Free Stage Lighting Design Software
Only the trial versions of Turbocad products are free - the 'normal' versions cost money (although for Turbocad Designer or LTE it's not really that much). As regards it being a 'bugger' to use - it isn't, as long as you have some idea of the principles of CAD drafting and have put a little bit of effort into learning the basics of the Turbocad interface. I've been using the program for many years, and it's one of the easiest and most intuitive (and certainly best value-for-money) CAD packages I've ever experienced.
Free Stage Lighting Plot Software
Having been brought up on stencils and paper I tend to find them quicker than software that isn't purpose designed and I still object to paying a lot of money for purpose-designed software that is good. So I use stencils unless it's something that will need emailing when I would use cheap drawing software that I have on my PC.
Free CAD Programs. Of course, it depends on the features you’re interested in; SketchUp certainly isn’t a pre-viz tool but it’s great for modeling a set, calculating throw distances and angles. I’ve also used it to generate 2-D plots to give to my lighting techs with all the info they need to hang, aim, add accessories, program DMX channels, etc. All for free.