AutoCAD Inventor Professional Software for FREE?

Artisan · Sep 30, 2012

That's what I said, "For Free?" and sure enough...

I chose AutoCad Inventor Professional at this link and HomeSchool and I am currently
doing the DL. It is like just under EIGHT Gigabites so make sure you have room on your
hard drive and your fast enough to run it. Watch the movie on the first page .

:thumbsup: It sure would be cool if a whole bunch of guys got into this and
we could help each other, then maybe start a library of proven designs
to share...

CLICK HERE It's the real deal.

PS, I had posed a question to the AutoDesk Forum and an
elder saw what I was doing and publically gave me the link.
It makes sense for them to give it away...think about it.

Scooby074 · Sep 30, 2012

Well, technically the "free" software isn't legal for you or anyone unless:

"You must be one of the following: (a) a faculty member; or (b) a student; or (c) an Autodesk Assistance Program participant."

Do post up your results though, it sounds like you may need to prove you are one of the above in order to get a serial for the product. That 8gb download may end up being for naught.

Edit: Tested the download , PK and serial are displayed at DL page. No further verification appears to be required

Artisan · Sep 30, 2012

Nope,

Homeschool is homeschool.
I have a Serial Number and Product ID.
I have one gig left to DL.

Artisan · Sep 30, 2012

The way I see it, they give it away now so as to get
as many people as possible using it because once you
get a grip on how to use it, you will be VERY reluctent
to switch to a new flavor.

So now they have all these folks who get good using it, and
they go out into the work force, they are educated in "X"
flavor of CAD, now the employer will pop for that seat.

Seat= (A term used that describes one license issued, a company
my buy 20 "seats" which allows them 20 people legally to
use the software. )

Artisan · Sep 30, 2012

I GOT IT, it was effortless ! WooWHO!

npalen · Sep 30, 2012

Downloading it as we speak.
EDIT: Thanks for the "heads up"!

Sfrankland · Sep 30, 2012

Downloaded it as well. My wife works with the university so I guess she has a copy that I can use. Should be handy with the CNC mill. Thanks for letting us know.

dodge man · Sep 30, 2012

I'm a big Autocad user for my work and have been using for close to 20 years. It has a pretty steep learning curve but is a very powerful tool.

Scooby074 · Sep 30, 2012

Artisan said:
Nope,

Homeschool is homeschool.
I have a Serial Number and Product ID.
I have one gig left to DL.

Not to beat the point to death because Autodesk doesn't pay me, but I hope your enrolled in that little home school of yours as an active student or faculty.

Eligibility Requirements

To participate in the Autodesk Education Community, you must agree to and comply with the applicable Terms of Use and also satisfy the following eligibility requirements. You must be one of the following: (a) a faculty member; or (b) a student; or (c) an Autodesk Assistance Program participant.

A faculty member is an employee at a primary or secondary educational institution or any degree-granting or certificate-granting educational institution or any learning, teaching or training facilities and who upon request by Autodesk is able to provide proof of such status.

A student is an individual enrolled at a recognized degree-granting or certificate-granting educational institution for three (3) or more credit hours in a degree-granting or certificate granting education program or in a nine (9) month or longer certificate program, and upon request by Autodesk is able to provide proof of such enrollment.

An Autodesk Assistance Program participant is either a veteran or unemployed individual who has (a) previously worked in the architecture, engineering, design or manufacturing industries, has completed the online registration for the Autodesk Assistance Program, and upon request by Autodesk is able to provide proof of eligibility for that program.

SPIKER · Sep 30, 2012

I fit into that last one, I'm disabled veteran in electrical engineering I use 2012 autocad at work but would not mind trying out the inventor program again,l tried it about 10 yrs ago when it was new product but doing pretty good.

signed up waiting on conformation email now.
Mark

boggen · Sep 30, 2012

and just spent over 8 plus hours today, downloading, kicking around for a C/C++ IDE / compilers. and never even thought about looking towards education notations. i am afraid to even look at my internet service provider page. to see how close i am to download limit :/

still waiting on a microsoft visual studio express (the free edition) to download...

