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The end of upgrades


CADTutor

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Just received the following email from Autodesk:

 

Dear Autodesk customer,

From 1 February 2015 Autodesk will simplify the current upgrade pricing model, which may affect pricing and/or eligibility for upgrades. Autodesk is providing advance notice to help ease the transition and ensure that customers have enough time to plan and budget for any impact on their organisation.

 

As part of this change, Autodesk will no longer offer the option to purchase upgrades for all non-current product versions. Our records show that your organisation may have one or more licences that may be affected by these changes. Please be further advised that upgrade eligibility for Autodesk software licences in release 2008 will end on 31 March 2014.

 

Autodesk is making this policy change to better align with the needs and buying behaviours of our customers. Many Autodesk customers choose to use Autodesk® Subscription as their preferred method of maintaining their Autodesk software.

 

To learn more about this policy change and any customer programs that may be applicable to you, please contact your local Autodesk reseller or visit this page for more information.

So, Autodesk are ending the option to upgrade software - from 2015, you'll have to maintain a subscription if you want the current version.

 

I'd be more impressed if they just came out and said what they meant:

 

Autodesk will simplify the current upgrade pricing model...

 

Yes, by dropping upgrades altogether - that's real simple. :roll:

 

And just what does: align with the needs and buying behaviours of our customers... actually mean?

 

OK, I admit, I already have a subscription, so this won't directly affect me but I imagine a lot of people are going to be very upset about this.

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Why are they stopping upgrades? This makes 0 sense whatsoever...

 

I can't understand how selling the product is "easier" than upgrading the already installed product.

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Why are they stopping upgrades? This makes 0 sense whatsoever...

 

I imagine it's because not everyone wants to upgrade every 12 months - many will upgrade every 3-4 years because the annual changes in the software are minimal. Consequently, Autodesk lose out on a regular annual revenue from those users. By ending the practice of upgrading, they force everyone who wants to use their products to take out a subscription, and thereby guarantee a regular annual revenue for themselves.

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It was inevitable, it's pretty obvious why a lot of companies are going into the cloud, it's not to improve our lives, but theirs

Agreed. Adobe are already there but at least they haven't stopped upgrades (yet!).

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Well, in the end who will complain? They know that in a few years it will be accepted as the norm, so they are willing to take the couple months of customer dissatisfaction to make more money. It's typical big business. They'd rather anger the customers for a certain time and make more money in the end than keep customers happy 100% of the time and make the same amount.

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First they will move us to Subscription then it will eventually be to the Cloud. Inevitable.

 

How many of us download our software rather than request it on a DVD? Eventually getting the program on a DVD will be phased out too. AutoDesk will save money on media, packaging, shipping and handling. And all those savings will be passed on to the loyal customer. And we will all live happily ever after. The End.

 

Makes you want to cry doesn't it?

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So, if you wanted to upgrade from 2010 and you didn't have a subscription, there won't be an upgrade option for the cheaper price? You would have to pay the full $4,000, or whatever it is, to get AutoCAD and it would force you to get a subscription?

My brain is not fully functioning this morning.

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Why are they stopping upgrades? This makes 0 sense whatsoever...
It makes perfect sense. It will keep all platforms current, and thus pour over into the industry. There are many industries that suffer from people and companies not "upgrading" their software, making advancements in technology drag on. This is one reason why Revit is so great: there is zero backward compatibility with Revit versions. No more scenarios like you have in AutoCAD, where you have that lonely contractor that is still using AutoCAD 2002 and can't open the files so you get the email "Can you save down and resend please?". And anyone who wants to throw out the TrueView point, please spare me. What a ridiculous workaround. So with Revit projects, if you don't have a current version then you're out in the cold, so you must keep your platform versions up to date. The market demands it.

 

This is good because it keeps everything marching forward. CAD designer's skills and abilities, platform enhancements, compatibility, the whole nine.

 

The same goes for other areas of technology. Ask any high-level web developer.... Internet Explorer have held back development of internet-based applications for years because it would sit idle within Windows, and people would never run updates. So you have this huge increase in fee for clients, because web developers would make the client happy by pushing the envelope in tech and design, then when they're finished they have to strip things here and there, and downgrade things overall because compatibility with IE is a must. High level web developers have been screaming about this for a decade, if not more. Same with our side of the playing field with CAD applications. Once a market has established a preferred application of choice, then why not continually push it forward? Autodesk has tried to make it happen by offering the cheapest option of going subscription but people still didn't care. They still wasted money by not getting subscription and would let 1, 2 or 3 or more years fly by before upgrading their platform.

