Free 3D CAD software

[Gui Cavalcanti]

I thought everyone in the FIRST competition might be interested in this:

X-CAD

These people are basically offering everyone who signs up a free license of their parametric modeling software (think Autodesk Inventor or Solidworks, except free). The catch is that 100,000 people have to sign up before August 1st; right now they're at 55,000. I know my team used to struggle with the single-license rules for the software that came with the kit, so this might be a good thing for low-budget teams.

I subbmitted my request

I hope many others will too before the offer expires

[[527]phil]

I registered too, hope enough people register

[Matt Krass]

I'm number 55,817! Come on people, click the link!

[Adam Richards]

55891! wewt

[sirbleedsalot]

I am number 55,892.

[sanddrag]

I dunno. It seems like a way to harvest e-mail addresses and information and stuff.

[wilshire]

yeah but still its worth the incentive. Its not everyday that you get free CAD software.

[spears312]

I mean this seems like an awesome offer, but I can't seem to find any images or real info about the software. Does any one have any links or such?

[Gui Cavalcanti]

Originally Posted by spears312

I mean this seems like an awesome offer, but I can't seem to find any images or real info about the software. Does any one have any links or such?

That's actually the point. If you read the FAQ and press releases, they're not telling anyone anything about the software. I'm under the impression it's viral marketing applied to CAD, which is... weird. When I say viral marketing, I don't actually mean computer viruses - I mean marketing campaigns spread by grassroots methods, word of mouth, and a good dose of mystery surrounding the people responsible. My guess is we won't know the true value of the software until (if) it's released to those who signed up. I figure I might as well give it a try, I haven't got much to lose other than an email address that's firewalled anyway.

[sanddrag]

It's wierd that they don't have a privacy policy or anything on their site. I'm sticking by the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probabaly is." For all we know the software itself could have malicious components. Given the lack of any sort of information whatsoever, I'm not so ready to just jump right into this.

[spears312]

Well, I'm gonna give it a go. If it is just a e-mail harvest, I don't think I'll be in too much danger since I use a hotmail account externally. If it does lead to software tho, I may be a little leery to DL it till I know its clean.

[sanddrag]

Here's the satellite picture of the address that the domain name is registered to. Looks like a house.
link

Just think about it. I it is going to be so good, why don't they say anything about it and why would they give it away for free. Why do you get all this out of it and what do they get out of it?

[miketwalker]

I think it could be a good potential to just hook people if the software is any good... especially with so many other CAD programs. For example, look at Microsoft Onenote... Microsoft did very good giving so many copies away to college kids last year and this year... and expanding on it, etc... that in the future I definitly think many students will purchase the future releases. The program might not make money now... but, nothing makes money off the bat... if they have 100,000 people... and 1,000 people buy the second release, then they are able to compete and make a profit.

[ChuckDickerson]

I heard about this a week or so ago and surfed around and from what I can tell the speculation is that X-CAD = Alibre (www.alibre.com). I think (90% sure) the offer is real but I haven't signed up yet because I can't quite figure out what the catch is yet. I am thinking they give you a crippled copy of Alibre for free and offer you an upgrade to the full version for a discounted price or something. Think about it. Even if the upgrade was $50 or maybe $100 with an instant user base of 100,000 people that would be an easy $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. You have to give it to them. It's a neat marketing scheme.