What program are you guys using to make new designs?
I use TopSolid and Autodesk Fusion 360.
There is the https://www.onshape.com Beta.
Hobby/Maker addition is free.
ALibre PE 2012. I want to switch to autodesk fusion 360, but I need a new laptop to run it and money is too tight :(. May end up going with FreeCAD for my next design.
I use Autodesk Inventor 2015 
@Andre_Roy Nice ! We will love to see you on @FreeCAD forum or G+ community to help you (if needed). 
I use Inventor Pro, it is free to people over 65 as is all the Autodesk products, like 3D Studio, Maya and Softimage. You just can’t make money off your work. If you make money you need a regular license instead of the education license. I once taught a class in 3D Animation using Strata Studio Pro and Inventor seemed very intuitive for me after that.
Thank you guys for all the info
For those of you who’ve used Solidworks and the Autodesk software, is the ui similar? I’ve tried using FreeCAD, Medusa and I just dl’d Fusion, but I’m having trouble getting started, like literally. Any tips?
@Biscuit_Waite For FreeCAD there is two basic tutorial here : http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Basic_modeling_tutorial
http://freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Basic_Part_Design_Tutorial
And a pretty good youtube playlist to start : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEvhclR4-o&list=PL6fZ68Cq3L8k0JhxnIVjZQN26cn9idJrj
@wood_galaxy than you! I tried you tubing it but wasn’t finding what I looking for. To clarify my issue, in Solidworks I would draw my 2d then extrude or boss or what have you and I would do it by entering the value but I can’t seem to figure out how to pull that off in other software. Your links might be the jump off point I need, so again, thanks!
@Biscuit_Waite I’m not sure to understand you, do you mean something like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBv1c77kOmE ?
I use OpenSCAD for my designs.