CorelCAD by Trive

I’ve always really liked Corel products over the other options on the market, and have been using Corel (formerly Jasc) Paint Shop Pro for almost fifteen years. I had no idea they had a CAD product (apparently this is another company’s software they have purchased), but when I found out, I figured I would give it a try considering how much I like their other software. In the past I have mostly used AutoCAD, and AutoCAD LT. Although this is the first version of their software, it is fairly complete and polished. It is based on ARES Commander Edition, which I have never used before. I would say I am a beginner/intermediate CAD user, so the first thing I look for is software that’s easy to use and fairly intuitive. If you’ve used any CAD software in the past, you shouldn’t really have any problems with CorelCAD. I found the transition between AutoCAD and it to be pretty easy and within about an hour I knew where all the basic tools were and had started some rough designs. It is compatible with DWG files as well. From a beginner’s view, I liked how it didn’t seem as clunky as AutoCAD. Although advanced users might want more options, I appreciated a program that had all of the basic design options and tools that I needed without forcing me to learn a bunch of new stuff. This is the main reason I still do graphical design with Paint Shop Pro over Photoshop. I did several basic models and worked on some imports and noticed little feature difference between CorelCAD and AutoCAD (for my purposes anyway). For those looking for a more professional drafting option, it may come up missing, but the much lower price point makes CorelCAD a great alternative for those who don’t.