My 2 cents from a Turbocad user:
Unless you plan to use the CAD program often, don't bother. There is
a serious learning curve.
In the company where I worked for a long time, some of the paper and
pencil draftsmen never were able to make the change to CAD.

If you intend to do it:
You need to have a large vocabulary of "special" words to utter under
your breath to bleed off frustration, unless you have mentor handy.
Once you have spent the time and have done the tutorials that some
have suggested, you can't really expect to stay current if you only haul
the program out once a month or so.
To keep myself barely reasonably current, I almost force myself to
invoke the program for even small simple things. I am still finding new
buttons to push after several years at it.
One of the big problems, to me, is that there are so many nesting
levels for all the commands, shortcuts, etc.. You have to learn many of
the them by rote. This means repitition.
And, every time they upgrade, they seem to do it for the highest
level of power users; those who spend a lot of their life at the keyboard.
And some commands seem to be moved around with each upgrade, too.
Okay, no problem. I won't upgrade anymore. Oh yeh? A few years later
they stop supporting that level, or they only put the newbie tech guy on
that product.
ETC.
Not to say "don't do it at all", but just to make you aware.

Using a CAD program, to me, is like using a PC based spreadsheet was 20
years ago. I found that, as soon as I added a few numbers together, I
wondered what would happen if I doubled it, averaged them, etc.. ---The
"what if?"
So I started opening my spreadsheet program (Lotus 1-2-3 1A) whenever I
even started to do some math.
It's the same with CAD. Once you have taken the time to get the
basics of the part/assy on the screen, the sky's the limit in playing
"what if?" there, too.

Pete Stanaitis
-------------------

Dick Snyder wrote:
I have always designed my projects using graph paper, ruler, pencil, and
(lots of) eraser. I have a somewhat more complicated job I want to do now.
There is a design for an entertainment center in FWW that I want to adapt. I
would like to take the measurements from the article, enter them on a
computer somehow, and then change the things I want. I have a friend who
uses Google Sketchup. He found it awkward to use and not that sophisticated.
I don't want to invest the money and a lot of learning time on a CAD program
unless I can get a recommendation on this group for a product that one of
you likes to use. Should I stick to my paper, pencil, and eraser?

TIA.

Dick Snyder