Hi Deannos
Sketchup is great. This link will take you to a thread on cnczone of a guy that started from scratch and learnt sketch up. Worth a read.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...ess_tools.html

For a true autocad clone then progecad smart (free) is very good indeed for cad design although only in 2d and rudimentary 3d. There is quite a learning curve for autocad but for simple work it is not to hard. This is the best clone I have seen for free.

Keep asking questions. I do and it is beginning to get me in the right direction. Stick with it here becauce these guys are the best.

Bruce