I attended a STEM conference with the district STEM department called S.L.A.N.T (Science Literacy and Art Integration). One of my dreams in my STEAM class is to introduce CAD design. We are currently tinkering with a basic web based CAD program called tinkercad.com. It is a free web based program and has it advantages and disadvantages. The advantages is that it gets students started. The disadvantages is that it doesn’t render, it’s web based so if the internet is not working, you can’t use it, and features are limited.
But after Autodesk came by, I was so excited to see that there are free educational version of the a variety of Autodesk programs. I got so excited, I started downloading 3ds Max and Maya. The designing power is in our hands not for commercial use though. Can’t wait to install on to the school computers and teach my kids how to design using CAD programs. Below is the link to the educational version of Autodesk programs.