 

Now, this does get tricky when you have an untrustworthy software developer known for it's hiccups on new releases being unstable. We'll see how that card is played. This may solve one issue of unnecessary addition of labor, but will add more in the I.T. departments to always have to develop deployments, testing the builds and pushing them out to the end users which can cause I.T. nightmares in the end. But the idea itself is a great one, in my opinion.

 

My $0.02 worth. 8)

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I don't see that many people or companies jumping on the Subscription bandwagon. They will either keep what they have and run it till the day they die or they will start looking at alternatives like Bricscad or ProgeCAD or one of the other clones. Or maybe someone or some company will come along with an entirely new program that will make AutoDesk products look quaint by comparison.

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I don't see that many people or companies jumping on the Subscription bandwagon. They will either keep what they have and run it till the day they die or they will start looking at alternatives like Bricscad or ProgeCAD or one of the other clones. Or maybe someone or some company will come along with an entirely new program that will make AutoDesk products look quaint by comparison.
This may be true for AutoCAD, since that program is on its way out anyways. There are always those who do not like change.

 

*sigh* oh well. ;)

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It makes perfect sense. It will keep all platforms current, and thus pour over into the industry. There are many industries that suffer from people and companies not "upgrading" their software, making advancements in technology drag on. This is one reason why Revit is so great: there is zero backward compatibility with Revit versions.

 

I entirely disagree with you.

 

It only makes perfect sense in the eyes of Autodesk in an attempt to gouge more money out of their customers.

 

We have a subscription so it won't affect us, however I don't think this move will make others want to jump onto a subscription plan. Instead they will just update their software less regularly knowing that they have to pay full price for it when they do update.

 

It won't make everyone use the latest software at all like you seem to think it will. If anything it will do the opposite of that and cause companies to stick with their older software and only update every 5 years or so.

 

Zero backwards comparability is anything but great when you have to work with large teams and external consultants.

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This may be true for AutoCAD, since that program is on its way out anyways. There are always those who do not like change.

 

*sigh* oh well. ;)

 

AutoCad will still be around for a long time. So too will Microstation.

 

AutoCad Civil 3D (outside of America) is a growing disaster and declining in popularity. That will disappear much sooner than AutoCad will.

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  • 3 weeks later...

First thought: AC better not be on its way out... I love that ****.

 

Second thought... this is a ridiculous move on AutoDesk's part. Unfortunately, I agree that most people won't be pissed off long enough or hard enough to make them do anything about it. They'll get their subscriptions, and keep selling crap like this to their users.

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First thought: AC better not be on its way out... I love that ****.
Don't worry, AutoCAD clones will still be out there for ages. $5k a pop for a non-intuitive drafting program just isn't justifiable anymore.

 

AutoCAD has had its time, and it was a good time indeed. Out with the "old" and on with the "new". :)

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AutoCAD has had its time, and it was a good time indeed. Out with the "old" and on with the "new". :)

Most Autocad users wouldn't have a clue there are alternatives to Autocad out there let alone different flavours within Autodesk (Revit - wasn't that Miss Piggy's boyfriend). Autocad is here to stay.

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Yeah, I don't think that many people will want to switch... because user-unfriendly as it may be, it's what we know how to use, and what we've been using for YEARS... I ain't learning some new-fangled program.

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Many people won't "want" to switch but they'll be forced to in the AEC and Manufacturing industry. I can't speak for Civil. I have no clue what lies ahead for that market.

 

AutoCAD isn't designed to handle the information-rich needs of today's design world. Inventor, Revit, etc. are the types of programs that are 100% capable. Revit, for instance, is a SQL database that has a 3D design and project management package built on top of it. So everything you do can be converted to information, and/or the information can be acquired from an external source. Time/Project scheduling, Bill of Materials, linking to online application interfaces, connecting to databases, etc.... all that is possible with the new CAD applications.

 

For industries that need lines, circles and arcs, well then AutoCAD is still king. But in today's world, you can't just use "drawings" anymore. It's shifting, and in some industries it already has shifted. There are industries that have been using SQL-based parametric CAD applications for decades (aerospace industry, vehicle manufacturing, etc).

 

I'm not saying AutoCAD is bad, just saying it doesn't offer what the industry is wanting lately. It certainly isn't "worth" the price tag any longer. It's still a great program and deserves recognition.

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