Instructables Joins Autodesk
The Instructables community is incredible: you build, bake, and create amazing things, then share your projects and ideas with the world. I think it’s great when someone builds a project using instructions from our site, but it’s even more amazing when we inspire someone to start (or finish) that project they’ve always dreamed of. This has been my vision for Instructables: to have a positive impact on the world by giving passionate people great publishing tools to document their projects, and connect them to a community full of like-minded people.
Today I’m able to share my plan for accelerating that vision, and making Instructables an even better place to be. I’m proud to announce that Instructables is becoming part of Autodesk. Everyone here at Instructables HQ is absolutely thrilled, because this is going to be awesome for the entire Instructables community.
Instructables will still be the same site you love: we’ll keep the Instructables name and URL, the whole team is staying on, our policies haven’t changed, you still hold copyright to your projects, we’ll still run awesome contests, and the Robot isn’t going anywhere. However, we’ll now have the resources to make some improvements to the site I know our authors and community will love. Autodesk gives us the scale and support to grow and improve Instructables, build some great apps, and continue our mission of creating a positive impact on the world. Everyone on the Instructables team will become Autodesk employees, but we'll still wear our Robot t-shirts with pride.
Autodesk is a great cultural fit for Instructables. They make tools for creative people: they’re the world leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Even if you don’t recognize the name Autodesk, their software has powered the movies you watch, and designed the cars you drive and the buildings you work in. Instructables will be the community arm of the same team that makes 123D, SketchBook, Homestyler, and Pixlr, which will help provide creative tools, inspiration, and services for all types of creative people. Here’s Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO, talking more about his vision for the future of DIY.
We’ve had a great time building Instructables, and look forward to taking it to the next level. Thanks to the Instructables team for all their hard work, our investors including O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures and Baseline Ventures for believing in us, and to all the authors and community members who have made Instructables a great place to learn and share ideas.
I’m confident Autodesk will be a great home for Instructables, and will help us make Instructables an even better place to share your projects and ideas. I’m excited to join the Autodesk team, and get right to work. I’d also like to hear what you think: click here for info on an upcoming live Q&A event, and click here to suggest how we should co-opt the resources of a multi-national corporation to make Instructables even more awesome.
This announcement is duplicated on our blog here.
Today I’m able to share my plan for accelerating that vision, and making Instructables an even better place to be. I’m proud to announce that Instructables is becoming part of Autodesk. Everyone here at Instructables HQ is absolutely thrilled, because this is going to be awesome for the entire Instructables community.
Instructables will still be the same site you love: we’ll keep the Instructables name and URL, the whole team is staying on, our policies haven’t changed, you still hold copyright to your projects, we’ll still run awesome contests, and the Robot isn’t going anywhere. However, we’ll now have the resources to make some improvements to the site I know our authors and community will love. Autodesk gives us the scale and support to grow and improve Instructables, build some great apps, and continue our mission of creating a positive impact on the world. Everyone on the Instructables team will become Autodesk employees, but we'll still wear our Robot t-shirts with pride.
Autodesk is a great cultural fit for Instructables. They make tools for creative people: they’re the world leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Even if you don’t recognize the name Autodesk, their software has powered the movies you watch, and designed the cars you drive and the buildings you work in. Instructables will be the community arm of the same team that makes 123D, SketchBook, Homestyler, and Pixlr, which will help provide creative tools, inspiration, and services for all types of creative people. Here’s Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO, talking more about his vision for the future of DIY.
We’ve had a great time building Instructables, and look forward to taking it to the next level. Thanks to the Instructables team for all their hard work, our investors including O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures and Baseline Ventures for believing in us, and to all the authors and community members who have made Instructables a great place to learn and share ideas.
I’m confident Autodesk will be a great home for Instructables, and will help us make Instructables an even better place to share your projects and ideas. I’m excited to join the Autodesk team, and get right to work. I’d also like to hear what you think: click here for info on an upcoming live Q&A event, and click here to suggest how we should co-opt the resources of a multi-national corporation to make Instructables even more awesome.
This announcement is duplicated on our blog here.


















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http://www.homestyler.com/designer
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/FAQ-How-To-Using-Autodesk/Simple-Steps-to-Getting-Started-in-the-Forums/td-p/3122830
Meaning, could an international participant use a US shipping address if they won? I would volunteer to let someone ship to my address and then send it on to them.
Or would that make me a prize mule?
I absolutely love Sketchbook so I'll be very interested to see what other new software they develop, especially in the low/mid range market.
Re: software, I've learned about a ton of neat free and inexpensive stuff in the pipeline, and there's likely more I haven't heard about yet. ;)
I would love to see Autodesk develop something like Pepakura Designer that runs native on the Mac- that would be epic. :)
Cool. Feel free to keep the suggestions coming. ;)
Each day there is a new reason for me to learn English.
Thanks Eric and all staff! You are very good friends for me!
Seriously though, congrats to Robot and his minions, and here's hoping that Autodesk allows you all to continue doing what made the site worth buying in the first place.
(how did the musical go?)
