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Comment by Claytonious22 | Hacker News Reader

Attempting to register for access takes you to a form that requires you to have an "Autodesk ID" without any obvious way to obtain one - it does say that existing Gameware customers can get access. Thus continues the very trend that makes me dislike Autodesk: a highly corporate, private, limited-access, secretive suite of tools that are only available to a closed club of very high paying, deeply invested customers who are locked in to a pipeline comprised of only Autodesk tools. It just feels so proprietary and exclusionary. I still remember my parallel port dongle for 3D Studio Max back when I was locked into that tool set and the many times I had to fight to make it work to earn the privilege of using tools I had already paid thousands of dollars for.

Yuck.

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Pretty much this; it's like they've got 90% sales and marketing and business people running the show and the software devs are just sticking around because Stockholm Syndrome.

Actually, I took a tour of their SF office (across from the Ferry building) and it seems like a really cool place to work. If anyone gets the chance, I'd check out the little museum they have there which is open to the public. I had always just associated Autodesk with the old 2D AutoCAD software, but they're actually doing really interesting research at the company. I was really impressed. One example I saw was simulations relating to self-assembling machines/structures. And their engineering and industrial design influences make it a nice art/science mixture.

Although not necessarily intended for kids, it's a place I would have loved to visit as a 8+ year old kid.

Googling "Autodesk ID" and the first link is titled: "Creating an Autodesk Account - Autodesk Knowledge Network". Sure - they could have linked to it, but how do you reach the conclusion that this is part of some exclusionary club?

You can go to https://accounts.autodesk.com/register to make one, it's easy.

Yes, I've no doubt that I could dig just a little deeper and get access. I didn't claim it was prohibitively difficult to eventually get setup or that I couldn't do it; I'm objecting to the need to "get an autodesk id" in the first place and the entire culture that is wrapped around that need.

Agree, it should be easier. After registering, think it's possible to sign-in to most of the adsk systems via either the email/passwd or adsk-id/passwd combination.

What? For what it is, Autodesk is probably one of the most liberal and open companies I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with!

They give away all of their software for students (without a crazy verification system!). Obviously they can only do so much, but I've always felt that they've done a lot to make their stuff accessible.

Yes, I can't count the number of times I've watched indie game devs pretend to be students in order to get access to some Autodesk tools. Having to go through that charade compared with most much more open software (either truly open, or simply affordable so the charade isn't needed), is what I dislike.

I don't expect any company to be obligated to act as a charity or to offer its products for free. I also don't expect anything from Autodesk. I dislike their proprietary approach to things, which is fine because there are lots of other choices. For many, it's worth it. I'm just expressing my own distaste in their approach.

Are you referring to the form that says "Don't have an Autodesk ID? Signing up is easy" with a link to signing up for one?

Yes. Have you tried the link?

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