I used to have a great low cost CAD, Autosketch by AutoCAD. The last low cost version did not work with Win10. They now have a new version, but it is anything but low cost.
I have been trying free CAD programs, but have found nothing yet that is worthwhile. Even if it looks like an okay program, the users manuals are written by ESL and unreadable, or by people that are more interested in showing everyone how smart and eridite they are rather than help the user. Or the thing is so buggy as to be unusable. What do I do now? So-called low cost CAD seems to be even more expensive than 3D printers, one of the tools I want CAD for, but I can even use a decent 2D CAD for my current project.
Draftsight by Dassault Systemes is what I have been using. Up until recently, it was free, but now they’re charging for it. Still a pretty nominal cost, at 99$ per year for a subscription. I’d still be using it if it weren’t for the fact that my employer got me an Autocad license. May still start a subscription for Draftsight though, because I like how it works. Its not as buggy/clunky as Autocad.
Over the years I’ve used a variety of low cost 2D CAD programs like IntelliCAD or AcceliCAD, but eventually as I have moved more into 3D stuff I started using ViaCAD 3D by Punch CAD. Unfortunately over the years the price of their 2D/3D or full 3D PRO versions has gone up a bit, but i still like it a lot.
I struggled with Fusion360 as well for quite a while. Eventually I came across this set of tutorials by an Australian guy who puts across the basics very well. He takes you through creating a series of fairly simple 3D components. Nothing too elaborate, but by the time I finished I had the skills necessary for what I needed, which was a simple but slightly awkward 3D print project.
As far as 2D software goes I’ve used TurboCAD for many years but it’s become increasingly expensive and seriously buggy. I’ve now moved over to QCAD since I only really needed TurboCAD for 3D which F360 does so much better. Admittedly the QCAD documentation isn’t brilliant but they do offer an ebook manual in their support package (about GBP30 per year here in the UK). QCAD seems to be fully AutoCAD compatible - I’m involved with a full-size steam loco restoration project and I’ve used it for reading and amending documents from fairly new versions of paid-for AutoCAD without any problems.
