Advice requested for retired engineer with an idea and minimal resources

Hello,

I have an idea that would benefit patients in physical therapy and to develop the idea, a Cad program would be useful. I have some experience with Autocad, and a fair amount of experience with mechanical drafting by hand. Since the project will probably not make money, I'm looking to acquire Autocad as inexpensively as possible.

(1) How? Last year's version? The oldest version that runs on Windows 7?

(2) What is the earliest version compatible with W-7?

(3) Buy a used computer that has Autocad already installed?

(4) What is the oldest version of Autocad that has 3D and runs on W-7?

Thank you

(1) How? Last year's version? runs nice The oldest version that runs on Windows 7? with compatibility option i think they all run starting from 14 version i believe

(2) What is the earliest version compatible with W-7?

(3) Buy a used computer that has Autocad already installed? licences are not transferable as per EULA. therefore not an option period. cheaper limited compatible full version are available but when opened with the original you sometimes run into unrecoverable errors and interface is close but not quite the same (colors etc cad is cad any user will confirm

(4) What is the oldest version of Autocad that has 3D and runs on W-7? 14 i think but no longer available.

Why not opt for the cad 30 day trial period, draw it and run the it to the end of trial then remove it ?

Thanks for responding, I'll take your words of wisdom!

You might look into Fusion 360.

Back when I was in college, I setup a 'business account' with Dell (without a Tax ID, or any state registration whatsoever), and took advantage of their business discounts on hardware... This helped me utilize hardware of a higher caliber that I otherwise would not have been able to afford.

You might also consider apply for Microsoft BizSpark membership (which comes with MSDN Ultimate), as I presume the equipment you'd be modeling would require some sort of software to operate properly... This membership is intended to give startups (again, even without formal business registration credentials) the opportunity to utilize ALL software Microsoft offers, free of charge, and intended to be used for-profit. The idea is, that they offer you these products to help 'spark' your new 'biz-ness' so that when your 3 year membership expires, you've become profitable to pay for such memberships thereafter... To put that in perspective, as a BizSpark member, I do not have to pay the initial $13K+ to sign up, nor the annual renewals, further I 've already consumed more +/- $20K in software this (my first) year and that doesn't include the $150/Mo credit for Azure.

As for Autodesk products (regardless of AutoCAD vs. Fusion, etc.), they now offer different terms... If you only need it for a year, etc. choose that subscription level.

... Just remember that you get what you pay for, but you never have to pay retail.

Cheers

Look into the "Pay-As-You-Go" option offered by AutoDesk.

http://www.autodesk.com/subscription/desktop

As far as Windows 7 goes I had both AutoCAD 2004 and 2007 running on it although I wouldn't recommend going back that far. I'd recommend going back no further than AutoCAD 2013. Is your computer 32-bit or 64-bit?

The desktop subscription is great, we use it for our second seat of Revit as our inner-office collaborative projects come and go. It essentially allows you to purchase software you would not normally be able to afford on a monthly, quarterly or annual time frame.