# Rayon for faculty ## Rayon is the best online CAD software, enabling faculty and students to teach and learn architecture/interior design in a modern, collaborative platform. Rayon is **free for students from accredited institutions!** * To set up your account, you can create your **free faculty account** [**at this link.**](https://www.rayon.design/app/auth/student-signup) * If your institution is not accredited, [**simply feel in this form.**](https://b1kzip68v9f.typeform.com/to/d9WNl3bl#source=docs) *** ### What is Rayon? Rayon is an **online, collaborative software for architects, interior designers**, etc allowing users to draft, stylise and present their work. It is a one-stop-solution to create complete drawing sets. More importantly, Rayon is **a professional CAD tool**, that offers the full depth that is typical to well known drawing software in the AEC. Here are some useful links to discover Rayon... * [Rayon 20-minute demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2kc4kXJrkA) * [Rayon's website](https://rayon.design) * [Rayon's signup page](https://www.rayon.design/app/auth/student-signup) ### Why use Rayon to teach? Our hope by opening the software for free to faculty and instructors is **to finally offer a collaborative CAD environment that provides architecture and interior architecture/design curriculums the means to teach with a modern tool set**. As a professional CAD environment that supports multiplayer editing and reviewing, Rayon is essentially **the ideal platform to gather architecture/interior design students,** and is adopted by 150k+ students around the world. ### How does Rayon work?
1) Start simple: create an account * Rayon is simpler to access than legacy software; all you need is a browser. * To get started, you can [create an account right here](https://rayon.design/app/auth/student-signup). * Everything about Rayon signup steps [can be found here](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/rayons-basics/signing-up). **Tip** — We recommend you install our native app, to access Rayon faster. [Download page here](https://www.rayon.design/download).
2) Work with the data you already have: DWG / CTB / PDF, etc * **Rayon allows you to work with the files you already have** (DWG, PDFs, Images). * **DWG** can be read entirely. Rayon transposes their entire layer structure, blocks, hatch files etc. Import is lossless, making you feel like you started within a CAD software you already know. * **CTBs** can be entirely replicated easily in Rayon, by using Rayon's styles. More on this [topic right here](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/design/styles).
3) Draft like you know how * **Drawing habits from legacy CAD softwares translate in Rayon, to make you feel at home:** Rayon works with a command line, tools can be called using shortcuts, drawing are organised with layers, etc. * Everything about Rayon's design experience [can be found here](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/design).
4) Prepare your class' content * Models you make can be shared with students by inviting them as co-editors. [More about sharing ability here.](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/rayons-basics/sharing-commenting-annotating#h_f9c38d116b-1) * Models can also be turned into templates to facilitate sharing them to your class. Also, your students can be gathered in a shared repository (a workspace), where they can deposit their work. These features are part of the *academia* plan, for which your university needs to apply if it is not part of our program already. [Please submit this form](https://b1kzip68v9f.typeform.com/to/YnkcFT25#source=docs) to give your school access to Rayon's full scope of sharing features. * Everything about libraries and templates [can be found here](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/publishing-and-sharing/publishing-a-library).
5) Chat and offer feedbacks * Rayon is a **multiplayer software**. * It is the first software for architects that finally brings live co-editing to design teams. * Additionally, Rayon allows you to comment/annotate your work, to make sure your team stays in sync. * Everything about Rayon's collaborative layer [can be found at this link](https://docs.rayon.design/documentation/rayons-basics/sharing-commenting-annotating).
### FAQ Questions faculty usually ask, answers we usually give!
Is my school/university accredited already? To know, simply create a Rayon account using your institutional email, and choose the "student/faculty" option in the onboarding. If your school is accredited, you will receive a validation email right after the end of your onboarding, confirming that you have been granted a student account.
My university does not provide faculty with institutional emails. Can I send you my student ID for proof? Unfortunately, no. Non-institutional emails (like Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) will not be eligible for a faculty account.
I created a Rayon account, but I did not mention I am a faculty in the onboarding. How can I fix this? That should not be a problem; even if you did not take the right step during the onboarding, you should have received a free student plan if your institution is accredited.
My school gave me an alumni email; can I use it to get a student plan? Unfortunately, no. We only grant a faculty plan to active/enrolled faculty. Alumni email are therefore not accepted.
*** ### We are always available Book a demo with our team, [right here](https://b1kzip68v9f.typeform.com/to/Hgr0eQ4k#source=docs).\ To get some support, reach out to us through our **in-app support chat**. \ More about [our support policy right here](/other-resources/others/support.md). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.rayon.design/other-resources/rayon-for-studying/rayon-for-faculty.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.