Hi,

Back in school I had this introductionary course in among other things CADing. We used AutoCAD and SolidWorks for the assignments. This is probably 10 years ago or so. Anyway, I vaguely remember how I used those tools, especially SolidWorks.

A common way to create an object in SW was to draw a 2d shape on a "paper"/surface and then extrude it. From a 3D object you could then select a flat surface and draw a 2D shape on that which you could then extrude or cut (whatever the opposite is called). Is there a way to do this in blender or some other free/cheap tool?

Another thing I remember was the ability to create an initial object by revolving a 2D shape around a line. For example, you could draw a triangle and use it to create a cone.

Also, is there a way to create a custom toolbar or something for commonly accessed tools/operations so that I can access them more easily than through the menus yet without having to remember every single keybinding ever?

If you talk about CAD Programs, you most of the time talk about NOT working in Polygon modelling. CAD Programs AFAIK are almost exclusively using NURBS, which then get converted to polygons later on for digital visualizations. Has the advantage that you can later select the polygon density when exporting the NURBS object to a polygon one, without the need to retopologize and subdivide.

That being said, Blender has some NURBS functions built in, so if you want to work with freehand curves and extrude them without having to place vertices and edges manually, you can do that in NURBS.

Your example with the triangle can be done even directly in polygons with extrusion.

In the end, Blender is a polygon modeller with lots of tools like NURBS tacked on. AFAIK the NURBS tool is not bad, but its still just an addition and cannot be directly compared to a fully blown CAD program. And then come the quirks and oddities of the Blender UI, which will present a steep learning curve at the beginning.

If you have some money to spend, and are looking for a more CAD like approach, with a much more intuitive UI, have a look at MoI (moment of inspiration). Its kind of a CAD-lite tool, or NURBS Pro, and allows you to work very similar to what I have seen from CAD programs (though I am hardly the CAD expert). The 300$ price tag is easy to swallow, especially if you need to to some hard surface modelling like me, don't want to deal with the Blender UI all the time, and don't want to be limited to simple boolean operations some other tools are.

AFAIK, in Blender, there is no such thing as a Toolbar to plonk your commands on... just a trusty printout of all the shortcuts and key combinations will help

Blender has several ways of doing what you asked.

You can import a image and then map it with a polygon, extrude and then shape it.

You can use the Grease Pencil, draw and convert.

Blender has a spin tool for making simple shapes.

These things are among the first things you will learn when working with blender.

not for nothing but the free version of sketchup does this too and its simple to use.