At the free map workshop I happened to interact with a participant Who is the HOD of civil engineering in a Ludhiana college. He has already evaluated brl cad and qcad. Qcad does not have 3d and the free version does not have pline dimensioning. The paid version costs Rs.800/- which is peanuts. Brlcad rocks except it does not have dimensioning. He says that if dimensioning is coded it will kick the pants off anything else in the closed world.
i don't think payment should be an issue. have downloaded and installed Brlcad will try it out. And at Rs 800 if it can do what it says it can do well is a steal. provided ofcourse the user is ready to use it :)
Sachin G.