Autodesk (finally) responds to Google's Sketchup

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For those of you who are familiar with Autodesk, the company has been the premier manufacturer of computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software for decades. Looks like they are finally going to start offering a freeware version of their 3D modeling software. Since many of the pros on the forum use these types of tools for designing cabinets and the like, I thought I'd share.

For those interested, check it out here: http://www.123dapp.com/
 
Wow ! This is awesome and high time Autodesk came up with something like this. I just downlaoded the 64bit version and watched a few tutorials, this is way superior to Sketchup. Will take a little getting used to but looks much more powerful and intuitive.
 
I gotta say, I have been using Autodesk apps since, well, forever. So Google Sketchup never felt intuitive to me. I haven't given 123D a test drive yet, but I suspect it will feel more like a broken-in pair of jeans.

If anyone spends any time with it, I'm sure other members would appreciate your impressions.
 
I couldnt agree more. I  used to be an 'expert' AutoCAD user - I sold and trained users on Autodesk products in Australia several years ago. Sketchup to me is slow and really painful. While 123D is more like sketchup in concept than like AutoCAD, i feel it will be more intuitive for CAD coming from Autodesk.
 
Looks like it could be good, but there isn't much info on the website relating to what you can actually do with it. I'm downloading it now, so will be having a play around with it this evening....
 
i used to use inventer11 when i was in collage. i was fairly good at it. i  still canot get the hang of sketch up.
i have downloaded this and will play later
 
jonny round boy said:
Looks like it could be good, but there isn't much info on the website relating to what you can actually do with it. I'm downloading it now, so will be having a play around with it this evening....

They are doing tutorials on their youtube channel  Autodesk 123 on Youtube

Peter
 
Cnt wait for it to come on Imac!  Watching the Tutorials looks like you can do alot more and more easily!   So I definitely wanna try 123 out  I can see my self liking it more than sketch up as a freeware.

JMB
 
Do they have an equivalent of the 3d warehouse ? Can you script it ? Can it integrate with Google Earth ?

 
I unfortunatly have not been able to install the programme .
It seems there is some sort of conflict in my case at least ,with microsoft .net frameworks 4.
I will wait on the fence to see what comes up with future beta releases. [sad]
 
CABMEISTER said:
I unfortunatly have not been able to install the programme .
It seems there is some sort of conflict in my case at least ,with microsoft .net frameworks 4.
Ah, the joys of Windows.  If you're not sorting out one sort of dependency, it's another.

I installed it at work without much fuss.  But it looks like it's going to be slow as a pig.  Simply launching seems to take forever.
 
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