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VectorWorks for students

If you register (and qualify as as student) at http://student.myvectorworks.net/ you can download and activate VectorWorks as an educational version.
  • The student version is always the "previous" version. Will very soon be r2010 when r2011 is released. Now only r2009 is available. (edit: according to the comments, it seems that the most recent 2011 version should be available for students soon)
  • It is free and available for OSX and Windows.
  • The student version has a visible banner on all output. When your school has a lab-license, this allows you to print without banners.
  • The software is fully functional and additional modules such as RenderWorks are included.
The software has come a long way since the old "MiniCAD" I used in architectural practice. But despite that, I'm not still not fully convinced on the 3D interface. But even then, I did create some very usable 3D scenes even with the "first" VectorWorks version, so it can only be better than what it was.

What I still don't get is in how far this really is "2D, 3D & BIM" whenever you want. It does not go as far as ArchiCAD or Revit on the BIM side, but it gets closer with every release.
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Comments

  1. Nick La Forest22 September, 2010

    Stefan,
    I would like to correct the statement you made on what versions are available on the student portal. We ALWAYS have the most current shipping version on the portal. On September 14th, our English resellers released 2011, and it is now available all over the world. Other non-english countries are going to release in the near future, and at that point we will make those versions available on the portal also. If you have any other questions about the student version, e-mail me: Nick@Vectorworks.net.
    Thanks,
    -Nicholas La Forest

    ReplyDelete
  2. stefkeB22 September, 2010

    Thank you for your addition. AFAIK, the dealer who contacted me today told me that the student version would still be one version behind the commercial one. I personally don't care too much, as long as the version we would use in our class is the same as the version students request.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jonathan Pickup22 September, 2010

    You can find Vectorworks tips and tricks at this blog:
    http://archoncad.blogspot.com/

    an youtube movies at this link:

    http://www.youtube.com/archoncad

    ReplyDelete

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