I'm currently in the planning stages for a pair of end tables for the
living room. Since I recently migrated to Linux, my old TurboCAD drafting
approach is no longer viable. After considering various alternatives, I
went with VariCAD www.varicad.com. I initially tried installing
GraphiteOneCAD after Robotoy's comments regarding his success with it. Had
no luck getting it to build or install after considerable effort so decided
life was too short to mess with that level of problem.

Thus far, I'm impressed; I have been able to put together a 3D model much
faster than I could with TurboCAD. No need to keep changing the axes in
order to get parts to fit where I want them. However, I have not yet
transferred to 2D drawings for dimensioning, that may add some time.
VariCAD does not support 3D dimensioning in the same way TC does, thus
every drawing needs to export to 2D to insert dimensions. This can be both
a benefit and and downside, I'll see how it works out.

Upsides:
1. Faster 3D modeling. In the past, I have avoided putting in joinery
because of the time required to draw out M&T joints. I've always done the
joinery once the drawings are done and just add those details during
construction. In the future, given how quickly one can draw and mill parts
I may consider including the M&T and other joint details.
2. Automatic snap points by default, manual by selection
3. Seems quite a bit faster (this is somewhat difficult to judge because I'm
also running on a faster computer)
4. Perspective rotations are very fast

Downsides
1. Doesn't support 3D dimensioning. It has a tape measure, but that's only
a transient measure
2. Doesn't print 3D, you have to export as a BMP file
3. Doesn't render or have material luminance properties, also doesn't have
the option to render the object with hidden lines not shown (TC users will
know what I mean here)

Since VariCAD doesn't do rendering, I had to learn to use a rendering
engine. I downloaded and have started using Blender www.blender.org for
the purpose of rendering the drawings.

I posted pictures of the design in progress on a.b.p.ww The following
postings consist of the following:

1. This post: exported VariCAD bmp file converted to jpeg

2. Post 2 of 3: A blender rendered image with the table in a setting
similar to where the end tables will reside

3. Post 3 of 3: WARNING:Large Post! One of the other things I did with
Blender was to animate a rotation of the table from various perspectives.
This avi file shows a full 360 degree rotation of the table in order to
provide an idea of what the design may look like.

As always, comments and constructive recommendations welcome.


--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough