Something along the lines of what Autodesk is doing here:
I like the idea but would want more than just one time period to choose from, ie,
say they have a 30 day fixed-term license, another for 60 days, 90 days, etc.
I don't know about the 3DS software, but Maya is a totally different animal. My son went to school for animation and that is what they used. That is more for animated characters. I know Pixar uses it alone with Disney.
I would love to try it sometime and would be willing to for 90 days, but I can't see it replacing Inventor.
@ampster40 wrote:I believe Dean is asking if we would lease Inventor, not replace it with different software.
I think the more applicatble question for most Inventor users on this forum would be "Would you lease Autodesk design software other than Inventor if you could?"
This year at AU, they demonstrated a Cloud based 3D parametric modeler. Basically it could almost be called a lease. Only a small "app" that is installed on the local machine. Allows for modeling a large assembly on a tablet or iPad. As long as you have an Internet connection.
Not requiring a "workstation" or high-performance PC and be able to model large complex assemblies as well as Cloud based FEA has benefits. Only paying for the time-units you are using does have cost benefits as well.
Yes, Dean did say lease, but the way the thread is titled makes it sound like a replacement with the other
softwares listed.
What Curtis said the title of the thread should be makes a lot more sense. I still stand on I would be willing to try the others, but I wouldn't lease Inventor or any software. But with that said I would have to see the lease agreement to see if it makes sense. So, maybe I will reserve my judgement for now.
Look for the Cloud based, pay as you go model to show up in Autodesk products. As long as you have decent internet access, the ability to work on a very large model 10,000 parts on a tablet or iPad is quite interesting. Then being able to use the Cloud for FEA or dymanic sim all while on a tablet or iPad in a pay-as-you need/go model.
I guess it would be a form of lease.
man, this Chantix I'm on (yet again) must be messing with my head! That or the lack of nicotine in my system...
"Would you lease INVENTOR if you could?"
Yes, I would consider a lease with Autodesk in order to use Inventor "at home" when needed for a personal project here and there instead of paying for a full version which I probably wouldn't need very long for such an example (sorry, but I don't get "replace" when I read "lease"!)
LOL
My take on Dean's question (where'd he go anway, back to all the Acad forums?) is would I consider leasing Inventor similar to the way they are doing it with the other software mentioned in the link he provided, not outright replacing Inventor or even considering switching to one of the softwares to use instead of Inventor...
Dean?
OT, maybe it's because I've been reading up on all the Dark Tower series, my mind is stuck in "mid-world" and only understanding Roland's way of understanding things?!?!? hehe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Deschain
even more OT perhaps...anybody using Microsoft Windows, are we all "leasing" their software? Nothing to quote or go by, but I was under the impression nobody actually owns their copy of MS Windows...could be wrong.
The thought of leasing is actually very appealing. Either a cloud based or local based. I can see a number of opportunities where there are monetary benefits:
1) Individual user, has a 1-off project and can charge the lease to the client then hang it up when done. Time and material without the initial capital cost and repeating annual.
2) A company is growing but doesn't know if they really need X more licenses...pay by use, see how it goes and then spend the capital when you know you need that many licenses full time.
3) A company had a big project, brings on temp or contract employees and needs to add X licenses for a fixed short time. For a 3-6 month stint, this might be just the thing.
Its harder and harder to get capital expenditures in companies, and the lease is a smaller chunk of expense money that is easier to spend and spread out through the months.
--Scott
The question I posted is about fulfilling a short-term need at your workplace, for a small team or a special project (or a big project were you need to hire contract workers) or remote workers etc., the scenarios are endless: would you lease INVENTOR if you could to fulfill that need? 30-60-90-120-150-180 days for a fraction of the cost of a full license etc.
It's nothing to do with you giving up your licenses or "cloud computing". Since "cloud computing" is not here yet (as far as our CAD workload day-by-day goes), and all controlled-demos at trade shows aside, I was not going to go there or bring it up. But since you all did, the idea with that is you no longer are tied or have to deal with Microsoft or buy a new PC every X-years (or deal with Apple, or any other "OS manufacturer). You just need a webbrowser, touchscreen and/or mouse/pen/whatever and you work on files that reside elsewhere on someone else' drives and OS. WebBrowser could be on any device. Any Device.
File access, storage, copyright, ownership, intellectual propoerty and all the other side discussions aside of course, the real big hurdles to "cloud computing" and anyone with even the slightest concern about their hard work.
To the original question then "Would you lease INVENTOR if you could?" my answer would be yes and I think most companies would as well. I say this because I believe that for most of us our work load fluctuates. As an example we have four seats of product design suite but only two are full time. So for us we would already be taking advantage of leasing if it were available today.
Among some of the reasons already listed, I think the lease concept is a great way to have an extended test period with the program before making the decision to purchase.
Adobe has started a leasing program for its products. It's called the Adobe Creative Cloud. I started a lease last month and so far I am loving it. I could definitely see major software developers moving in this direction.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html
Off Topic- Ampster, I am huge DT fan. I am currently reading through the series again. Wizard and Glass is by far my favorite.
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