Just announced this morning on Autodesk's AliasDesign site: a preview version of the brand spanking new 2010 release of SketchBook Pro. For FREE.

It won't officially hit stores until sometime in April, but interested digital artist and designer types can head to the site now and download a fully-featured copy that will run for 15 non-consecutive days, enough time to wrap their heads around the thick stack of new features Autodesk is touting, like custom texture brushes, free canvas rotation, and arbitrary straight-edge ruler guides.

An extensive rundown of new features, with video and interview with the SBP product manager is here, trial software download is here for both PC and Mac.

We've been hearing rumblings about other super-spiffy new design-oriented features in the rest of the Autodesk line-up, which may become clearer next month when we head down to Autodesk's Portland offices for more previews -- keep an eye here, and we'll keep you posted.