DraftSight is the best and

DraftSight is the best and it's free!

Google's Sketchup is great,

Google's Sketchup is great, easy to learn, and is also free.

Agree with Micheal

on DraftSight and I also use Design Spark Mechanical 2.0 for 3D, also free.

http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/eng/page/mechanical  The program use either imperial and metric  for dimensioning. You can set it up either way.

Bernd

Thanks

Ok I'll give Draftsight a shot. Greatly appreciate the feed back.

Jack

I use SketchUp for 3d print designing

What are you going to do with the drawings?  Do you want or need 2d or 3d?

Here are some drawings and 3d printed buildings I have done.

The largest single print I have done.
http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/10/cassville-and-exeter-depot-3d-printed.html

A small bank building.
http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/08/chilhowee-state-bank-3d-printed-in-ho.html

3D printing

@Kent

I enjoyed checking out your models. Thanks for sharing. SketchUp is my new favorite but have a lot to learn about printing. 

Neil

Future plans

There are 100's of old stores in the towns around where I live that would make great scratch building possibilities. I want to be able to come up with some plans to be able to build from and may do some for publication. I am interested in using 3d printing for some details but not for a whole structure. Takes all the fun out it from my point of view. But details...absolutely, a step up from casting maybe depending on how the costs would work out. There are places to go that will do it, so it is a matter of how much per piece vs buying a 3d printer and wondering when it would pay for itself.

Jack

Draftsite software

Those of you that use the Draftsite design software, what is the learning curve time? I would want something that doesn't require so much time to learn that I don't get anything built.

Richard

Draftsight is free, and is

Draftsight is free, and is relatively easy to learn.  There are a plethora of tutorials on Youtube, and I believe they also have some on the Draftsight web site. I have used AutoCAD for years, and other than the configuration section (somewhat different than what I am familiar with) it is every bit as good as AutoCAD. I will read and write .dwg (AutoCAD) files and has every command I use in AutoCAD as a professional (in the 2d world)

Use DraftSight

I use DraftSight for drawing up parts to use in my CNC machine. Used to use Autocad Sketch. If you've used other drafting programs, DraftSight will be easy to learn and use.

Bernd

Another vote for...

Another vote for Draftsight, however there is also one called DoubleCAD XT that is free and can be found here:  http://www.doublecad.com/

As for 3D, I am picky. Not sure about Sketchup, but for a small fee, Geomagic (foremely Alibre) is a good software.