CAD Programs (with inbuilt rendering)

[danhodkinson]

i'm looking to get into CAD design and can't decide which program to use, it needs to have 3D capabilities and rendering options.

I have heard of
Autocad
VectorWorks

can anybody recommend one between them or a different one?

thanks
Dan

[Van Nugent]

I have never used VectorWorks so I can't tell which one is the better. I've used ACAD for many years to design mechanical, electrical and electromechanical parts and I can tell you that ACAD can do anything that you can imagine.

[ken]

Depending on the type of design you may also want to consider learning parametric modellers such as Solidworks (http://www.solidworks.com/), hard to beat for mechanical design ;)

[larpsniffer]

as above, give solidworks a look into, our technical guys here useit and reckon it's the DB's

[Nacimroc]

Been using Autocad for years and would have to recommend solidworks. Autocad IMO went backwards over the last few releases for rendering. But it all depends on what you are designing. If its intricate that Autocad will always win hands down.