New EAGLE licensing

[jorge_garcia2]

Hello Everyone,

In this post we will be briefly describing how the new subscription model for EAGLE works.

Firstly, the Autodesk licensing model is subscription based and the EAGLE paid license will require that you install the SW and then generate an account on accounts.autodesk.com to retrieve your license entitlement.   

If you lose your network connection, the SW has a 14-day heartbeat that will enable you to work offline for 14 days.

All of your data is stored locally, so you are in complete control of your data.

We will continue to provide the freeware version of EAGLE. In order to use it you will still need to register an account with Autodesk.

In an upcoming release we will be adjusting the software so in the worst case scenario, where internet is unavailable past 14 days, the software will revert to free mode. That way you can always review your designs.

You can review the current EAGLE pricing by visiting this page.

[DGipsonAEKZV]

How will my current Eagle License be handled? Will I be ported over to the new version?

[bikerglen]

Where can I download the legacy version 7.x installers now that cadsoft.io redirects to autodesk.com? Thanks.

[rc]

Looks to me as if there is no option to update my existing license without getting a new subscription(?)

Honestly, if this is the case, I feel screwed over ... exactly what most people were afraid would happen when Autodesk took over Eagle ... great way to piss off customers.

[richaw]

You've lost me. As a very small company, we need the "Professional" version, but can't afford the subscription fee. KiCad, here I come!

[Anonymous]

god... no... NOT AGAIN!

Farnell tried that with V6 and failed for many many reasons. They luckily reverted back to license model instead of subscriber model.

The license model is also not clear. Is the yearly/monthly fee per seat or per site (IP based). If a 3 persons license would cost 1500$ a year... well... We just have to learn a new CAD program. Less expensive in the long term.

[Anonymous]

Bye Eagle, after 20 years...

---

@jorge.garcia wrote:

Hello Everyone,

In this post we will be briefly describing how the new subscription model for EAGLE works.

Firstly, the Autodesk licensing model is subscription based and the EAGLE paid license will require that you install the SW and then generate an account on accounts.autodesk.com to retrieve your license entitlement.   

If you lose your network connection, the SW has a 14-day heartbeat that will enable you to work offline for 14 days.

All of your data is stored locally, so you are in complete control of your data.

We will continue to provide the freeware version of EAGLE. In order to use it you will still need to register an account with Autodesk.

In an upcoming release we will be adjusting the software so in the worst case scenario, where internet is unavailable past 14 days, the software will revert to free mode. That way you can always review your designs.

You can review the current EAGLE pricing by visiting this page.

---

[Anonymous]

You know, I'm sure the 'keep paying for software indefinitely' model makes sense to the owners of that software in some boardroom meeting, but as a small business owner it does not now and never will make sense for me.  I will never enter into a subscription model for software.  Ever.

Eagle used to be the package of choice for those starting out, with a modest and reasonable business model I could support.

You really expect me to pay $5000 over 10 years for the professional version of your software?  And just keep on paying?  It's not going to happen.

And yes the open source KiCAD is now at a point where it offers a great and very powerful feature set, is incredibly easy to use, is cross platform and really offers all the advantages that Eagle used to offer.  It provides a great way to break this cycle.

When corporate greed and bean counters come together to lean on small business owners, the small business owners can push right back.

http://kicad-pcb.org/

Here's a link which may help someone else making this transition.

http://hackaday.com/2015/12/27/eagle-to-kicad-made-easy/

Yes I will continue to use my existing EAGLE license to maintain projects.  But that's it.

Adios EAGLE.

[rc]

Indeed that's a great example of corporate M&A focusing on the customer ... while my anger still hasn't subsided, I just noticed that the yearly subscription price is USD 500 (for US and Canada), but EUR 550 over here - dear AUTOCAD, this is an (overpriced) electronic subscription, so help me understand why I should even pay a penalty of USD 87 per year for being in Europe ...

Guess it's time for me to say goodbye, too.

[gnalven]

I am very disappointed.

Firstly, you need an internet connection to work. This reminds me of the old fashion dongles, once that fails, you cannot access and work on your projects. It also gives AD full access to your work.

