The problem that I had was that as I upgraded my computers, the program became more and more unreliable, however, I understand that it works absolutely fine on modern machines.

This was the very first CAD program I ever used and I found it quite palatable and easy to use, especially as there was an excellent teaching guide to it, bearing in mind that at the time I knew absolutely nothing about CAD. There is a very old and unsupported 2D program called Draft Choice for Windows.

Outputs in all the standard formats, don't think there are any restrictions at all. Needs a new enable key every year and its a pure PC based solution (Mac & Linux, don't know). I use 3D almost exclusively now but still have SolidEdge on the PC - this is free for the 2D version and comes from Siemens and is a) pretty reliable and b) very professional. I have just started to use LibreCAD It is a bit more basic than QCAD but is totally free. QCAD Community is currently distributed in a bundle with a 15 minute trial of the Pro version if you don't want to pay, the free version works. The Community edition is free it's not quite as whizzy as the Pro version but that won't matter for occasional use. Note there are two versions: QCAD-Pro costs about £30 and this includes 1 years worth of upgrades. I always vote for QCAD when this question is asked. Can anybody help me find a free 2D drawing program so I can draw engineering plans of whatever I want to make or have made, so I can email them to whom ever, say MEW for an article I want to submit?

2d drawing freecad