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?
This is a wonderful post. The things given are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
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dwilson1707
Resell Rights
Thank you for the kind words. I had forgotten about this post until you commented on it. I like this post because it discusses a question that we all have to ask; Do I update or not? If it's a free update, then it's a no-brainer. But when it's a huge cost ($5,000 +/-) it's a big decision. For Autodesk products, the answer is Subscription. In fact, many, if not most, software companies have some sort of subscription like service.
ReplyDeleteThese post are excellent but can someone explain me that how can i convince my bosses to change AutoCAD 2006 to 2010? I mean can u give me some solid point about it.
ReplyDeleteShagufta, I would love to try and help. I know how frustrating it can be working with old, out of date tools to do your work. Why don't you send me an email (see contact page - http://cadablog.blogspot.com/p/contact.html) describing the type of work you and your company does, the number of licenses of AutoCAD you would need and your basic workstation information. I will be happy to put together something that shows the benifits to using a newer version of AutoCAD (now AutoCAD 2012).
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