I spent a number of summers during college as an Intern for an MEP Consulting Engineering firm and a Design/Build Contractor. This was really my first exposure to the world of CAD and applied Mechanical Design, and proved to be very valuable as I moved into the industry after school.
When I returned to school, there was no good way for me to get my hands on the software I had been using during those summers, as I didn't want to pay for licenses for the software at the time, and my school didn't provide and site licenses for my personal machine. I basically slowly forgot much of what I had learned until the next summer, where it all came flooding back to me...not exactly an ideal scenario to prepare me for usage of the tools after graduation.
Those days are over now, with the Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community, which exists to provide free software to college students and faculty, as well as provide an online community for exchange of information. My colleague in our educational team was kind enough to supply me with the official marketing blurb on the community, so I'll add it below.
Join the
Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community - a networking site for post
secondary students and faculty, where you can download Revit
MEP and other Autodesk 3D products for FREE*.
Faculty
can take advantage of the Faculty Lounge area to access learning
resources, curriculum materials, and hold faculty-only forums.
Advance
your skills outside of the classroom with a free Student Edition of Revit MEP,
easy-to-use online tutorials and resources, industry articles, product tips,
job listings, Q&A forums, and more!
Register
to join the
Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community today!
· Start exploring Revit MEP today by
taking advantage of interactive
learning modules
* FREE products subject to the terms and
conditions of the end user license agreement that accompanies download of the
software.