Topic: 123d Design is going away!
Hard to believe but it will not be downloadable after this month, Mar 2017. Such a simple, powerful and bug free program that has such a following... like I say, hard to believe.
But Autodesk promises better things. As consolation prizes that direct our attention to TinkerCad and Fusion 360, both free except for big companies.
Call me silly but I refuse to build my business on something called TinkerCad. Lots of folks swear by it though.
I have just downloaded Fusion 360, so I know next to nothing about it yet, but it does seem to be a much more sophisticated package. They offer the advanced version for free to Startups, Students, Hobbyists and other non-wealthy entities. It does free form design so you can make "blobs" as well as geometric objects. It also does stress failure analysis. So there's a loot of meat on the bone. I have heard a few rumblings about F360 maybe not being as stable as 123D Design, but I don't know. And the command set is completely different so it will require a big relearn.
Oh, and Fusion requires Win 7, 8 or Win 10 but ONLY the 64-bit version.
I plan to keep both products and use 123D Design as I learn Fusion.
If you want 123D Design you better download it now and hang on to the .EXE.