2020-2021 School Year
The following software programs are required and used by students in their studies and design work. As you will see below, many are free, but Adobe Creative Suite and Rhino require purchase.
Please note that Apple computer owners will need to use the Windows operating system to run some of this software. Please see the “Important Note to Macintosh Users” below.
Primary software
These products are required for both graduate and undergraduate students.
| Software | Platform | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) |
Win/Mac | Free | SU provides Microsoft Office for free to all active students. Click here for info. Graduating students can get a year of Office 365 for $12 post-graduation. |
| Digital Imaging | |||
|
Adobe Creative Cloud Student & Teacher Edition (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Pro + other products) |
Win/Mac | $240/yr or $20/mo for 1st year (new users); then $360/yr or $30/mo | Adobe Creative Cloud is subscription based. Subscribe through Adobe’s website for $20/mo with a one-year contract, but then it goes up to $30/mo. All Adobe products are included with the subscription. |
| CAD | |||
| AutoCAD Architecture | Win/Mac | Free | Obtain through the Autodesk Education Community.* The Mac version of AutoCAD is also available, but is not the Architecture edition and is not as feature complete. |
| 3D Modeling | |||
| Rhinoceros 6.0 | Win | $100 | SU Bookstore price. Rhino 6 licenses include a free Rhino 5 legacy license. You can install both versions 6 and 5 on the same machine. Version 5 is still required for some plugins that are not yet compatible with version 6. (Note: Don’t purchase Rhino for Mac. It’s missing essential features such as certain plugins used by the school.) |
| Rendering | |||
| V-Ray for Rhino | Win | Free | Obtain the V-Ray installation file and installation instructions from the G drive. Find it in G:\ARCH\Student Resources\Software. |
* Once you have an syr.edu email address, register for free to obtain and download the Autodesk software. Visit the Autodesk Education Community and look for the “Sign In” link. Fill out the registration form using your syr.edu email address. When creating a password, please pick a different one than your SU NetID password. After logging in with the new account info, go to the software download section to obtain the free programs.
additional SOFTWARE
These products are for 2nd-5th year undergraduates and graduate students.
| CAD / BIM / Environmental | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Autodesk Revit | Win | Free | Obtain through the Autodesk Education Community.* |
| GIS | |||
| Autocad Map 3D | Win | Free | Obtain through the Autodesk Education Community.* |
| ArcGIS Desktop & Pro | Win | Free | E-mail us at archit@syr.edu to obtain the free license. |
| Google Earth Pro | Win | Free | Download & install. The pro version allows for higher quality printing of maps. |
| Digital Modeling | |||
| 3ds Max | Win | Free | Obtain through the Autodesk Education Community.* |
| Maya | Win/Mac | Free | Obtain through the Autodesk Education Community.* |
| Cinema 4D Studio | Win/Mac | Free | To obtain the software, visit the Cinema 4D Student website. |
| Rendering | |||
| Lumion 3D | Win | Free | Visit this site to obtain a free license. |
Software Copyright
Students must keep the original receipt of purchase of all software. All instructors of course work that use computing media may require students using machines and software not in School computer clusters to provide a copy of the purchase receipt(s) of the relevant application(s). The School requires this to avoid software copyright violations.
Important Note to Macintosh Users
In order to run Windows programs such as AutoCAD Architecture*, Revit or Rhino** on a Mac, you will need a Microsoft Windows license. Windows 10 is now free for students. The preferred method for running Windows uses Apple’s Boot Camp, which is a feature built-in to macOS. We don’t recommend running Windows within macOS using 3rd party programs such as Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, due to performance issues and glitches when running 3D modeling or CAD software.
* The Mac version of AutoCAD isn’t as feature complete as the AutoCAD Architecture version for Windows.
** Please don’t purchase Rhino for Mac. It’s missing essential features and does not support essential plugins such as DIVA used in the school.
