I got fed up with Autocad a while ago. They just make everything such a pain in the ass. Plus it wasn't until 2000 came out that they had a decent product since R12(I don't care what anybody says, R13 & R13C4 just plain sucked!) I stopped playing with this stuff a while ago, mainly to focus on software like Mastercam and Surfcam.

Toolmaker

The company I work (?) for started out w/R10.That's what I cut my teeth on. Now we use R12 and we didn't go with the updated versions.We are happy with R12 and all our plasma burn drawings are run on that format.
I'll look into Mastercad and Surfcad.
I play w/ Turbocad at home for the Honey Doo jobs. That way I can enjoy some comp time instead of driving nails.