Vanilla AutoCAD FREE to Students?

[ReMark]

I just read that AutoDesk is now offering plain vanilla AutoCAD to the student community for free. Can anyone confirm this?

[profcad]

Yes, its true. Go to http://students.autodesk.com

Now my students don't have to download AutoCAD Architecture or Civil to get AutoCAD.

[Jack_O'neill]

Not only Autocad, but Inventor and Revit too.

[ReMark]

Thank you profcad. I think it is good that students do not have to download a vertical product just to get access to AutoCAD.

[ReMark]

Note to management. This thread will have to be revised in lieu of the above information:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23080

[AlinOz]

Knock, Knock... Hello - Anyone from Autodesk listening/ looking?

You want me (a legit AutoCAD user) to move over to Revit? You keep telling me that I'm missing out on all these 'you beaut' benefits of Revit... Don't just give me 30 days to play with it - I don't have the time to commit to learning it well enough to test it or the capital to spend on Training on something that may not even be the answer for me.

Give everyone a copy and have it output a "Drawn using an Unlicensed Version of Revit" stamp just like the educational version and I can take the next 12 months or 2 years to decide whether it will do the job for me. Nobody will use one of them for Commercial output, would they? It would be commercial suicide!

Remember the good old days where we (oops - I meant everyone else) now dedicated Users pirated AutoCAD? That's what made it the major Market leader - everyone could use it and eventually we talked the boss into buying it. Why not do a 21st Century version of 'condoned' Piracy and open it up to everyone - not just the student community!!!

Think about the marketing aspect - the best sales don't involve a Sales rep trying to sell it to you - it's cheaper for you when someone comes to you seeking your product...

[CADTutor]

Note to management. This thread will have to be revised in lieu of the above information:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23080

Thanks for the tip. The post is now updated with the latest information. Great news about vanilla AutoCAD - that's going to save me a lot of hassle. :)

[ReMark]

You're welcomed. Yeah, AutoDesk should have considered doing this a lot sooner. I'm sure there will be plenty of demand.

[CADTutor]

For a long time now, Autodesk have been trying to move users away from vanilla AutoCAD, either onto a vertical product or to Revit. It's now clear from the 2010 product launch and subsequent details that their strategy for AutoCAD has changed completely. Now, they see it as the hub of their product protfolio and the result is meaningful development with some great new features (parametrics, mesh modelling etc.) and the decision to make it available for students.

I can now stop showing my students how to make Map 3D look like vanilla AutoCAD.