Autodesk Goes Desktop Subscription Only in 2016!

Autodesk just announced that in 2016 they are making a move to Desktop Subscription. This change takes effect on February 1, 2016.

What does this mean? Next year if you purchase a new license of an Autodesk product you can only get it as a Desktop Subscription. This type of license is a pay-as-you-go model. Essentially you pay each month, each quarter, or once a year. Once you stop paying you no longer have the license. Stop paying and you can't use the software.

What happens to your current licenses? Nothing. they will continue to work just as they always have. All perpetual licenses are still perpetual meaning you can continue to use it as you always have. If you have a Maintenance Subscription License you will still receive your benefits accordingly as long as the subscription remains current. That means you will still be able to pay your yearly subscription fee to continue on as you have been. Nothing will change for you. You just can't get a new Maintenance Subscription after February 1, 2016 because you can't get a perpetual license.

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.

2012 the Year of the Software Update

I am dubbing 2012 “The Year of the Software Update” because of all of the major updates that are scheduled to take place.  Autodesk has a yearly update schedule and if they follow what they’ve done since 2003 the next release of AutoCAD® should have a new DWG file type.  Adobe has announced that they too are on a yearly release cycle for their Creative Suite® with CS 6 due this year.  Solidworks yearly cycle will give us a new version this year.  Draftsight seems to be on a yearly release that should come out this April. Now Microsoft has announced that Office 15 will come out this year.  On top of that Microsoft Windows 8 is also scheduled to release this year.

AutoCAD 2006 to AutoCAD 2010 - Upgrade or not?

It's that time of year again when one release of AutoCAD goes quietly away and the next comes barging in. On March 24th AutoCAD 2010 will be released and soon to ship. On March 13th, AutoCAD 2006 (and other 2006 releases of Autodesk software) will be retired. Friday the 13th! What a day to retire on right? It would be better to retire on March 14th, Pi Day!

Regardless if you are currently using AutoCAD 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009, will you be updating to AutoCAD 2010? What do I recommend? I recommend subscription to be honest. It is a much larger cost up front, but in the long run, it's more economic and you get more, for less. BUT, what is right for me, may not be right for you. If you are an individual and only have one or two licenses for your small office or firm, then maybe you are better off updating every few releases and not staying on subscription.

Autodesk has a legacy program that you might be interested in. I wanted to share the link with you to help you decide what course of updating is right for you.

Autodesk Retirement Program

There are cost calculators here, plan information, reseller links, etc. What you do is your business. I wanted to make sure you had some tools to help you understand the costs in updating your CAD software.

Did yo notice that I keep saying UPDATING instead of UPGRADING? Yes I know I said UPGRADE in the title, but well, forgive me. I feel that there is a difference. An upgrade implies improvement, and update means you have the latest. I strongly feel that AutoCAD 2010 is indeed an upgrade, but not everyone will, because some never do. Some times users update their software version simply to be compatible with others. So they are not upgrading but updating. I also feel more comfortable using that term. What do you think? What is the difference between an UPGRADE and an UPDATE? Will you be updating or upgrading to AutoCAD 2010?