Sierratango, I've used 3 programs over the years, AutoCAD has a free version for students and occasional users (used too) which is the best and most capable, Bentley Micro Station which no longer supports a free version but is more civil oriented anyway, Corel Draw has a free version, used to be too basic for anything more than interior decorating but have expanded their program significantly to be effective for our purposes. It is hard to recommend any one program over another, the best advice I guess is to say that all the programs have similar basic functions and commands (wasn't always so but the industry self corrected to a point, they all still want the better mousetrap), which follows Auto Cad protocols to various degrees, so there is a familiarity in the icons. So it would be wise to suggest reading some descriptive and the permissions of several programs and pick a subject matter and try them out, the one you connect with the best is the one you obviously want. I prefer Auto Cad and have the LT version I purchased a while back ($1,700.00 at the time) and the free version which is very similar, but be aware of the permissions as they are extensive. Hope this helped a little. Good hunting and have fun.