Hi, I was talking to my dad the other day and he was saying how he wished he could get a computer aided design (or drafting) program that wasn’t exorbitantly expensive. I suggested that there’s probably free or open-use alternatives he could get from the internet, and volunteered to look into it for him. I figured that Wikipedia’s article on it would be a good place to start, and lo and behold they have a sizable list of options.
So, I figured since there’s quite a few techie types on the boards, it’d make sense to ask you guys if anyone can provide some input about these. My dad’s mostly familiar with AutoCAD (up to current versions) and Imsi TurboCAD (c. 1997), preferring the former but was pretty happy with the latter. His office has AutoCAD, but since he’s not the draftsman they won’t get him one for working at home. He’s going to be installing this on a PC my brother gave him that’s only about 2 years old, is pretty high end for it’s age, and has Windows XP professional (up-to-date), if that matters any. Any suggestions or words of wisdom?