@deamag wrote:
Believe me, I understand. Autodesk is puting a lot of people out of business.
I am a contractor who works on small drafting electrical or architectural jobs for Seattle area businesses.
Due to the fact customers can no longer buy software outright, the only way I can take a job is if my employer is willing to pay for AutoCAD for length of contract.
I'm basically out of work, same as you, but have not lost a business.

How? Why?  Trust me, I'm not defending the actions of Autodesk, but all businesses have a cost of doing business. Are your customers requiring you by contract to use Autodesk software? If so, then any competitor of yours would be under those same requirements at the same cost to them. If not, there are less costly applications that can read/write DWG files.

 

More specific to you, the rental option sounds like it's a better option since you would only pay for the time you are using it.