Autodesk Assistance Program
Tools for Displaced Professionals

mathmatica from Wolfram Research: Mathematica, Technical and Scientific Software and then Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine be nice if they offered like doing.

going to have to see how much download i have left tommorw. before looking at either autodesk or mathmatica. just trail apps even....

Artisan · Oct 1, 2012

I "recognize" my homeschool. .............So there...:teacher:

Like I said;
"PS, I had posed a question to the AutoDesk Forum and an
elder saw what I was doing and publically gave me the link."

...and I am under the impression said elder w/ 20,000 posts on that
forum works for AutoDesk.

Open Season.

Shield Arc · Oct 1, 2012

I use Auto-Cad LT, learned just enough to do what I needed for work. Mostly to see if a crane could make a pick for a heavy lift plan. One thing I don't like about Auto-Cad LT, is you can not save a drawing as a Jpeg to post on these forums. I used Turbo-Cad for awhile, now use another software. Wonder if the version you just down loaded will allow you to save a drawing as a Jpeg?

Artisan · Oct 1, 2012

Getting a jpg is easy. Alls you have to do is hit the
button on your keyboard called "Prt Scr" which means "Print Screen".
When you hit that button you "Copy" a picture of your screen.
NOW, open a paint program, I use Jasc's Paint Shop Pro and
"Paste" . In PSP I go to EDIT, then I select PASTE AS NEW IMAGE.

Now just crop and edit and save the pic as a jpg.

Werks for me! :teacher:

Shield Arc · Oct 1, 2012

Easy enough on Windows, not so easy on Linux.

Den1952 · Oct 1, 2012

ditto the "thanks for the heads up"
can you tell yet , if the creations saved would open up in autocad 2000 ?
Den

Den1952 · Oct 1, 2012

I just got the verification email from them. it shows the serial key and product key, (which I had already collected during the signing in and downloading routine)
the fine print on the verification email includes this clause....
"Here are your Serial Number and Product Key, which you'll need to activate your Autodesk Inventor Professional license. Your product will run for three years after successful activation."
the first time around anyway it still appears free, but with a 3 year limitation. I wouldnt think any user qualifications would be questioned until the 2nd go-around.

Shield Arc · Oct 1, 2012

Den1952 said:
can you tell yet , if the creations saved would open up in autocad 2000 ?

If you save your work as a DXF file, I think just about any Cad program will open that file.

Scooby074 · Oct 1, 2012

Den1952 said:
I just got the verification email from them. it shows the serial key and product key, (which I had already collected during the signing in and downloading routine)
the fine print on the verification email includes this clause....
"Here are your Serial Number and Product Key, which you'll need to activate your Autodesk Inventor Professional license. Your product will run for three years after successful activation."
the first time around anyway it still appears free, but with a 3 year limitation. I wouldnt think any user qualifications would be questioned until the 2nd go-around.

After 3 yrs they can kill your product key after this education push has run its course (if they want to).

I admit, its pretty generous of AutoCad to do this. Acad used to watch their licenses like a hawk.Each seat was several thousand dollars. Now they are basically giving it to anyone , yes there are technicalities but they arent being enforced. Their idea of giving the product to students and the unemployed so they can learn some new skills is a great way to gain market share for once these people get into the workforce. Inventor has never had the presence of Solidworks for example. I'm a Solidworks guy but will give the new Inventor a try to see if they fixed some things that bugged me.

Den1952 · Oct 1, 2012

I notice there are several tutorials on youtube for this prg. havent seen them yet but the previews look promising. hopefully they accelerate the learning curve for the beginner basics.
I've a most basic amount of hands on with autocad 2000 and the little I did see so far on youtube makes the inventor look quite similar for drawing with.