Hey Will,
good to hear that you plan to join in the re-design of classics!
I have to agree with others that DraftSight is likely your best bet for entry into 2D CAD. The fact that its freely available is nice due to the price but it is great in terms of what it implies. Open source and/or freely available software is the foundation of widespread use and development and indeed the sharing of ideas and concepts so you will likely find many users of this program (already a few here on the forum). They can help with the mechanics of the software and more specifically with design issues related to the model in question.
That said, if I were to enter the fold of CAD software today in this new millennium, I think I might go straight to learning and developing in 3D. For many jobs 3D is overkill but for model design, it is the way to go. Once you master the approach with 2D to project formers from side and top view fuse planforms as well as foils from top view wing planforms, it's not bad but there is a fair amount of "cross checking" involved when you work in 2D as the model is not "integrated" - we're merely working with projections and sections. In 3D, everything is interconnected so a structure such as a former "falls out" of the development of a fuse design. You can draw a "2D" fuse side planform,
extrude it variably along its length and produce a 3D object which can be rotated and viewed from any angle. Sections (i.e., formers) can then be extracted by
slicing the fuse at any given point - like a block of cheese, so to speak.
It is definitely a different way of thinking and also viewing the design of a model. It is not akin to the 2D plans we're used to viewing and building on so it takes a little adjustment. I think its worth it though.
For 3D software, I'd definitely go with Google Sketchup - also freely available for different platforms:
http://www.sketchup.com/
Sketchup is a "simplified" 3D program tailored to the masses but its core is one very solid piece of software called Revit. Revit is engineering and architectural software for professionals and is extremely powerful and extensible. Sketchup enjoys much of what Revit has to offer and has a very wide spread following. Indeed many an RC model has been developed in Sketchup and are available on public Sketchup user libraries - a great way to start playing with the software.
Last but not least, the idea of seeing 3D classics is very cool! Those models could even be integrated into flight simulators...
David
P.S. For fun I attached the fruits of what I whipped up in 2D CAD in a couple of evenings as a result of a nice glass DB60 fuse arriving at my doorstep. Even a glass/foam constructed model can benefit from a little CAD work. A Rossi 61 SE is already strapped in!
