Technical drawing programs?

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I'm buying a computer to help one of my sons with his homework and to explore an interest in technical drawing. My first thought was to get an auto/cad type program.

But are there others that you'd recommend that aren't cad?

Do you have something against CAD? Some will suit you better than
others: I couldn't really get on with Mechanical Desktop, but found Solidworks very intuitive. The good thing with parametric CAD is that they are converging to the point where it's like driving car; when you've learned to drive one, minimal practise is required to drive any of them. I could do just as well with Easycad, a 3D wire frame, which I much preferred to (name forgotten) the first one I learnt, @ 1990, but then I have an exceptional spatial sense.

Some companies offer free "home" versions (not for professional use); they are slow, and low on accessories, but they are fine for practising on. Also, many companies offer trial versions of their latest, which you can use for a limited period, usually on month. I hope this helps?

Absolutely helps, thanks.

Nothing against cad, except maybe price. It's just that in exploring the issue, cad being one of the oldest, is well known. So it becomes an obvious contender.

Being the oldest though, doesn't mean the only. Others have been developed over the years, and I'm guessing may have developed some better programs depending on the purpose they'll be used for.

Which is all way outside of my experience.

But yeh, we'll probably go with a student edition of a cad program. See if son #1 takes to it.

I was in a bit of a hurry; the first CAD I used was CATIA, the automotive favourite, and now available as a parametric (I don't much like that, either. The next wasn't Easy CAD (more of a kiddy thing; I seem to recall getting a free copy with a PC magazine) but CadKey. Please note this may be old hat, as I quit Drawing Office work in favour of contracting, and never looked back (better pay, less office politics, and I can take off as much time as I like between contracts) getting on for 20years ago. Since, I have looked at one which instead of lines and arcs, offers a palate of objects which can be stuck together and modified to produce your required outcome. Hard to say if it would suit you better until you've familiarised yourself with it. I also played around with Inventor lite '07 (the sales man gave me several months worth of codes) which I like. I do miss designing and building things though, so I intend to get back into it when I retire (which I need to start thinking about...) and may be looking to buy myself. I've got copies of Solidworks and AutoCads' home versions, which were dog slow on my old Athlon, but may be OK on my next PC, but if you do come across any good value (or free) drawing, software, will you let me know?

If I find any good value or free programs, I'll sing it from the roof top.

Thanks for your impute Oraq. I was getting kind of stressed about it, but you've been something of a liberator on that score. I'm much more Zen about it now.