Watermarked student version for non-students?

[gmyhre22]

Hi all,

I've been a stay home mom for the last 5 years, but am looking to get back in the workforce in a few years.  I've wanted to move into a design/drafting career.  I have an old version of AutoCAD (2002) that I bought when in college, but not for coursework - just as a hobby.

I want to get familiar with AutoCAD, but I'm not really in a position to do a full course.  What I would like would be to have access to the student version.

So my question - can either of the student versions be used by non-students?  I'm happy to pay the $150 or so for the student version, or (better yet) get the free 3-year student trial.  100% fine if everything is watermarked - I've no interest in doing anything official with it - I just want to self educate.

Does anyone know?  If anyone could help out that would be great.

Cheers,

Gretchen.

[joane.bonghanoy]

Hi Gretchen,

Our Education Community Site was created for students who wants to practice and learn any of our Products for free. For more details on its eligibility, click EDU Site Eligibility. 

For now, you can try downloading our Trial Version which is good for 30 days. 

[gmyhre22]

Thanks so much for replying.  I'm neither a student, nor a faculty member, nor a mentor or competitor in a competition, so I can't (officially) join the AutoCAD education community.

But I sort of knew that - I'm not a student so it doesn't make sense that I'd automatically be able to get the free student version.  That's why I'm here 🙂

So my questions are:

1. can I get an exception - ie. be allowed to join that community and download the free (watermarked) version, even though I'm not a student - since I'll be using the software to self educate?

2. if I'm not eligible for the free version, can I buy the student version of say AutoCAD Design Suite 2013?  More to the point - I know I can buy it, but will it work?  Or does it require some sort of student validation in order to work?  Or do I need some sort of student id to buy it in the first place?

I know that I can get the 30 day free trial, I just know that I'll need longer than that to learn the software 🙂

[joane.bonghanoy]

Gretchen,

Unfortunately at this time there is no way of obtaining an eligibility exception for the Education Community.

We have already released the 2014 version of most of our Products, thus, we no longer sell 2013 versions. Indeed, if you purchase an Education License from our Education Reseller, Student ID or any proof / validation is needed before it can be activated.