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http://www.alibre.com/

Solidworks is THE CAD program of choice, but it is expensive.

Geomagic (aka Alibre) is a decent clone, last I looked it was $200. None of the free stuff is even close.

I know you were replying to another post, but I just wanted to stick this out there for people who are genuinely interested, as it does not get mentioned much.

This is a pipe dream right now, but it doesn't have to be so. Software solutions that aid safety-critical development processes cost big bucks, same as training and really any sort of plain-language knowledge (standards aren't plain language). Compare this to the fact that, say, you can read on enterprise development best practices on many blogs, forums and documentation sites and it's free -- it's commodity. Try reading up something actionable on functional safety aspects of software development, ha ha -- at best you need $100 for one of Exida books just to get an overview of what's involved. Tools like Scade cost tens of thousands of USD per seat. Techniques and tools for developing reliable software will eventually become commodities, and as the knowledge hopefully permeates the industry, it will become a non-issue. It's like source revision control systems or parametric CAD systems -- once a big deal, right now they are either free (the former) or affordable (a couple hundred USD for a basic Alibre setup).

I use their sheet metal CAD for things like server enclosures.
Very simple to use:
You start out with a flat rectangle of sheet metal (on the screen). Then you add a flange on the left side and a flange on the right side, with just a few mouse clicks, and - bingo! - you have a U-profile. Then you add studs and/or standoffs as needed, holes as needed and you have the bottom part of a sheet metal case.
Having designed the bottom part, you then proceed to design the cover and the front panel and the rear panel. Thus, you get a sheet metal box.
What is it?
A custom rack mount server case.
You can then generate 2D drawings from the 3D model, print out the 2D drawings and take them to a local sheet metal shop for a quote.

Having used C++, Java, and .NET, let me say that Java is slow. Yes, I know, when a JIT happens, Java gets pretty fast. Unfortunately, the JIT is expensive.

At my former employer, our app's startup time stank because of all the JITting. The first time our users tried to do anything, it took an extraordinarily long time. They noticed, and while they lived with it, they always mentioned it. Any sudden, unexplained pause brings back fears of "is it still running, or did it hang?"

Something nice about .NET is the ability to pre-compile a set of classes for a given platform. Theoretically, if I install my app on a machine, that machine won't suddenly change instruction sets, so compiling the whole app during the install saves time on every program execution.

I dearly wish the Java Founders would include a pre-compilation option similar to .NET. Compiling the code every time it's run is such a waste of time.

Amen. Do you think applications that require high performance can not be written in Java? Think again. Alibre Design is a CAD application written in Java, and it's plenty fast.

The only performance problem you have with a Java application is a longer time required to do something the first time-- the JIT. Any other bottlenecks are somewhere in application code.

Please forgive me for tooting my own horn, but here's one: a CAD application written in Java. You can purchase it at CADalog.com, which I suppose counts as a store.