I have been using a free CAD program for designing my patterns but it has no fabric calulations, or a way to design with fabrics. It was easy to learn and for free it has helped me a lot to use up my current cloth pieces and design tops using my current materials, but it is probably a lot slower the a EQ program. Have just discovered the EQ programs but have a hard time justifying the cost of the newer programs ($189). An EQ5 can be had for about $50 but I have a V7 computer and a lot of programs that list 2000, XP only do not run on 7. Does anyone have EQ5 on a 7 computer??