Has anyone else noticed the push Autodesk has going on? I saw an add for Inventor in Popular Science (nephew's copy, no flames, please). Then I was watching a recent episode of Monster House (it's where I get most of my design ideas and learn about personnel work relations), and the new set of prizes they give out for completing the project includes the latest version of AutoCAD.
That fits in nicely with the welding kit from ESAB, and the other assorted power tools. Or maybe not. I'm sure it's by far the most expensive item on the table. What a weird marketing strategy.
Might just be trying to build market. Everybody who has it has it and "well it's got great new ways to communicate with the guy in the next cubicle over" aren't really selling the units.
Glad you brought that up. Anyone who's been to architecture or engineering school since CAD programs became widely used could have seen it coming that Autodesk was eventually going to lose market share.
The student prices for their software packages are still too high for students to pay. And they hardly ever reach out to universities to help them run their software packages in computer labs on campus - at least not the way their competitors like the makers of Microstation and FormZ do.
The architects and engineers of tomorrow are the students of today, and those students find it easier, more affordable, and more accessible to learn how to use competitors software than they do Autodesk's. This has got to change if Autodesk wants to keep its market share in the CAD market.
Have you ever done a project for a client at a loss, because you were sure that in the future they would be paying for big projects?
That, in essence is all I'm wishing Autodesk would do. Offer students a legal, safe way to obtain their software at affordable prices - KNOWING THAT IN THE FUTURE AT LEAST SOME OF THOSE STUDENTS WILL PAY FULL FARE.
It's called marketing. And if you don't know what it is maybe you should learn. Might help that little practice of yours.
1: I've never been fired. I was laid off. There is a difference.
2: At the time I was laid off, I was already on an unpaid leave of absence. It was comparatively easy for them to call me and tell me they couldn't take me back on after my leave. That's not the case now.
3: The firm I was in had just lost two of its biggest clients, and there were shakeups going on at the top of the firm. They laid off nearly 20 people in addition to myself. The firm I'm in now is gaining, not losing, clients, and the partners are not at odds with each other.
4: The guys who called me to let me know I was laid off also helped me find other work. They'd have never done that if they had fired me.
It was well over two years ago that I was laid off.
You're the only one who claims I was "whining" about it, Don.
In fact I made only one post to alt.architecture about having been laid off. On January 11, 2003, in which I half-seriously said "damned economy", and asked if anyone knew of job openings in Texas.
Your problem, Don, isn't that I 'live by what -they- say.' (I don't) It's that I don't live by what YOU say.
We went through the same arguments when I was in school...the other companies have better "deals" for students & schools than Autodesk does. Problem is, most firms use AutoCAD and they don't care if you know how to use Form*Z, they want you to be productive in AutoCAD. Autodesk knows this, too. I think this is the reason they bought Revit. Revit seemed to be the only real competition...and now they can effectively dictate Revit's market presence.
But if what Tim brought up is true, then Autodesk's failure to offer good deals to students on their software is catching up to them. Their market share is falling and that of those other companies that offer better deals to students is rising.
Logically, there will be a lag between other companies offering better deals to students and schools, and Autodesk's loss of market share. It takes some time for students to complete their education and rise up high enough in a firm to affect that firm's choice in software.
Also I'd like to point out that Autodesk has a software package titled GMax. It's a 3D Studio Max based modeling program that allows gamers to create their own content for games. Instead of rendering the models to
2D format, it uses plug-ins created by the makers of the games to format the models properly to go into the games.
Here's the clincher - GMax is distributed by Autodesk for FREE. If GMax can be created and distributed for free, it makes no sense to me that AutoDesk wouldn't create a software package specifically intended for students and affordable to them.
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