Free vs. Paid Software for Electrical Drawings

[parky]

When I last used A9Cad it could open, edit & save DWG files it can also export to DXF so supports most cad systems, it is really awsome but does lack some of the automated features that are in Autocad, but not tried it for some years & I know it has been developed further so who knows, i'm sure freeware supported by the comunity is worth it.

 

[bill4807]

Well, after posting, I did some research, and according to forum posts at Autodesk, they have now terminated licensing any versions before 2017. Doesn't matter if you're the original owner or not. I have two boxes of 2005 and if I ever had to reinstall them now, they won't work. That seems criminal. How does a company nerf a legitimate product that was advertised as perpetual and that I paid for from Autodesk. Fortunately mine is installed on a virtual machine so it will last forever, but still...

No big deal.
I figured they would cut it all off at some point.
Virtual machine for the win in your case.

 

[pk_test]

I used DraftSight for a few years to make electrical drawings. Less features than AutoCAD Electrical but you can make professional looking drawings that are of the same quality, it just takes more time. Currently $300/year. It is being developed by Dassault Systèmes. Each year they release more features but also increase the price. But for me this bridged the gap between free software and AutoCAD Electrical.

 

[mad4x4]

I was wrong on the name it's called A9cad
Here is a video of it, for those used to the older Autocad look how close the look of it is

a9cad - Search Videos

www.bing.com

Edit: I have just downloaded it, many adverts before downloading & prompts to download many others but downloaded, checked for viruses ok, & it is pretty fast, this version is an upgrade from one I tried many years ago so impressed, however, as I have ACLT I will stick with that for the time being.

There is also NANOCAD NanoCad Free