Ask Yourself: Do You Feel You Need to Pay for Your CAD Software?

So you're an engineer, designer, architect, ... what ever. So you use CAD, for daily work in drafting your production drawing. You need to ask few questions, before you come to the BIG QUESTION, listed as the title above. However, having more than 10 years of CAD experience on my end, seeing so many people using CAD (learning from the beginning - college, up to professionals), they don't use even 50% of the features even in just 2D CAD application. So, let's just go to the questions you need to ask your self.

1. Do you use LISP inside your CAD application?
2. Do you use Object Creation Commands, Layer Commands, Blocks and related Commands, Hatch and related Commands, Dimension and related Commands, Editing Commands, Tables and related Commands, Plotting/Printing Commands?
3. Do you use 2D, 3D or both as your CAD environment?

Answer to 1st Question.

• YES. You may not need a paid CAD Application
• NO. You definitely don't need a paid CAD Application

Answer to 2nd Question.

• YES. You may not need a paid CAD Application
• NO. You definitely don't need for a paid CAD Application. You're a reviewer

Answer to 3rd Question.

• 2D Only. You may not need a paid CAD Application
• 3D Only or Both. You need a paid CAD Application

You may know what your requirements are from the answers. However, some of you may feel that you already get used to operate a popular 2D/3D CAD Software (well some of you and even companies are using illegal licenses that may lead them to a legal lawsuit, what so ever), without even knowing that you might not need to use the legal/illegal licenses with all those investments and risks. THERE ARE FREE CAD SOFTWARE AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD FROM THE WEB. And the most important thing is, you will be out of trouble if a software vendor is trying to accuse you or your company of using their software, because you're not. And you could finish your work, the way you want it.

ProgeCAD Smart
Click the Sub-title above, and it will bring you to the ProgeCAD Smart website. You can download the ProgeCAD Smart from that website, and use it independently, and of course, paying nothing.

At their website they declare a statement: * Private use only: progeCAD Smart! is for private, non-commercial use only. The use of ProgeCAD Smart! within any organization or for commercial and business purposes is strictly prohibited.

So, you need to get extra careful on the license.

Draftsight
Click the Sub-title above, and it will bring you to the Draftsight website. You can download the Draftsight from that website, and use it independently, and again, paying nothing.

One strength point of Draftsight that you couldn't find it on any other Free CAD Package, even on the paid one, is Draftsight let your run the application on Windows, Mac or even Linux.

DoubleCAD XT v3
Click the Sub-title above, and it will bring you to the DobleCAD XT  website. You can download the DoubleCAD XT v3 from that website, and use it independently, with freedom from paying.

A complete comparison of DoubleCAD XT v3 to AutoCAD LT, can be found here.

Conclusion
What you need is not the application. You need the commands and its compatibility. With a popular paid CAD Software (both 2D and 3D version), you need to pay an amount of money they call it subscription, for the commands that you use in one version to another. Most of you don't use new features. Still think that you need a pirated software, or even spend your money for the unnecessary investment?

So, you decide whether you're gonna pay of things you're not going to use 100% from your investment, or simply go free with any of the available yet FREE Professional CAD software that meets your needs. Be smart, and finish your work intelligently. Because being smart is not always about spending money on investment. You can then put your investment focus on appropriate hardware.