You realize you are telling me what I meant? The salary of the employee provides the basis of their cost to the company, so any tool that increases their produ

You realize you are telling me what I meant? The salary of the employee provides the basis of their cost to the company, so any tool that increases their productivity for a small portion of that cost is something they are going to consider. I wasn't imagining that the typical person making $60k year would enjoy blowing thousands of dollars on a CAD package. This is why they aren't cheap though, because typical people don't buy CAD packages, companies do.