Student version of MEDUSA4 Personal. Image courtesy of CAD Schroer.
The free software is available to any student regardless of their school or discipline of study.
"We want to give pupils and students the best chance for a successful future by offering them hands-on experience with a professional CAD software package," said Michael Schroer, founder of CAD Schroer.
CAD Schroer reports that the student version of MEDUSA4 is near identical to the commercial program. This includes access to all of MEDUSA4’s design tools and add-on modules. This will enable the students to beef up their skill sets when applying to jobs.
Some of the CAD functionality available in MEDUSA4 includes:
- 3D drawing
- Parametric design
- Sheet metal design
- Color image integration
To help train this influx of student users, CAD Schroer offers a series of free tutorials and FAQ’s on their website. Additionally, students will have access to the MEDUSA4 Personal Help Centre which will be able to field questions about using, installing and downloading the software.
To handle more specific problems, students will also have access to the MEDUSA4 community through online forums.
Unfortunately for CAD Schroer, a plethora of free-for-academics software has been flooding the market recently. This influx of software from large CAD/CAM/CAE providers is intended to hook students onto a particular brand before they move on to professional work in the industry. Though this theory is sound, it makes one wonder why any university would ever pay for software?
This is a particular problem for the smaller software providers like CAD Schroer as they will be pressured to offer free versions to universities as well as individuals. This could significantly cut into their profits.
So the big question is: will this trend kill the academic license market? Or will it start to push out the little guys who target the academic communities with cheaper software alternatives? Comment below.