in some cases, it was because the programs you're naming didn't exist at the time, except for autocad, which didn't have useful 3-d functionality

in other cases, because the 'tools that don't work' from your point of view can do things in minutes that would take hours in those other programs, which i don't have in any case. blender, for example, is terrible at making 2-d dimensioned drawings compared to something like solidworks, but you can model things in blender nobody has ever been able to model in solidworks, and then you can 3-d print them. and, though solidworks can do everything openscad can, there are things that are easy to do in openscad which are a real pain in solidworks. but openscad is also utterly terrible at 2-d drawings

Thank you.

Blender is definitely the wrong tool for this kind of job. It's a graphics tool, not a CAD tool.

A drafter may use a pen, but that doesn't mean a calligraphy pen will do.

depends on what you're designing and what kinds of products you need out of your cad program

I'm intrigued, what kind of products do they design in Blender?

sorry, by 'products you need out of your cad program' i meant things like prints with dimensions and callouts, or stl files, or gerbers, not the physical artifacts those things are used to produce

Got it.

Same question, what are the products you are referring to?

i just answered that in the comment you're replying to, so you have exhausted the presumption of good faith, and this is my last comment in this thread

I'm trying to get at what CAD program outputs you would want that aren't drawings, etc. I'm not aware of any. I'm trying to get at what true application Blender had which you are referencing.

If you don't want a drawing or a manufacturable thing out of your CAD program then its likely not CAD your doing but graphics design or 3d modeling, not design. This is fine, but itsba different thing.

I was trying to parse through that with you...