I tried Helicad some time ago and found the same problems. At the time, I searched several forums and couldn't locate the author of the program. Aparently a lot of people have been trying to track down the author.
It is supposed to be distributed by an engineering company in Australia, but when I contacted them, they said they had never heard of the program and had nothing to do with it.
I would be intersted in either locating the author or even purchasing a licence "as is" because I have expired the trial period and can not use it any longer.
What happens in a situation like this where the author has disapeared, can the program be "hacked" to extend the trial period? I am not generally in favour of hacking, in fact, I would not know where to start, but this program seems to have died yet it is quite useful.