Free! PowerDraft 2004 from Bentley

Christine Byrne alerted me that Bentley Systems extended its "You Deserve Better" competitive crossgrade program to students and educators, who can now download PowerDraft at no cost. PowerDraft 2004 is Bentley's cheaper, less-capable, and under-marketed version of MicroStation.

I tested the offer -- on behalf of my college-going son who dabbles in CAD -- by clicking on www.bentley.com/academic. On that page, I clicked the Download word, and then filled out the form, which asks about the school and a few other questions. When done answering the questions, the 132MB download began automatically after a few seconds of delay.

(There is a warning about turning off pop-up blockers, but I stoically kept Opera's blocker on, and encountered no problems.)

I think the delay was to give me time to read Stuart Albrecht's letter thanking me for participating in the Bentley Academic MicroStation PowerDraft Empowerment Program. "We created this program in response to the academic community’s concerns about rising costs for antiquated 2D software, and your desire to do more robust 3D work. We truly feel that this program, including both software and curricula, will be of great value to both educators and students doing digital and collaborative 2D and 3D design." No mention, however, of refugee AutoCAD users.

The offer inludes a "comprehensive training guide that provides step-by-step exercises to familiarize students with MicroStation PowerDraft and general CAD concepts. In addition, there is an instructor guide with lesson plans for introductory CAD, basic drafting, and comparative CAD."

Following the 14-minute download, I installed the software on my son's computer. Although this offer is aimed at disillusioned AutoCAD users, PowerDraft doesn't start up in AutoCAD compatibility mode. A dialog box offers links to the Student Guide and Instructor Guide, but there is no similar guide for users abandoned by Autodesk's forced retirement of AutoCAD 2000-something-or-other. (Old AutoCADs are being obited so quickly it's hard for me to keep track of which version is now non-current.)

If nothing else, PowerDraft gives you a taste of what MicroStation is like, and helps you decide if it's a better way to draft. And, Bentley hopes that students, upon graduation, will upgrade their academic software licence to a commerical license for US$2,000.

Comments

[jeffery]

i want to get free powerdraft software