"Michael Press" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for opinions/suggestions for a 2D CAD program that's
inexpensive (yeah, that's vague, but figure $100) and useful for
designing furniture. This is purely weekend hobby work, but I'd like
precise drawings of my designs. I also imagine that it would be
useful to generate a bill of materials, a cutting list, maybe a "map"
of cuts on a sheet of plywood.

I'd also appreciate links to CAD reviews from a hobbyist woodworking
point of view. (This article is what got me thinging -
http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/cad.shtml)

I'm a computer programmer, so I'm not afraid of a steep learning
curve.

Thanks,
Michael

I would definitely go with MSC.Patran to do the solid modeling. You can
then link in other modules to do finite element analysis, thermal analysis,
etc. Oh, wait, did you say $100 or $100K? An average person can probably
pick it up in a couple of weeks. Since you're a programmer, I'd allow a
month.

todd