Big Thanks to Everyone!

[Kevin Thorp]

Originally Posted by Mazin

If you don't want to switch, keep pirating.

Wow - that's the first time I've read a posting on Chief Delphi that encourages students to commit a crime (stealing software). Not exactly the "Gracious Professionalism" FIRST tries to promote.

Autodesk donates 5 one-year licenses of 3ds Max and 10 licenses of Inventor to over 1500 teams nationwide (now worldwide) and they sponsor these two exciting competitions. So they are evil because their software is bloated and their prices are too high?

Yes, the full commercial license of 3ds Max is pricey ($3500) but thousands of professional animators think it's worth the money. If you're a student you can buy it for less than $400 online at places like Studica. They even have a 14-month license for only $195.

Or there are plenty of other, less expensive alternatives - Blender, Gmax, Sketchup (all free), Truespace, Hash AnimationMaster, Poser, Carrara, Rhino, etc. Here's a pretty complete list: Link

If you don't like a company's product or price you can shop elsewhere. It's called the free market.

If you pirate software it's called a felony.