Best CAD software

[nradam]

I am a sophomore student in Indian Institute Of Technology, doing mechanical engineering (Just introducing myself as this is my first post in this super-mesmerizing website)

Well, we haven't yet started any CAD courses in college, and i will have to bunk a few classes tomorrow to attend a workshop on ANSYS. A week later, there is a workshop on solidworks. And for a long while i've only heard of this software called autocad.

So i was wondering, what are all these softwares about? Which one should i concentrate on so that i can start designing some mechanical stuff? I can already do some pretty good coding for embedded systems, so lets say if i wanna design an RC plane (mounted with a camera would be cool) which is the best software i can use for that purpose?

[john.phillip]

SolidWorks will give you a lot of fun.

[nradam]

Oh, thanks for the reply.
I would like to get some more feedbacks tho.

[mgb_phys]

CATIA = biggest player. Somewhat expensive ie. unlikely to be using it unless it says Boeing or Airbus on your ID badge,

ProEngineer/Solidworks = majority of the market. People argue endlessly about which is best which implies they are identical.

Autocad Inventor = probably cheapest (still a few $1000), 3D parametric version of the traditional favorite PC cad app.

The important concepts, sketching/constraints are pretty much identical, the user interface is vastly different between each.