[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Why not just find some older versions of CAD software that will run on those machines. CAD is one of those things that learning the fundamentals even on old software will be better than nothing. Google sketchup, while it has it's interesting features is NOT an engineering CAD software with very few features that will translate over to a real system. I would rather run Inventor Version 5 than sketchup.

I agree. Sketchup is a great tool, but is not an engineering tool. It does lack many of the dimensioning, relation, and sketch and modeling tools of a real CAD program. I don't think it would be adequate for my purposes.

Inventor 5 is still a favorite of mine for simple and lightweight work. It'll run adequately on most computers from the last 7 years. The problem is, I don't think there's any way I'd legally be able to get licenses for Inventor 5.

Thanks for the tip on Pro/E. To be honest, I kind of forgot about Pro/E. It looks like they have a great school program. I'll definitely look into it, and it may be worth upgrading the computers if we can get better software at no cost.

I had been looking to see if there's anything that can get me by for a few months on these older machines, but I know, their time has past.