I hope this is a sign that Autodesk is going to support the creative community a little better. I use Autocad professionally, but don't use it for my "making", CNC work, etc, because I can't afford it. Alibre Design has a $199 version for hobbists that is quite full featured. Autodesk has always supported students well, but I would love to see Maker-Friendly versions of their software for people who aren't using it to make tons of money.
These days not everyone gets into serious design through the usual educational track - supporting makers and hobbyists means growing a new community of future "full license" users who have had a chance to learn and become familiar with the software.
I object to your use of "the creative community" to differentiate presumably from the engineering users of AutoCad and the ilk, engineering is itself a creative endeavour.
Steve
I would love to have a real piece of design software that I could play around with on my Mac at home, but I've stuck with using
xfigbecause I don't like throwing Real Money at my toys. My lab engineer (at SLAC) uses SolidWorks for our real projects.If you have suggestions, please share them!
The two most recent competitions are open only to entries from US and Canada. Is this now the norm, or is it just coincidence?
HQ is in the US, and has no subsidiary companies or offices in other countries, so is wholly and only subject to US (California) laws.
As AndyGadget said:
So are you saying they're planning several more pages of entry T&Cs detailing the conditions of entry for each eligible country? Where I've looked in any detail at the T&Cs of any other similar competition I've always seen a catch-all to cover this.
Section 9 of the new T&Cs already states :-
"Representations. By entering the Contest, each entrant represents and warrants that: (a) the entrant meets all eligibility requirements of the Contest; (b) in entering and participating in the Contest, the entrant has complied and will comply in all respects with these Rules and all applicable statutes, regulations, and other laws; and . . . "
Surely, all that's required is a line which states that eligibility for the contest may vary in other jurisdictions and the onus is on the entrant to verify this.
If the restriction continues, it *will* damage the very community that AutoDesk thought they were buying...
Plus, the contests inspire us to generate ideas that would not otherwise be conceived.
And perhaps more importantly, it doesn't feel nice to be excluded from a group that we were once so happily part of.
On a more positive note...
I received a Robot tee shirt in the post a few weeks ago and haven't yet been woken in the dead of night by the sound my door being broken down by secret police.
I think it's safe to include Australia in competitions.
Steve
+1
So are you saying they're planning several more pages of entry T&Cs detailing the conditions of entry for each eligible country? Where I've looked in any detail at the T&Cs of any other similar competition I've always seen a catch-all to cover this.
Section 9 of the new T&Cs already states :-
"Representations. By entering the Contest, each entrant represents and warrants that: (a) the entrant meets all eligibility requirements of the Contest; (b) in entering and participating in the Contest, the entrant has complied and will comply in all respects with these Rules and all applicable statutes, regulations, and other laws; and . . . "
Surely, all that's required is a line which states that eligibility for the contest may vary in other jurisdictions and the onus is on the entrant to verify this.
Instructables contests are not, though, a lottery, being subjectively judged by humans against pre-published criteria, not randomly selected by a computer or bucket full of balls.
The only restrictions, geographically-speaking, should be those set by individual sponsors.
Steve
We're working with the lawyers to make sure we're in compliance with all the local laws, and will be adding countries as fast as we can. There are some remarkably idiosyncratic regulations, so it's a bit of a process. This is something I'm specifically working on. In case anyone's interested, we're going to be trying to add countries in order of who has won the most prizes in previous contests - seems most fair/efficient.
Back to reviewing legalese! Hope I have good things to report soon. But as Eric keeps repeating, following the law is a Good Thing.
For the most part :)
Steve
with the soft ware they produce, non friendly to each other, import/export unfriendly, module dependent, exorbitant licensing fees, and too many companies used to be excellent, until they bought them, then they become middle of road, or low end junk without support, did i forget "pay as u go support"
I am truly sorry for this site, so much good has come from it, and auto cad must definitely see where they can make more money than u do, make more fees or charges, and commercialize the site to auto cad garbage, otherwise they'd have left u alone
That's not just nitpicking, but a pretty important difference. There's really no way that Autodesk software would make any sense as a requirement for any Instructable or Instructables user. Revit for recipes? That would be a wasteland.
To get a better grasp of what this all means, I'd recommend checking out what Phil Torrone wrote about it here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Autodesk-Acquires-Instructables-What-It-Means-for/
Sean B -
ipad alternatives
DraftSight
On the upside, thanks for providing a bit of vote-of-confidence to offset all the naysayers. I'm not sure whether to read your comment positively or not, though: "no potential for cross-pollination" rather goes against the argument which both Eric and Phil Torrone have made about the acquisition -- that Autodesk wants to use Instructables as a way to learn about (or infiltrate :-) the maker community.
-Frank
P.S. Has anyone noticed the subliminal photo at the top right of this page? Is a turn signal biking jacket indicating a left turn. Could this be a secret indication of where the robot is going? :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4&feature=youtu.be
Instructables is a "Why" community - Autodesk is a "What" company.
- longtime lurker
It sure is an exciting move.
I sincerely hope it doesn't change the nice friendly, relaxed "vibe" that I enjoy so much.