August 10, 2011 
Autodesk have just launched a public beta of there new free 3D modeling application called Autodesk 123D. The new software looks as though its targeted at newbie 3D modellers (hence the name). At first glance its looks pretty good and from what we can tell it’s based heavily on the Inventor platform… it even has basic 2D technical drawing cabilities which we think is a bit silly when your just going to send your 3D file straight to your 3D printer anyway (unless you want to laser cut them).
Speaking of which Autodesk 123D can output .STL files so you can 3D print your parts on just about any 3D printer out there, including the open source rep rap style machines (we think this may have been one of the core focuses of the software). Its a bit more advanced than Google sketch up but no where near as powerful as a professional 3D CAD system. Still the interface looks great and for people who are just getting into 3D CAD its great to be able to point them to a free application to get started.
You can download the software from here www.123dapp.com
