None, however, have really been able to surpass the popularity and power of Autodesk’s flagship product, AutoCAD. A key player in the evolution of CAD, Autodesk has since released a range of top software packages. Since AutoCAD’s inception in 1982, Autodesk has been a large and resounding presence in the CAD industry and beyond. This week, we’re turning our heads to look at CAD giant Autodesk and its most popular products. It’s for this reason that we set out to create comparison guides for the top CAD programs on the market.

With conflicting information-or none at all-there’s no real way of finding out what capabilities each program has. The company no longer develops Sketchup Make, its free desktop software, but you can download it from Trimble's archives.Scan2CAD knows all too well how difficult it can be for CAD enthusiasts and professionals alike to figure out the differences between CAD packages. The SketchUp website offers a really impressive array of video and self-paced training options to help you along the way. Of course, if you're looking to put out detailed designs with accurate sizing and tolerances, you'll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs of the program. Even if you've never done any CAD work or 3D modeling before, you can pull together some really nice presentations in minutes. The interface makes it easy to get up to speed on the basics. SketchUp's free web-based version has plenty of power, but if you need additional functionality, you have to buy SketchUp Pro-and pay a hefty price tag. Trimble has enhanced it and developed it further and now offers a slew of related products. In 2012, Google sold the product to Trimble. SketchUp was originally developed by Google and was one of the greatest free CAD packages ever put on the market.

Free feature is web-only with many important features hobbled.

Autocad lite