Matt,

I use TotalCad 1, about the dumbest CAD program going. I use it, not because it's really great, but because it is a dead ringer for the old DesignCad from American Small Business Systems that I used for the sign shop back in the eighties. Back then, it was a DOS-based program, and it worked just dandy, if slowly. Very slowly, but it was running on a 286 IBM with 640k RAM. It's quicker now. It will just barely communicate with high-end CAD programs like AutoCad and TurboCad, the two big names. It does work for me, though I don't have to share my drawings with any architects, fortunately.

All CAD programs have a long and steep learning curve, period. There's no getting around that. Expect it to take several intense months before you're even beginning to become comfortable with a high-end program, and a few years before you're proficient, at least from what I've been told. It took me a couple years to get fairly competent with my lameoid CAD program, so I'm not even thinking about getting anything sophisticated. I'm just not young enough to have the time to learn it before I cash in. (grin)

I use AutoCAD and have used CADKEY, Solid Works, and Inventor as well as others. Most are quite similar, and most have a large learning curve. (I've been doing cad for 25 years or more, so...) If the system you use works, why not continue to use it? If you are thinking of expanding and/or becoming more professional, then would be the time to start learning something else. BUT, as Rich says, it will take time to become proficient.

Rick Crawford at Smoky Forge

I use rhino for all my work: http://www.rhino3d.com Probably a little more than you need for just producing 2D drawings, but it's the most intuitive 3D CAD software I've found. I use it to produce 3D objects, then "unroll" the surfaces to translate them into 2D cutting files (via DXF) for laser cutting. They have a free demo if you want to just give it a spin: http://www.rhino3d.com/eval.htm

Sketchup is the way to go.

http://www.sketchup.com/?section=product

I use a program by Autodesk called autosketch (version9 I think). It is a very basic version of autocad(no 3-d) but it does have layers and saves files in all the right formats for the higher end programs. I've never had a problem sharing files with other shops. I think I paid $125 for it and it has worked very well for me. Once I get the time and money I'd like to upgrade to a program that allows me to create 3-d drawings and renderings(heard a lot of good things about Rhino), but until then this gets me by.

Jake