Software download guidance and support

• You will need to make an account with Autodesk.com
• You will need a student letter to download the software, please use this form to request a student letter.
• Check your computer has the correct specs needed. We recommend consulting with a competent computer technician who can advise you. We have been advised that an i7 processor minimum is needed as well as a graphics card but feel free to ask advice on this. For more specific specs check here.
• Do not download the 30-day trial as you will have to uninstall the trial once your 30 days expire and reinstall the student version as per these instructions.
• MAC users:
• Use Chrome to download AutoCad NOT Safari.
• While AutoCad is available in both PC and Mac platforms since the interface on a Mac is different and the locations for the icons are located in different places, we don’t recommend learning on a Mac as the teacher uses a PC. We do give some cheat sheets to help you but it will take extra time until you are familiar with the differences. (Once you know AutoCad, you’ll be able to use your MAC)
• Revit is not available in MAC version so if you are a MAC user, you can try to install a virtual PC environment and see if you can install Revit there. Your computer technician may have to help you with this.

Instructions to download:

• AutoCad can be downloaded via this link. The product looks like this. Please do not download AutoCad Architecture. Just Autocad on its own like this icon.
• 
• Please choose 2025 from the versions available to download under the AutoCad drop down options
• Revit can be downloaded via this link.  For Revit Self-Paced, please download version Revit 2025
• The school location is in the UK
• The name of the school is Design Alive (Salford UK) (or Design Alive) is listed under University/ Post Secondary school (institution type)
• You MUST choose the correct institution type or you won’t find Design Alive on the list and we do not know how you can correct it if you choose the wrong institution type 
• Please use UK for school address (as opposed to USA) UK address 97 Singleton Road Salford M7 4LX UK, (if UK address doesn’t work) US address for Design Alive: 18 Village in the Woods Southern Pines, North Carolina 28387
• Course expiry is 1 year from the date you download.
• The area of expertise is architecture if they ask for it.
• Only select the current month of start date and NOT a future month or you will get an error message We’re experiencing some problems accessing your Autodesk account. Please try again later.

Common Autodesk software download Issues

• Autocad shuts down and a tab pops up saying that the product license is no longer available. This is likely due to a filter such as Techloq, especially if installed after Autocad was installed). Please contact Techloq to allow all Autodesk software fully.
• If you are experiencing general problems with Autodesk, please go to Autodesk support for more help. They don”t know about any potential filter issues
• For help to renew your subscription, please view this.
• A known error caused by Techloq filter is that when Autodesk ask you to select a school from a dropdown list, no schools show up, please contact your filter if this is the case.
• If you do not have a filter and Design Alive does not appear, you can try selecting any school and on a subsequent page it may allow you to add design alive and upload proof.
• If once you have downloaded AutoCad and it’s asking you for a serial number it is likely your filter is blocking the program recognising you have a student version. You will need to be in touch with your filter company to add Autodesk to the approved lists. Techloq and NativUSA have known issues and removing the filter whilst installing the program is advisable.
• If you are experiencing other error messages then you may want to try to download through the virtual agent https://ava.autodesk.com/ who will give you an alternative link to download the software.
• Autodesk does not have any phone support at all and their chat support is not always very helpful. If you experience issues with your download, we suggest you first contact Design Alive as we are VERY familiar with alot of known errors and should be able to assist you, please complete the form below and include a screenshot of your error and we will do our best to help you.
• Some AutoCad error messages and solutions are provided here.
  • Autocad error message and solution
  • AutoCad error message and solution