Project Twitch Application Trials: Maya oh my

We have been getting great feedback on our technology preview of running our applications using the cloud. We want you to be able to try our latest versions of AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit without installing them.

Application Trials on Autodesk Labs

At this point you can work with the sample files provided to see how new features work, but you have asked for the ability to use your own data. We recognize that for a real trial you need to work with your own data. This is on our roadmap for consideration in a future update.

When we first launched we wanted to make sure users had a great experience. We limited usage to those within 1,000 miles of the Bay Area. We did this because proximity to the data center plays a factor. If you get too far away, physics takes over and the amount of time it takes for data to travel becomes a factor. Many of you who have really good internet connectivity but are more than 1,000 miles away asked if you could try it. So we changed the check from measuring distance away to measuring internet latency and packet loss. So now if you are anywhere in Canada or the United States and have enough bandwidth, you can try it.

Though you are all thrilled to try AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit in this way, many of you also wanted to try Maya in this fashion. We heard you. We have added Maya 2010 to the technology preview. So now you have four applications to chose from. Please try them all and let us know what you think at labs.trials@autodesk.com. We would also appreciate it you would complete the short survey at the end of your experience. Your feedback is critical to our future efforts regarding application trials via software as a service.

For the case of Maya, we have some tutorial videos available, so we have enabled audio for the technology preview. Since the Project Twitch servers use QuickTime to play the videos on your behalf, you need to accept the QuickTime license agreement as part of the trial. The trial process does not install QuickTime on your computer.

Expanding our technology preview to the media and entertainment world is alive in the lab.