Autodesk Gives Away Inventor Fusion For Free As 123D
In my earlier post titled “Autodesk’s Plans For Inventor Fusion” I wrote:
Inventor Fusion will be the application that will be targeted to the “Do It Yourself” market. In my last post I mentioned that Autodesk was interested in going after the large DIY market. These people are not very CAD literate, if at all. So giving then a history based parametric modeling system like Inventor may not be the best way to go about it. Inventor Fusion seems to be the perfect solution for them. But Fusion does not have drawing capabilities. When I asked Buzz about that he smiled and replied, “You’ll see“.
Today Autodesk announced the release of Inventor Fusion free for everyone as an application called 123D targeted to the DIY or maker market. Previously you needed to have a license of AutoCAD or Inventor to get Fusion. Not any more.
Autodesk is partnering with 3D Systems, TechShop and Ponoko to help users get their models built. It appears that this announcement has been timed for the Maker Faire to be held on May 21st and 22nd to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I salute Autodesk for opening the doors of direct modeling to every one. Google gave the AEC space a wonderful and free tool in SketchUp. Autodesk has done the same to the MCAD space with 123D. I hope 123D enjoys the same success of SketchUp and more.
Today is a good day for the CAD software industry. And I’m celebrating. Hic!