Inventor

[edomus]

Do any teams purchase extra autocad liscences? Our one is a big pain but we dont have the money for more.

[dez250]

Originally Posted by edomus

Do any teams purchase extra autocad liscences? Our one is a big pain but we dont have the money for more.

Our school has CAD Classes which use inventor and Autocad as instuctional tools already. We use that as students to do most of our drawings and save it in the earlier (i think R6 this year) version. So as to your question, since the team works at the school and is embraced in our technology department (mostly), we use what we have for school.

[KyleGilbert45]

Originally Posted by edomus

Do any teams purchase extra autocad liscences? Our one is a big pain but we dont have the money for more.

I'm assuming you mean more autodesk licenses not autocad licenses since you have inventor as the title of the thread.

Just as Michael said above, I would look into getting help from the technology department at your school (if one exists). If not I would see it as beneficial buying more licenses. If your team does not have the money for this then maybe it isn't the best option unless you could have some kind of fundraiser or try to pick up another sponser or have a current sponser pick up the cost of another license or two.

[sanddrag]

Our school does for Inventor 5.

[Kevin A]

Use the trial version while everyone designs a part of a robot and then use the 1 copy you do have for presenting after the trail expires

[Stu Bloom]

GREAT QUESTION ...

[ON soapbox ] I believe funding is likely the biggest challenge most FIRST teams face to remain viable, and purchasing additional Inventor licenses is just NOT an option. While I am sure Autodesk contributes significant money and resources to FIRST on the corporate level, I think they fall woefully short in supporting the individual teams. As has already been mentioned here, some teams are affiliated with schools that have well equipped technology departments, or programs like PLTW, which already have a classroom full of Inventor/MAX licenses available for use. Unfortunately there are many teams which do not have these tools readily available, nor can they afford the high cost of adding additional seats (although I did find a student/education version for only $134.95 here). My beef with Autodesk is that once the media (CDs) is distributed to teams there is NO additional cost to the company to provide multiple registration keys. I think 6 per team would be a reasonable amount. They actually BENEFIT from providing more exposure to future engineers, who will later enter the workforce and become potential customers.

The single seat license they now provide is, in my opinion, worthless. If a team already has the resources, they don't need it (except to maybe load onto a teacher's or engineer's laptop). And if they don't already have it available, one license is not near enough to accomplish all the tasks required for the 6-week design/build of a robot, and entry into the Autodesk competitions, while on a steep learning curve. [OFF soapbox ]

C'mon Autodesk ... STEP UP!