In my opinion, any CAD software you get will reqiure a BIG investment in
your time to learn. In a year or two, the cost of the software won't
seem to be that big a deal. You'll be wondering which package would
have been easier to use, whic one had the features you need that yours
does not, or which one has better tech support, etc.

I googled "compare cad software" and got lots of hits.

Here's one:
http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/mc...d_software.htm

How many times in life has someone said: "you'll LOVE this movie" and,
when you saw it, you hated it? Many of us will be glad to tell you
what we have and/or what works for us. But, since you haven't told us
much about your interests, background, education experience with
mechanical drawing, machining, etc., what will you do with the info you
get?

I'd read ALL the reviews and all the comparisons that I could get my
hands on. NO CAD software is "easy to use". I ALL requires a lot of
rote memorization by the time you get deep enough to be able to actually
make a useful drawing of anything of moderate complexity.

I use one brand almost daily and have tinkered with 2 others. The
bright spot in all this is the some or many of the commands and
processes may be tranportable from one system to the next, so even if
you end up choosing the absolute cheapo (is 2D TurboCad still free?),
you will be a little ahead of the game if you switch later.
I am told that folks who already do a LOT of CAD find it easy to
switch between vendors.

Long time Turbocad user who loves it one day and hates it the next,
Pete Stanaitis
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kuikahi wrote:
I am new to cad/cam/cnc software.
What is the the most affordable or cheapest software I should
get or buy to learn?
I want to get into small metal parts manufacturing.
thanks for any help you can give.