Second. My cost has gone from $400 every two or three years to $500 per year. Almost tripling cost! This is abusive.

I am also insulted by the coffee cup analogy. It is an out and out lie. If it were $0.50 per day that would be one thing, but it is over $2 per day. How can you make this dishonest claim?

Been using about 20 years, I am not sure what I will do.

[jan.westerkamp]

It is very unfortunate that you chose to change to a subscription model for Eagle. I've been a paying user of Eagle Professional since version 4.0 and was looking forward to the upcoming release.

As a part time developer the new price with the subscription model is simply too high.
The same is true for my licensed version at the university, which I use for third-party developments.

The standard version on the other hand is too limited in usable board area. 

The outlook was so promising and now it's just sad.

Jan

[copperwheel]

I knew this was going to be a disaster as soon as I saw Autodesk was involved.

The Autodesk propaganda is pathetic.

I work for a small company and the reason we were using it here is precisely because Eagle didn't have the annoying suck-blood-from-your-customers payment model.

Why does every good program have to be ruined by a big company ?

jeebus.

[anders.hedberg]

[Edit]

---

We do customer paid projects (mostly software). Once in a while there is a project that requires a PCB-board. Then it feels ok to maybe invest in a new license since we have a paying customer for this. The subscription model means that we have to pay for the software every single day we do not have a project that we make money from. This is why I am so upset with a subscription model and are abondoning subscriptions from services we do not use daily. Github, Amazon AWS etc. Most of the stuff is not used on a regular basis and just cost us money when not used.

---

[original comment below]

My reason to go with Eagle as well. We do boards, but not fulltime. Two-three dev boards a year. Eagle was "good enough" for this, not the fastest or easiest routing software but we could live with it and did not have to do upgrades which is a lot of freedom now taken away.

I really yelled on them when they tried the subscription model last time. I will definitely look at both KiCad and Altium (which every electronic shop nearby uses).

[Anonymous]

Gosh, I'm not even making a fuzz about it. With the V6 change I already looked at alternatives and started experimenting with those. We stil had V4 at that time.Then the license model reverted to what it was and now we're having V6 and V7.

Changing cad software every few decades is really not a big issue. Previous to Eagle was Ultiboard but that got way to expensive (just 1 license at that time, now 3, companies grow you know). So short term: I don't care because if needed we can keep using V7 for 10 years. Long term: I don't care because there are enough alternatives and transsition is more or less easy.

[Anonymous]

I think with your subscription model you will loose a lot of customers,
I will never pay for a CAD software on a subscription base,
since there are free open source alternatives like KiCad (http://kicad-pcb.org)

This is a really really sad day, I used EAGLE for almost 20 Years, now it's over 😞

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat. I design PCBs as a hobby and cannot afford a subscription license! I figure for every one of these posts there's probably 100 people who agree but don't post anything. Hopefully, Autodesk will change their minds about this licensing model before they lose several hundred (or thousand) customers. I'm sure once we switch to another product we won't be coming back. I know I won't come back if I have to purchase and learn a new product!

[Anonymous]

This product is not available in your country...

wtf.

[Anonymous]

very disappointed in Autodesk! i will continue using my eagle 7.7 until i am fully transitioned over to use KiCAD. i feel ripped off with investment i made into Eagle...

for those of you who still think that this is a good thing... just wait until they drop linux support...

stupid move on the part of Autodesk... yet another reason to not use a single one of their products...

VERY ANGRY....

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

here are the links to Eagle-7.7 downloads... better grab them while you still can:

http://web.cadsoft.de/ftp/eagle/program/7.7/eagle-lin32-7.7.0.run
http://web.cadsoft.de/ftp/eagle/program/7.7/eagle-lin64-7.7.0.run
http://web.cadsoft.de/ftp/eagle/program/7.7/eagle-mac64-7.7.0.zip
http://web.cadsoft.de/ftp/eagle/program/7.7/eagle-win32-7.7.0.exe
http://web.cadsoft.de/ftp/eagle/program/7.7/eagle-win64-7.7.0.exe

[jorge_garcia2]

Hi DGipsonAEKZV,

As an existing customer you can get special pricing on the subscription license. Please contact lourdes.vasquez@autodesk.com.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,