FWIW, I just bought the starter edition of DipTrace. That actually lead me to Dave's blog, actually. Funny...years ago I linked to one of Dave's multimeter shootout's because I got sick and tired of having to explain why cheap multimeters are...well....cheap and how important it is to have a fast, latching continuity check. I didn't know how much great information there was here at the time.
Anyhow, I'm really liking DipTrace. I really don't like the default through hole patterns. Most of them seem to have pads that are really marginally sized. I basically made my own library for the components I use. Someone really put a lot of thought into real people doing real work with this thing. It takes me about 5 minutes to update my library with a new component with the pattern I want. From the schematic editor:
1) place component from the included library
2) switch to my own library
3) right click on the component and add it to the active library.
4) Open the pattern editor and open my pattern library
5) Suck in the pattern from the component I just added to my own library
6) Click on the pads and choose one of my standard pad templates
7) Open the component editor and attach the newly made pattern to the new component.
I doubt all of this even takes 5 minutes, and maybe 10 minutes if I need to make the component from scratch.
I love being able to export a 3d model via VRML. I use Rhino for a CAD program for my guitar building work, but I've been using it for enclosure design too. It's so convenient to be able to model parts placement based on the actual PCB instead of relying on measurements that I transfer between programs. All my holes will line up perfectly, the silkscreen on the enclosure is perfect, etc etc. As a reformed engineer, I really appreciate how much easier it is to line things up and detect mistakes when you're looking at a picture instead of a page of dimensions. It's also obvious when I do something stupid, like building a board upside down...woops. The VRML also includes the silkscreen, so it was pretty obvious as soon as I tried to stick the board in the enclosure.
I know it's kind of a low-end, budget option, but it's just really usable. I was up and running doing real work in a day. Considering that for most people here it's free, and for me it just cost $75 to get my feet wet, I'm pretty happy.