Based on our record, BRL-CAD seems to be a lot more popular than nanoCAD. While we know about 13 links to BRL-CAD, we've tracked only 1 mention of nanoCAD. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.
TLDR. Piracy is bad. Don’t do it. But there is almost zero risk of getting caught. Use NanoCAD if you can’t afford AutoCAD. Source: almost 3 years ago
If computer graphics is of interest, BRL-CAD (https://brlcad.org) is very welcoming to new contributors and has lots of projects you could take on. Source: 12 months ago
Mike Muuss[0] approves of this message. 0: https://brlcad.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
Join an open source community that is welcoming to newcomers (e.g., BRL-CAD, Haiku OS, OSGeo, ..) and work on a little bit of code every day. It can be a simple feature, specific bug, or something new you want to achieve. Many open source groups are very welcoming to newcomers if you do the work and ask smart questions. Source: about 1 year ago
You could also try out free AutoCAD alternatives like libreCAD (2D), or brlCAD (2D&3D, I believe). Source: about 1 year ago
So, uh ... Learning curve. If you want anything and everything under the sun, go with BRL-CAD. It was designed for ballistics testing and simulation, but it can do pretty much anything. The learning curve for BRL-CAD is immense. Otherwise, I recommend OpenSCAD. Source: about 1 year ago
LibreCAD - An open source 2D CAD application for Windows, Apple and Linux.
FreeCAD - An open-source parametric 3D modeler
DraftSight - Discover Dassault Systèmes®' DRAFTSIGHT™ Professional CAD software that lets you create, edit, view and markup any kind of 2D drawing. Learn more here.
OpenSCAD - OpenSCAD is a software for creating solid 3D CAD objects.
QCAD - QCAD is an application for computer aided drafting in 2D.
SketchUp - 3D for Everyone