Back at Solidworks World in San Diego, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview Lynn Allen from Autodesk. Lynn was a very good sport about the whole thing, and she did answer some pretty tough questions. Since then Lynn and I have kept contact somewhat through blog comments, emails etc. I recently had situation where I needed some help, and Lynn was able to step in.
One of the guys at work has a son that is going to a school that teaches CAD. This particular school teaches Autocad, and also Inventor to their students. The school is about 25-30 miles from his house, so going to school to use the computer lab to complete homework was getting pretty costly for this student. I recommended he try to obtain a student version of Inventor that he could use at home. The Autodesk student program is designed to be set up by an instructor, and then that allows for his students to download the free software (yes, Autodesk student software is free). After meeting with resistance from his instructor, the student was pretty much at a dead end for getting into the student software program. On his behalf I sent Lynn an email explaining the situation. A few days later Lynn was able to come through with a direct link where the student could go and download the software he needed.
In the emails Lynn and I exchanged about this topic, it was pretty much felt that no matter what platform this student was learning, it was still good to see a young person excited about learning CAD, and doing what he needed to do to get it done.
I want to thank Lynn and the other people at Autodesk that helped out with this request. When we talk about community, its nice to think that it extends beyond the lines of one cad platform, to another.
Hi Mike,
What a terrific thing you did for that student. I applaud you my friend. I also applaud Lynn Allen as well. She is a terrifc lady. I firmly believe something about the future. All the biggest MCAD programs will start supporting one another and we will finally see the long awaited compatibility go to 100%, without having to apply mastering techniques or using nuetral formats and then still having to apply mastering techniques. Perhaps I will see that in my own lifetime. :)
Posted by: Richie | August 07, 2008 at 09:04 PM
Very nice. I love to see communication going on among the different CAD peeps.
Posted by: Josh | August 07, 2008 at 09:52 AM
Mike,
That was really nice of her! You don't find people like that very often anymore. Thanks for sharing this story! It's encouraging!
Posted by: Gabi Jack | August 05, 2008 at 08:16 PM
Great story Mike, way to go.
Devon
Posted by: Devon T. Sowell | August 05, 2008 at 03:50 PM