Autodesk Design Suites - What's the catch?

[DMFACER]

So we're looking at these design suites, and they seem almost too good.  Other than a higher subscription cost per seat when we renew, is there anything else that might come back to hurt us if we upgrade to one of these suites?  Are we missing something?

[pendean]

No catch: the get-you-to-sign-up pricing is just that, just like all retailers do to move inventory and new product lines. Is it because it's a software company doing the retail-store thing that has got you worried? Quite innovative, except Adobe kind of does the same thing with their bundled suites and subscriptions.

And since there is no free ride, you will pay for them with your subscription renewal, after all, you are picking up a lot of extra software year-to-year with the Suites. Enjoy the ride, these are great offers/specials worth taking advantage of quickly.

[acwtzwegers]

The catch is simple: you are paying more for a lot of software that you will probably not use and that you haven't had a use or intrest in before either. If you didn't have a need for, say, 3DS Max before - that need is not suddenly going to arise because you get it for "free" (or rather: "without having asked for it") in a suite.

Of course you may also look at it that you get for example Inventor and AutoCAD (Mechanical) in one package and even if you trash the rest in that same package you may actually end up cheaper then when you bought them seperately... And if you are a first time buyer, this is actually true: you may save a few 10s or even 100s this way. If you already have a subscription, I'm not entirely sure (yet).

Then again... I just thought tying sales was illegal in most states and nations.

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Discussion_Admin

[JamesMaeding]

Note that there is a big catch with products on subscription - you can only use versions three years back (with exceptions if you contact adesk).

This is a big deal, because if you then take things off subscription, you must jump to current version you own.

So say you use 2009 in production, but thought "things are ok, lets pay sub on ver 2010 even though we don't plan to use it".

Then things get tight in version 2011, and you cannot pay sub.  you must jump to 2010 immediately.

Those version jumps can also require better harware and cause all kinds of cad manager activity which some companies do not have available all the time. On top of that, if you only put some products on sub, say 1/2, then you have to jump those to current version and the other half is left on 2009.  That is super nasty, so you have to know how committed the partners are to any kind of partial subscription deals.

[dgorsman]

I don't buy into the "The eeeeevilllll corporation is trying to steal your money!" mindset.  Its up to each company to decide if the the package deal is appropriate for them in terms of cost, what they will use, what they won't use, what support requirements are, when they are going to upgrade, whether the price justifies the unused software, and so on.  AutoDesk isn't required to make a deal or package with substantial discounts for every possible instance.  Even if it would be "nice" if they catered to every company's individual whim its not practical.

[JamesMaeding]

its not stealing, its selling.  Just rearrange the letters a bit to form either word.

Its true though, your decision is your's, do the research and own your decision.

Things are too unstable to really know what Adesk is trying to do.  They get away with the current marketing because people have figured out you must investigate each release to really know if things work.  Autodesk has also figured out many users take no time to educate themselves and just hope the next version will solve things.  So both sides have nothing to say, one rejects the marketing and one swallows it without chewing.

[pendean]

Agree with your sentiment.

I am surprised how we hold software companies to a different standard when it comes to selling: I mean, really, if Carl Bass was at the drive-thru window and shouted "you want fries with that" or "care to upsize it for only 99cents more" no one would think twice about questioning the motives of the company to make profit by selling you more of what you may or may not need 🙂

Selling, it's what Autodesk "the business" does, and what we all do at our companies day in and day out.

[acwtzwegers]

The big difference is that you get the big fries and the 99 cents extra costs weather you want it or not.

Understand me right.. I'm currently having great fun messing with 3D Max at a job where I never thought I'd be able to get it licenced - but its not like as if this company _needs_ it... or Mudbox (why have them both anyways?) etc etc. It's just what we received as our Inventor upgrade this year.

Especially with Autodesk's marketshare and such this could very well count as tied sales - which could get Autodesk into legal trouble.

Personally I think I'd rather have gotten a combined Inventor and AutoCAD (for a REAL sketch mode) with 3DMax rendering capabilities then getting a whole package of loose stuff. The packages are not exactly making sense and Autodesk should really cut down on all its products that directly compete with eachother.

[pendean]

>>>... weather you want it or not....<<<

Only if you blindly buy software without any thought to what you are getting and whether you will use it all or not. You, and ONLY YOU, make that decision, nobody else.

[JamesMaeding]

Also, do not be decieved by the "getting it for free" feeling.  Once they have lots of people on suites, then the price goes up, and they charge downgrade for getting rid of the suite.  They have done this antic many times through the years, we all watched the price of C3D go way up (and come down later too...).

The fact that adesk charges downgrade should catch everyones attention.  They chrge admission and exit fees.

[JamesMaeding]

someone else pointed out to me that the suite licenses are considered different products from FLEXLM's point of view.

So you cannot pool together the non-suite network licenses and suite licenses.

I guess you could get around this by installing both the non-suite acad, and suite acad, but what a rediculous pain (if it would work at all).

Funny how Autodesk does not bother to explain this, seems like they would not want to surprise anyone and inroduce doubt into the trusting relationship that must have existed to cause the purchase.  You don't want any hint of bait and switch with big dollar relationships, yet there are elements of that in the suite deals.

[rhagensee]

Here is an interesting post on someone dealing with the licensing issues from the Design Suites.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Installation-Licensing/Adding-new-Suite-lost-my-Vanilla-AutoCADs/td-p/...