I hope this leads to some positive changes at instructables.
I've found it a harder and harder to navigate the site, with advertisements and "sign up for premium" type messages everywhere. The amount of advertising, when you are not logged in as a pro member, is insane. Also, the interfaces for posting content feel quite old school, and the last time I posted an instructables I was so frustrated I swore it would be my last. I love the goal and mission of the site but for the last few years it's almost unusable. I wonder if this purchase will breath new life to the site.
I was pretty interested in Instructables until they went premium. Trying to figure out what the images show and a bunch of other issues is pretty annoying. It's just not a resource I check when I'm starting projects.
There has always been consumer level competition for Autodesk products. The reasons they have not been successful are:
1. When you are designing things like bridges, little software bugs have big consequences and among the things Autodesk does well is software testing.
2. Autodesk started out with really stinking good software engineers and they have always kept up that tradition. It's no accident that they chose LISP as their first programming interface - the founders knew how to code and how to architect a piece of software.
3. They made an incredibly bold move almost twenty years ago when they rewrote the entire AutoCAD code base to be object oriented - and they took the heat then never looked back. It's what has allowed them to extend their flagship product to stay cutting edge.
I'll point out that CAD is significantly more mature than video editing was 10 years ago - actually it was more mature ten years ago than video editing is today. It's a market with no real consumer space - people will make and edit many videos, they will only draw up their dream house once or maybe twice - and if they are serious about it they will be using a bootleg version of AutoCad any way.
Most people who are interested in making objects as a hobby have machine tools so that they can be hands on - the idea of sitting in front of the computer rather than a table saw just isn't attractive. It's analogous to artists not running out to purchase HP Designjets and other large format printers - it's the craft which brings most people joy. Abstracting the process onto the computer only attracts a certain segment of the population as a hobby - work of course is another matter.
It may be that Autodesk wants to be part of the personalized design/customization/fabrication movement. Earlier this year they released PhotoFly[1], a consumer-focused application that creates very impressive 3D models from photographs. They also work closely with Shapeways, which prints out 3D models at low prices.
AutoDesk has been trying to diversify their products beyond AutoCAD for hardware users. They have been acquiring a lot of game design tools. AutoDesk owns the two most popular 3D modeling tools: Maya and 3ds Max.
I've found it a harder and harder to navigate the site, with advertisements and "sign up for premium" type messages everywhere. The amount of advertising, when you are not logged in as a pro member, is insane. Also, the interfaces for posting content feel quite old school, and the last time I posted an instructables I was so frustrated I swore it would be my last. I love the goal and mission of the site but for the last few years it's almost unusable. I wonder if this purchase will breath new life to the site.