I have the understanding that when you switch from perpetual to maintenance you are required to give up your perpetual license and uninstall from your device(s). Thus if you do not pay you cannot access you files because you have no access to the software.

If you keep your perpetual license until Autodesk breaks their contract by not allowing you access to updates then you can keep your copy running until you device dies or you upgrade. There is no way Autodesk can support you and your archaic licensing system when they are having such a financial hardship with the record profits they reported this year.

As a user from the Wavefront days I have seen enough and will Keep my perpetual license and my money away from Autodesk

I am. But I found out today about the little caviate / scam. Once your licence expires they will not give you an authorization code for any old versions of your software if you upgrade your computer.

Once you change hardware, the software needs to be authorized.

They will only give you a code for the last version sent to you.

So my situation is that I only use 2017 on my win 8.1 rig. 

I upgraded the hardware and they will not authorize 2017. Only 2020 or 2021.

I would have down better to not buy 19 20 or 21.

I have 2021 installed on a slow box that I never use.

So you are stuck with old software versions on an old box.

If you had subscription they will give you a code But if you buy into the rental agreement you loose right to all your old software.

What a scam.

I am hoping I can get my 2017 code in a day or two. Spent all day on the phone and I M out if business because of this scam.

What a mess,this has cost me thousands working on this.

I will be blowing up there FB site it they can't get me back in business.

Been loyal since DOS Autodesk. 

Just a hobby that I have given them 40K over 25 years.

Will see what happens tomorrow.

Since I have out of business for the past 48 hours because Autodesk will not release authorization codes, I will give them another 24 hours before I blow up their FB site and let the world know how they can destroy your business.

I personally would call this the PRICE OF DOING BUISINESS, if you don't like the business find another one, that does't require a subscription.....  I bet that will be a short lived search. MS365, C3D, Spotify, NBC, CBS, HBO... Get the point.

So as I understand it. You have '20 & '21. But you want to run 2017 on Win 8.1 but found out that's no longer possible.
Have you thought of installing Windows 10 and running '20 or '21.
Autodesk was very up front on what could happen if you stayed with perpetual licensing. There were many articles and
discussions about this.

I did not call Autodesk a DICK, you did.

As you say, Autodesk  Corp does not care about acting in good faith, but I bet their investors do. I deal with engineers all over the world, EVERYONE uses Solid Works. Autodesk stock price speaks for itself. If you screw over enough people word gets out, Hell I haven't begun to bash the company. Still waiting to see if that act in GOOD FAITH.

After spending 20 years building my company on Autodesk software? Whom are you trying to deceive? We all know and understand the extreme cost involved in switching design software.

They were not so “up front” about it when they sold the perpetual licenses to us.

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@igee wrote:

After spending 20 years building my company on Autodesk software? 

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Get in touch with those that have done it for more details: here is a good starting point only if you are truly interested of course https://forum.bricsys.com/ 

@pendean 

Dean,

I've heard good things about BricsCAD. But I see that what they're charging for a yearly subscription of Pro is almost exactly what We're paying for a year of the AEC Collection. Plus we'd have to buy add-ons to get up to just the level of Civil 3D. So I don't see any savings there.