I started with Computervision (RIP) in 1979 as a demo jock, and was involved in the CAD industry until Dec 2002 at which time I moved away from engineering. I was totally disillusioned. The problem with the CAD vendors is that their first responsibility is to their shareholders and not to the customer. More gimmicks generate more sales, they all say they can do more than the competition and as a potential user you need XY and Z. As software has become more reliable, post sales support has improved, but your annual subscription is an easy way for the CAD vendors and VAR’s to generate a large income with little effort. I totally agree with Dave. Most CAD users don’t need the sophistication that CAD vendors now offer. So the question is, why don’t they provide a stripped down, basic, low cost version of their product? Simple, most of their sales would be for the simple product and they would not be able to generate income from training and telephone and internet support.