• by Dustin , January 25, 2007

It continues to baffle me that software for students is completely out of our price range. If you take a look at the software required in architecture (Adobe CS2, Macromedia, at least one 3D modeler, etc.) you see that in order for a student to remain legally up to date with all the software that’s required, we would have to spend well over $1000 each year.

This is software that we are going to use in our professional careers; software that companies will purchase because we can deliver product using them. But we can’t afford it, so we don’t buy it. We go out and find cheaper solution, which may be inferior, and learn to use that. We develop a skill set using the cheaper software and when we get out of school and into the work place, guess which software is on our resume? Guess which software the firm buys?

It is for this reason I use Rhinoceros 3D Modeling for all my 3D design work. I have found it to be better than AutoCAD for a number of reasons, but one of the original benefits was the price. AutoCAD costs $359* for a student to purchase online vs. $195** for Rhino. This is somewhat ironic, since Rhino originally began as a plug-in for AutoCAD and is now competing for market share.

And I can’t write an article about the cost of software without mentioning Adobe. In their quest for money they have essentially monopolized the market. They bought up Macromedia and now (to buy a package that Macromedia offered for a fraction of the price) it costs $515*. Ouch…

So we’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll stop reaming us, the people who are going to take their software into the future. Maybe not…

* http://www.campustech.com/c/campust/store?mv_arg=AUTO
** http://www.rhino3d.com/edu.htm