From 1966 to 1999 I worked as a programmer with various fancy titles and I can appreciate the cost and effort involved when developing a major or complicated system. I have no gripe with the cost of CADCAM packages. My problem is that I want something I can load and run without having the overburden of having to be connected to a network. I state that cost (at that price) is no issue, but just bear in mind that there is a lot of free software in CyberWorld and it might not be a bad project for the forum to catalogue and review some of the offerings.

At the moment I am wondering what is the best way forward for me, to stick with the AutoCAD philosophy based packages or to look for something fresher?