Which free student software is most like autocad 2007

[jonathantimms]

Hi,

 

At college we use aytocad 2007. I am now trying to get a free copy as a student however 2007 is not available.

 

Does anyone know which of the following would be most like autocad 2007?

 

Revit Architecture

Revit Structure

Revit MEP

Revit BIM Solution

AutoCAD Civil 3D

Autodesk Inventor

Autodesk VIZ

AutoCAD Map 3D

Autodesk 3ds Max (30-day trial only)

Autodesk AliasStudio

Autodesk Maya PLE

Autodesk MotionBuilder PLE

AutoCAD Raster Design

AutoCAD Architecture

AutoCAD Electrical

Autodesk SketchBook Pro

 

Many Thanks

 

Jonathan

[hotrodz0321]

Civil 3d & Map 3d is Autocad with extras...you'd have all the functionality of vanilla autocad but with all the civil/map stuff you dont really need

[dbroada]

as that list looks mostly AutoDesk stuff, wouldn't you still have to get the latest (2009) version?

[profcad]

I have my students download AutoCAD Civil or AutoCAD Architecture.

 

If they want vanilla autocad, I have them type MENU, select the acad.cui file and load it. This will load the vanilla AutoCAD menu.

[Bill Tillman]

I'm curious as to what you mean by Free software. If I'm not mistaken even the student versions of AutoCAD are not free.

 

There is one thing you should be aware of. If you use a student version of AutoCAD all your drawings will be stamped with a mark which states as such. A student who I once knew worked on a lot of ACAD drawings from his home using the student version. All the drawings he worked on were then permenately stamped with this mark which a real copy of AutoCAD was helpless to remove. It took many visits from the ACAD sales/techs to clean up all the drawings. Needless to say, this guy didn't work for us too much longer after that. I don't know if the ACAD software still works this way, but usually Free software comes with some kind of price, so there is really no such thing as a free lunch.

[dbroada]

the education software does still watermark its files but the OP said he was a student so there is no conflict there. Had he come on just asking for free AutoCAD he would have got a very different set of replies.

[profcad]

  Quote

I'm curious as to what you mean by Free software. If I'm not mistaken even the student versions of AutoCAD are not free.

 

Students can download some Autodesk software for FREE at http://students.autodesk.com. It is a 13 month licenses. The next year student can download the newest release.

 

They don't offer vanilla AutoCAD or 3D studio Max on this website. Student can purchase these from educationals dealers. I have my students download Civil or Architecture for Free.

[jonathantimms]

That is the website where the software is, and it offers the products i listed, however we use 2007 at college so i wanted to know which one was most like 2007.

 

As for the watermarks etc, im a student at Wakefield College in Yorkshire and i only want the software at home so i can practice my assesment drawings (they wont be published in any way shape or form), as you have to do them in a certain timescale. So if i work the drawings out at home and the best way to go about them, then i will get them right come assesment time. ie i am the only person in my group who is using tan tan radius to draw certain parts of drawings, wheras they struggle to try and work the centre point out, so come assesment day they will be trying to work out how to draw a couple of circles where the centre point coords are not shown, while i will just use TTR against the existing parts i have already drawn. (We draw a screwdriver and a shop sign with a chain for our assesments in the 2d level 2 course)

 

The only other thing i would use it for is just to have a play around and work through online tutorials on things that my course does not cover or to look into things in more detail. At no point do i want this software simply to use it as freeware.

[dbroada]

follow profcad's advice then on which one to download and how to configure it to behave as plain AutoCAD. I think you will only be able to download the 2009 version which will look very different (but check this forum on how to make it look like 2008 which isn't too far from what you are used to). For the basic drawing techniques that you are looking for there shouldn't be too much difference.

 

Try to use the command line rather than searching for icons or menus as the command line commands have remained virtually constant since the very early days of AutoCAD but the menus and toolbars do change frequently.