Autodesk to close Subscription Center

Autodesk has announced their plan to close Subscription Center. Subscription Center is a web portal where users can go to manage their Autodesk product licenses, subscriptions and services. This site provides access to download files, tech support, and other services. Autodesk is closing that service on March 13th, 2015.

Fortunately they are replacing it with a new website called Autodesk Account.

http://www.autodesk.com/account

Autodesk Account will be a one-stop place where users can track and manage their licenses, subscriptions, products, services, and benefits. Maintenance subscription customers will be affected most by this change but all Autodesk customers will be directed here and will be able to use this service.

Autodesk says the interface and tools in Account will be simple to navigate and use. I found it much easier to navigate than Subscription Center.

Autodesk product users will not have to wait until March to start using Autodesk Account. It is available now and is fully functional.

Autodesk has supplied a video describing this change and the services available through Autodesk Account.

Autodesk Upgrade Pricing Ends January 31

Autodesk officially ends its upgrade pricing plans this month. After January 31, 2015, Autodesk customers will no longer be able to upgrade their licenses of Autodesk products to a newer version. This has been the practice of many Autodesk clients for decades. Company’s would purchase a license from Autodesk and sit on it for several years. When the need arose they would update to the latest version at a discounted price. This price was substantially cheaper than purchasing a brand new license and they only had to spend the money when they absolutely had to. The only other reason spend money was when a company needed an additional license.

Autodesk software isn’t cheap. A single license for one of their products could cost anywhere from $1000 to $7000 easy (US Dollars).  A single perpetual license of AutoCAD could cost around $4000 (estimated pricing) with the upgrade at half the price, depending on when you update and how old your version was. These upgrade prices changed throughout the years with the price slowly increasing as time went on.

Autodesk Introduces Rental Plans for Design Suites

Autodesk has launched rental plans for a few of their design suites; Autodesk AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite and Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite.  Both are monthly plans and both will cost $95 (U.S.D.) per license.  For an extra $20 (U.S.D.) per month you can add Advanced Support.  Payment can be made through the website where you order the suites via credit card or PayPal.  You can set up your rental agreement to automatically renew itself.