ORIGINAL: dreadnaut
I am planning on starting my own consulting buisness. $5k is probably more than an amature would want to spend. My ''day job'' is in architecture, which is where AutoCAD's market has moved to in the last 10 yeara or so. That is why Inventor is atractive to me, as it gives me versatitlty to do Arch' stuff with AutoCAD, as well as manufacturing design, which is what Inventor and Solidworks are good for.
That's what we use Solidworks for, sheetmetal and machined parts design. I don't have any architectural experience, so I can't make any recommendation there. I did notice that the construction firm on LI where I bought one of my plotters was using an AutoDesk architectural product.
For you guys that want to try Solidworks, the student edition is $90, as long as you know someone in school
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/pr...idWorks/917379
That's an incredible deal for the capabilities of this software. Just a word of warning, you need lots of RAM to run SW effectively. figure on 1gig minimum, 2gig preferred, especially when you get into assemblies.