You can download the free 30 day trial until it is figured out.
The general education download system has been available for years and we’ve had non-first students use it in the past. It looks to me like this is an effort to combine FIRSTbase with that system.
The best I can figure out is the ‘general education system’ is the one and only system.
It take the email address you give it and if it decides it isn’t a valid school the request is rejected. How they derive information for deciding it is a valid email address - I don’t now. It seems that might put Australia in a deeper pickle jar.
“combining the FIRST site with the education site” - There doesn’t seem to be an ‘FIRST’ specific thing except the URL just redirects you to the education site.
I see that, but the FRC-specific kit of parts and similar tools are still being made available to us on the “other side” somehow, right?
I suppose so. I’m not in the Autodesk club yet. I’m going up the school later today so we can sort this out about managing this for the students. ethically I can’t still be in the club.
maybe tomorrow…
It looks to me that FIRSTtbase (the site we used to go to for submission and download instructions) is now redirecting to the Autodesk student community http://students3.autodesk.com/?nd=first_home&lbon=1
Looks like one stop shopping for now on :yikes:
This is an improvement for educators like myself who used to use both sites for the classroom and FIRST.
… and the signup takes you to the page that says:
I certify that I am not currently employed and that I became unemployed through no fault of my own. The details of my last employer are accurate and I consent to verification by Autodesk or its agents or partners. Please note that your submission and/or eligibility may be audited by Autodesk or its participating partners.
This is really directed at Mentors that work. They are trying to tell you that you should give up your day job and focus full time on the build season. You know that trying to work and doing the robot build just don’t work, your job is taking important time away from build season. 
I speculate that the “currently unemployed” bit has nothing to do with FIRST mentors. It is likely a way for the unemployed to gain a job skill while they are unemployed. Part of their overall education program that extends beyond FIRST.
But the lack of support for industry mentors make me speculate to several things here:
a) there have been past ethics abuses
or
b) Autodesk doesn’t know industry mentors exist and are not aware they are part of the FIRST process.
Either way it is a mess …
Yes, Autodesk has a program where the unemployed can download the software to learn a new job skill.
It appears that there are still some issues to be worked out with their process for this year 
If you are a school team, just have the teacher (with the .edu email address) add you to the list of students. However, that does not work for a non-school (or non-US) team.
Someone who is actively having this problem probably needs to take this issue up directly with FIRST HQ to get it resolved.
So is it based on the .edu part? That makes things difficult…our school email addresses (staff and students alike) all end in .org . However, we do have college mentors with .edu email addresses–would that work? (I haven’t had time to check out the mess that seems to be the Autodesk site.)
It’s been a couple of years since I signed up for the educational program, using the email address provided by my grad school. It seemed like their system automatically knew that a .edu address was a school, and anything else required review by a human. So I think there was a process where a teacher could sign up (and get verified by a human) and then could send invitations to students.
Like I said, it’s been a couple of years, so things may have changed or my failing memory may be incorrect. YMMV. Have a teacher try it and see what happens… Good Luck (and let us all know!)
I have had an educational login to this website for a couple of years.
When I click the link to get to the new firstbase, and login it takes me to my old autodesk educational communtiy.
If I click a link to FIRST on the right side, it takes me to another spot where it logs me out, essentially in an endless cycle.
I have emailed them but received no answer.
Has anybody else had similair results or figured out a solution?
Everyone,
I have been communicating with Laura London, an executive with Autodesk.
Autodesk is committed to supporting students, teachers AND mentors !! There are a couple of glitches in transitioning to the new system and they are working to resolve the problems.
from Laura,
"All mentors can join the Community and utilize all the FIRST specific resources, including software downloads and learning materials. This year teams have access to over 22 Autodesk products – which is a huge step up from years past. Each and every member of the team has this access, which again opens access up to as many FRC stakeholders as possible…students, teachers, mentors alike.
Now, all FIRST teams will be registering on the FIRST home page of our Community. Please go to http://autodesk.com/firstand click to “sign up”. You will then receive an email shortly confirming your registration. Once you click on the registration link in the email you will have activated your account and will be taken through the FIRST team steps.
We have created a FRC toolkit & there you may now create your team, download the software and much more. For your convenience and to help you and your teams through the new process we have created both an FAQ and a Step by Step guide. The Step by Step will help you create your team, invite your students, and will also be a great tool for your students during their registration."
continuing…
"Your students no longer need to use a special invitation URL. They may also go to http://autodesk.com/first however they will choose to join your team once you have set it up.
The next time you log in (you will always go to http://autodesk.com/first), you should see the default site banner noting that you have been defaulted to the Mechanical Engineering Discipline within the Education Community (don’t worry if this needs to be changed as you may change it in your profile later). You will access the FIRST toolkit either by clicking the promo box on the right hand side of the page for the FIRST Toolkit or you may click on the Learn menu option and select FIRST from the dropdown.
"
If you have trouble send a help request here
Ed
.
Our team has had access to like 27 different products from Autodesk for a month now…no problems whatsoever…
perhaps a few of you have been doing something wrong?
Thanks for posting that information, Ed. It seems that the registration screen that required you to be a teacher was a mistake on the part of the Autodesk site (as well as the one that required you to be unemployed).
I was able to register under the generic registration screen. Actually, the site still has some issues since it told me my email address was already registered, then when I tried to log in it took me to a blank screen, but I just registered a different email address.
So I’m still finding some technical problems, but at least the school/faculty issue is cleared up.
Anytime anyone sees a problem if they will send a not to Autodesk it will help in shaking down the system and getting the burrs out.
That is what we all like - a 'burr’less product…
I seemed to be successful with the registration but when I went to join the team group a window popped up the this message:
Please answer the following questions to complete registration for your group.
I selected “main contact” from the drop down menu and the window keeps popping up. I’ve also tried typing “Faculty” into the second box to no avail. I can’t seem to get past this question to get my group started. Any suggestions? Thanks.
I just tested it and was able to apply to join 1296’s group.
(You can reject my request if you ever get that far.)
I was not asked a question, so it knows I’m not the “owner” of the group.
There are definitely qwerks in the system.
I get kicked out randomly, for instance, I just updated my user profile to add an avatar photo and was sent back to the login page.
The new photo did stick at least.
This is not working for me as shown in their “Step by Step Guide”.
Also, I did not know that Autodesk had changed our name from WildStang to “Digital Cheetanators”? 