Sorry, but I just have to comment on mactastic's remark that AutoCAD is worth the money. The first CAD package I ever learned was AutoCAD and I used it for five years in the mid-90s. I had to recently use AutoCAD 2007 for a contract, and I have to say that I was amazed that it had barely changed. I personally think AutoCAD is far overrated and honestly wouldn't part with any money for it. I may have some form of CAD snobbery in that I use Pro/E for work, but even free software is better than AutoCAD.
Had to get that off my chest. Sorry mactastic, it isn't personal. I just think that AutoCAD is way past its sell by date. Check-out SolidEdge2D.
What are you using AutoCad for? Are you, or were you, doing production drafting on 100+ sheet sets? If not, sure another program is probably a better fit. That's why I was asking the OP what level of drafting capability he needed.
The recent upgrades to AutoCad haven't really added any basic-level changes, so if you aren't a power user, I'm not surprised that you don't think it's changed much. They've done a bunch of work on the 3D capabilities. Now, if that's not your bag, then an older version would work just fine. There are other much-needed improvements, like better layer management, easier xref management, the layiso command, dynamic blocks, the DUCS, allowing you to trim (but not extend - yet) hatches, the fillet command defaults to a radius of zero now, the copy command defaults to multiple now, and more mundane details that anyone not immersed in the field would probably easily miss.
Now, you may not find those upgrades particularly appealing, but I can tell you from my time as a production drafter that they are all helpful in shaving time off your drawing speed. To say that AutoCad has barely changed is not at all correct. You may have missed most of the changes, but that does not mean they aren't there.
And, as I said, it IS the industry standard.
