POSTS
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.