The details are finally in.... ArcView for Free

In the most exciting software related news I've heard in years ESRI and Carlson have joined forces to better serve their clients. As I indicated in my last post, we were just waiting on the details. The details are in.

All users of a Carlson product based on the Intellicad Engine will receive a GIS Starter Kit.

The kit contains:

ArcView 9.3.1
GIS Tutorial (a great book with step by step instructions to get you started)
A to Z GIS (dictionary of important GIS terms)
ArcView Data & Maps 9.3.1 (5 data dvd's)

1. Data and Maps and StreetMap North America
2. Global Imagery and Shaded Relief - North and South America
3. Global Imagery and Shaded Relief - Europe and Africa
4. Global Imagery and Shaded Relief - Asia and Australia
5. Elevation and Image Data - World
   

Wow. There is some awesome and powerful stuff here.

So, I hope some of you are wondering, how do I get the GIS Starter Kit?

Call 1-800-GIS-XPRT (1-800-447-9778). You will need to tell them you are a Carlson ICAD user and want the kit.

When I called they asked me where I was located and told me to send an email request to an ESRI employee who was assigned to my territory.

In my email I was to include:

Name
Company Name
Physical address
Mailing address
telephone #
email address
Carlson with Intellicad Serial #

In a week I received my package and have been learning some really cool stuff every day since.

A few days before I received the package I got an email from ESRI. When you get this email, print it. The email contains registration information you'll need when you install your software.

There are some important things to understand about the free offer.

They have limited the offer to one free starter kit per company. (That does not seem unreasonable since they are giving people $1,700 worth of products.)

You need to provide the physical address because they ship the products via UPS.

You will want to have some time to devote to learning the software once you install it. The data that is available is mind boggling. This might be a really great time to think about setting up a company GIS to track your jobs.

If anyone isn't sure whether or not they qualify, or has any questions about the GIS Starter Kit, please do not hesitate to contact me at 336-846-1101. If you are using CG 7, or 8 or 9, this might be a good time to think about upgrading. The good news those who upgrade now should be eligible for a free copy of the next release which is due out in the next couple of months.

Larry P