Designcenter CAD resources for students

Designcenter Student Edition is a comprehensive software download for Designcenter CAD and NX CAM. It is only available for Windows (64-bit). The current version available to download is for the December 2025 release of Designcenter CAD and NX CAM.

Designcenter Student Edition includes:

• Comprehensive 3D design tools including wire-frame, surface, solid, and synchronous modeling
• Full suite of CAM programming tools to allow creation of NC data for 2- to 5-axis and wire-edm machine tools
• Sophisticated freeform shape modeling, surface continuity, analysis, and visualization tools
• Output to 3D printing format supported

It's easy to start your engineering journey. Simply visit the Designcenter Student Edition page, sign up for an account, confirm your email and enjoy your free student download!

The Design Associate (recommended for students) and Design Professional certifications are awarded to students who pass the respective exams. They are virtually proctored exams.

Students who have access to Designcenter through their academic institution will need to reach out to their school or their Siemens account contact for information on vouchers or discounts for the certification exams.

Students who do not have access to Designcenter through their academic institution can use the Designcenter Student Edition for the certification exams and Siemens Xcelerator Academy courses.

Design Associate

This certification exam validates knowledge of determining modeling strategies; creating & editing solid models, assembly models and structures; parametric vs. non-parametric modeling techniques and associative links between parts using Designcenter CAD.

Design Professional

This certification will validate abilities and competencies on surface modelling processes and curve geometry; PMI structures and 3D model usage for downstream application; HD3D tools and validation features and documenting with drafting using Designcenter CAD.

Siemens Xcelerator Academy

It is highly recommended that you follow the Siemens Xcelerator Academy on-demand courses to prior to taking the exams. As a student, you can receive free access to Siemens Xcelerator Academy through verifying your academic status with the SheerID verification process.

Two courses are available on Coursera for learning engineering with Designcenter. Note that the paid certificates offered by Coursera for completing and passing the courses are separate from the Siemens Xcelerator Academy Design Associate and Design Professional certifications.

Intro to Siemens' Designcenter: Engineering Essentials and Part Design is a 15-hour course that teaches the basics of Designcenter CAD/CAM/CAE tools. Prior experience is not required.

Siemens' Designcenter Mastery: Advanced Design & Applications is a 14-hour advanced design and 3D modeling course that builds upon the prerequisite introductory course.

Are you looking for information on behalf of an academic institution? Explore our free academic resources.

Get empowered to teach your students how to create the innovations of the future. The Siemens Academic Partner Program enables free access to student engineering software, training, and curriculum.

Free engineering curriculum material downloads are also available on our website.

Student competition teams can also leverage the Academic Partner Program for free software access for your teams.

For information about getting Designcenter CAD/CAE and NX CAM software for your school or other educator resources, visit our educator page.