Well if they have been enhancing it consistent with a product that was once free and is now over $600 a year then that is a good point. How about a monthly payment program? Oh, who said I couldn’t afford it?
Curious though, am I correct in that I can’t import .svg files
Perhaps take a look at Draftsight for the 2D CAD work and BricsCAD Shape for the 3D modeling. Both are free for even commercial use and both use DWG as their standard file format. I am fortunate enough to have SU Pro and AutoDesk Arch Suite available to me but I can understand the need for less expensive alternatives. Both of these will “work” but neither are as “fluid” as the more expensive counterparts.
The little bit I read about Bricscad (at their site) show the free version is primarily 2D and the Pro version is $750 (or $970 for a license for one (yes “1”) major upgrade). I don’t think it makes much sense to call it a real alternative.
Not BricsCAD but BricsCAD Shape, it is their new 3D modeling program. It was just released this year and is in it’s early stages. You were simply looking at the wrong product 
Have you looked at SimLab Composer VR as a visualization/animation tool?
I just checked out bricsCAD Shape and that looks super interesting!
I’m still curious about the whole “hiring more people but can’t afford software” thing.
Good question, SVG could be a great vector format. I don’t see it as an option in my SU Pro 2018 nor is it available in AutoCAD 2018. Seems to be an option in my Adobe Cloud products but not my CAD programs. It also seems to be popular in web applications such as maps.
I’ve got AI, PS, both lightrooms (odd for that intro of the second version but), bridge) to get dimension or after effects would only be $10 more a month, I’d just switch to the $49.99/mo. to get all applications but what you mentioned might just do the trick! I’ve just been holding the frustration of no .svg in my back pocket 
From what I can see on the shape page it looks promising but I am assuming once you’ve completed a shape project you can’t really do anything with it…till you buy the bricscad license.
It does to me as well. I have been using SU since v2 with various companies. Sometimes I was able to get them to buy into it and other times it was a challenge. It is good to have competition.
Nope, the native file type is DWG and it can be used in anything that can read/write DWG files. Even for commercial usage per their own language.
LOL, they seem to be for sure Yes, it is a marketing tactic to get people into the BricsCAD system for sure. I’ve tried their CAD program and it’s not bad. I am too ingrained into AutoCAD (using since v9 dos) to ever switch but it is a viable low cost option for some.
simlab composer VR can be used with sketchup. If I could just get my illustration work over to sketchup I wouldn’t be such a ■■■■-head (tech term).
interesting, the word was p**p
Well Rhino is 700 euros (for MAC) with all the plug-inns…just to compare the prices
sean, do you do much tracing in sketchup
Well Illustrator can export out to dwg\dxf.
I’ve tried that, and where I even have image traced first while still in illustrator but when I bring it into SUP I can’t create any faces because once I create the edges and then go and click on push/pull my edges go away
Depends. If I am doing something over a CAD file I will bring the base line work in via DWG and try to have it all on a base CAD layer and group it. I then trace over the CAD lines for the walls (shapes) I need. This way I can get rid of the CAD lines and have a cleaner model. We still have LOTS of legacy CAD files that are a bit rough and I don’t like using those as a base file unless I can’t help it. I 1st started doing this back in '05 when I worked for a home developer. We had some older, nasty CAD files that were in poor shape.