I'm using the "Pencil and Field
Template" Edition of Free Sketchup right now. When I get my theater this fall, I'll have
WYG console edition as part of the
Strand Console... also known as the useless one you can't print from. So I'm buying
Vectorworks Spotlight, with Lightwright, and Sketchup pro for the shop computer to do all the design work on. Sketchup Pro academic price is only $50! Also planning on getting
Stage Research's Lighting Accademic Bundle which includes Soft
Plot, a Photometric Program, and two programs to help teach lighting design.
Yeah that's a little more than I need for just designing but there are a variety of educational reasons to get a little
bit of everything. Students will have the chance to design with
WYG, VW, and Softplot. Which is pretty cool to me. It's also a nice upgrade from Pencil and
Template.
So I guess that's a vote for just about everything.