Autodesk starts giving its 3D design software away to schools globally

Updated 7:39 a.m. PT with comments from Autodesk and to clarify what’s being offered to schools.

Today Autodesk announced it’s doing something benevolent with its 3D design monopoly: It is making its software “free to schools worldwide.”

This news arrives with little surprise; Autodesk has long offered some free software to college-level students, and earlier this year it made its software free for middle and high school students based in the U.S. Autodesk says this expansion will make its software “more accessible especially to high school students internationally.”

To be clear, Autodesk tells us it originally charged “[educational] institutions to use Autodesk software in labs and on campus and in the classroom.” Autodesk is no longer charging educational institutions, although the service apparently made up “a significant source” of the company’s revenue.

As of today, Autodesk’s deal is rolling out to “more than 680 million students and educators from over 800,000 secondary and post-secondary schools in 188 countries.”

The free software comes with some major restrictions, however. Students aren’t allowed to use Autodesk apps like AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and Maya, for commercial use. Still, the deal is more generous than the discounts offered by one of Autodesk’s chief competitors, Adobe.