My story is a bit similar. Years working with ACAD, 2D was great, but I was never able to draw a good 3D shape (aircraft fuselage). It took me about 2 weeks to get something usable in so called 2 1/2D. Tried other apps but none were either good enough, or simple enough. Then I saw an advert for SU in some tech pub I subscribe to, so I gave it a try. In under 2 hours after I very first turned it on, I had my fuselage shape. (The hard way with zero plug-ins) I then scrapped ACAD. That was over 8 years ago. And I now have over 25 plug-ins, but only use about 6 regularly, especially Fredo's Curviloft.