynamics.

I like Salome. It has some interesting features boolean operation on solids to quickly build up a complex forms. It's very handy.

Downside to Salome, Code Aster, Code Saturn, Open Foam are all Linux based. Bit of a pain to install...

[c0mp13x]

Well.. you won't be doing any FEA on this simple, 2D Acad clone...

But, a great tool for a student to learn some CAD or home use for that floorplan or yard plan that you want to draw up and dimension.