Adobe and CAD Alternatives

Hello all -

Anyone have any recommendations for good alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for creating/readings PDF files? I see there are a couple readers/printer alternatives in the downloads - these or others?

Same question for CAD - any simpler drawing programs than AutoCAD that can import DXF or DWG files for editing, modifying, adding color lines, shading, etc. Not talking JPG or other picture-editing software.

Thanks! Bob

 

For PDF printing I like PrimoPDF. You can find it at www.primopdf.com. It's free and works very well. As for reading acrobat files I have had good luck with Foxit Reader and the new CoolPDFReader. Foxit is slow to print but CoolPDFReader is fast at everything.

As for CAD alternatives, I have seen some ok 2D CAD programs that were free, but have never seen a free 3D CAD system. You might look at the free software available from SolidWorks.com and Autodesk.com depending on what you need. If all you need is to view, print and convert then the free stuff available from these companies may work for you. If you need more you might consider purchasing something like TurboCAD. It's not free but it's cost is much lower than most CAD software and it works fairly well.

Alright a quick search turned up the following page for CAD software, take a look and good luck: http://freeware.intrastar.net/cadsoftware.htm.

George

 

George

Much appreciate your great suggestions and recommendations. I'll followup on what you've presented. Thank you again!

Bob