Tldr: This free download: Is available to any active maker, CAD enthusiast, or design challenge competitor interested in using CAD to bring their ideas to life Is intended for personal use, and may not be used for commercial purposes Note: Files created in this edition cannot be opened in commercial versions of Designcenter Solid Edge and 2D drawings are watermarked, but your designed parts and assemblies can be 3D printed so you can easily create prototypes. We also offer an online subscription if needed for your commercial projects. Aaaand another subscription no thanks. More on reddit.com

think with any software its just a matter of "understanding" how it operates. if that makes sense to operate a CAD package and to understand how it operates is 2 very different things. for e.g., i understand if i do this here or that there what the outcome will be in the different design stages. i was very Fortunate to learn the program from a person that understands the program. we Have a guy at my workplace also SW experience no Solid edge , I've been training him, the problem is he understands how SW works and he wants to take that same principles and apply it to SE . see the problem. He is not utilizing the functions that SE has to offer. he always say SE is a shitty program when he works alone, but if i sit with him it is all oooh's and aaaah's ............ BUT end of the day it boils down to personal preference More on reddit.com

I've been using Affinity Design for design work. When I'm happy I can print it out and trace into the blade or export as a high-DPI PNG, import into LightBurn, and use Trace to convert it to an outline I can then mark onto steel using Brilliance spray and my diode laser. More on reddit.com

IF you're just going to be doing 2D, I would say AutoCAD is the best move you could make. I work at an MEP engineering firm, and we only use SolidWorks for fabrication stuff and the occasional bit of simulation. For all our 2D work, we use straight AutoCAD. For 3D, AutoCAD is certainly capable, but probably not the best choice in the market. I don't know what other industries are using, but in AEC, we mostly use Revit and AutoCAD. Architects can't get enough of that sweet, sweet Revit, so if that's what you want to do, learn Revit. I'm under the impression that a lot of fabrication/manufacturing companies are into SolidWorks. More on reddit.com