recommendations for top-quality 3D CAD packages for FC1?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  kind of off-topic, but recently, a colleague asked me about CAD packages
that run under linux, preferably 3D CAD.  knowing nothing about CAD, i did
a quick google and found sites like

www.tech-edv.co.at/lunix/UTILlinks.html

which appears to have a wealth of info.  but not knowing much about CAD, i
can't really give any pointers beyond web sites.

  can anyone suggest really high-quality 3D CAD programs (either GPL or
commercial would be fine) that they've had good experience with?  i'm not
really interested in developing projects for now, or programs that have
potential.  i need pointers to full-featured programs that work *now*.
i wish i could be more specific about the requirements, but that's all
i got.

  if i can come up with some viable alternatives, there are a few people
who would be receptive to moving off of windows and onto fedora.  (see,
i eventually tied this back into fedora. :-)

rday

p.s.  is there a specific mailing list/forum for CAD on linux that i
can take this to?  since it really isn't a fedora issue.