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Hey guys, i found this recently, and its nice to share with you guys.

So, apparently big companies are not so "money whores", and Autodesk is "giving" their product 3ds max (i dont know about others) for free, as long as you are a student

You go to this website: http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center
(EDIT: i just saw that there is a bigger catalog for the available products, not just 3ds max)

Choose your product, and i guess you just need to write down some details about your school and give your name, just like creating an account on a game, but they ask for a school name to check if you are indeed a student (i dont know if they "check" with the school.. but im from portugal and i dont think that autodesk would call here to know my situation )

Then you will get a free download link and a license code (serial).
Just use them, and there you go. Free autodesk product.

Now that i think.. i dont know if it's allowed to create commercial things.. but i guess it is.


Good luck guys

Very nice find! These used to still be quite expensive, even with a student discount.

I hope you don't mind that I added "for students" to the title, since some people would be mighty disappointed coming in and seeing it afterwards

No problem, but i think the students version is exactly the same as the original one.. no?
At least for what i need and i use it's the same till now.

The student license does not allow you to produce commercial products. Unless this is something new with Autodesk, the student versions usually expire after a certain time period, like 36 months.

vitinho444 wrote:So, apparently big companies are not so "money whores", and Autodesk is "giving" their product 3ds max (i dont know about others) for free, as long as you are a student

I work for a "big company" and can assure you that at the end of the day; its ALL about profits. So let me put on my corporate strategist hat for a moment and let's take a look at this.

• Autodesk has been losing market share in the CAD market; and AutoCAD is its traditional cash cow.
• Today's students are tomorrow's professionals. They will be the ones deciding which vendor gets the order when software purchase/upgrade time comes. Since there is a high cost (in time) on the part of the user when moving to another vendor, get'em now and you've got'em for life. Autodesk could bleed students when they had no other choice; but as AutoCAD is now simply the most popular package - instead of the defacto standard - they can't do that any more.
• Autodesk recognizes 3D printing as a game changer and would probably really, really like to be the standard platform for it. They already give away a consumer grade package for 3D printing. Grab the consumer market with 123 and make sure your package is the standard professional designer platform and you'll be the Microsoft of 3D printing.

Yeah, software gets thrown at college students as fast as they can catch it. As far as I can tell, the only one that is licensed for commercial use is Microsoft's stuff, though (and not all of it, but I know Visual Studio is). They all want you to learn their software so that you buy it once you get out of school and base your career on it. Their entire business depends on it

The student license does not allow you to produce commercial products. Unless this is something new with Autodesk, the student versions usually expire after a certain time period, like 36 months.

Wow, they don't say that :S

Cayle wrote:

vitinho444 wrote:So, apparently big companies are not so "money whores", and Autodesk is "giving" their product 3ds max (i dont know about others) for free, as long as you are a student

I work for a "big company" and can assure you that at the end of the day; its ALL about profits. So let me put on my corporate strategist hat for a moment and let's take a look at this.

• Autodesk has been losing market share in the CAD market; and AutoCAD is its traditional cash cow.
• Today's students are tomorrow's professionals. They will be the ones deciding which vendor gets the order when software purchase/upgrade time comes. Since there is a high cost (in time) on the part of the user when moving to another vendor, get'em now and you've got'em for life. Autodesk could bleed students when they had no other choice; but as AutoCAD is now simply the most popular package - instead of the defacto standard - they can't do that any more.
• Autodesk recognizes 3D printing as a game changer and would probably really, really like to be the standard platform for it. They already give away a consumer grade package for 3D printing. Grab the consumer market with 123 and make sure your package is the standard professional designer platform and you'll be the Microsoft of 3D printing.

Well yeah, at the end of the day the profit it's what matters every time.. but i thought that by giving away products that are expensive to students but by knowing this:

Jackolantern wrote:Yeah, software gets thrown at college students as fast as they can catch it. As far as I can tell, the only one that is licensed for commercial use is Microsoft's stuff, though (and not all of it, but I know Visual Studio is). They all want you to learn their software so that you buy it once you get out of school and base your career on it. Their entire business depends on it

it kinda falls apart...

anyway i can still model normally , when the version expires i will just [spoiler]download it[/spoiler]