AutoCAD 2020 and perpetual licence

wai1954 · ‎03-26-2019

G'day,

I received an e-mail from Autodesk announcing AutoCAD 2020 and that details were in my account.

I have an AutoCAD 2016 perpetual licence, and have been paying a maintenance subscription. Depending on things, it might be appropriate to move to AutoCAD 2020 now, however I am having trouble finding out if I would lose my perpetual licence by upgrading to AutoCAD 2020.

I seem to get a different answer every time I have raised this over the years. The last time was that it is part of the Maintenance Subscription and the upgrade was covered by that, so even with upgrading to AutoCAD 2020, it would still be a perpetual licence. I was told that if I had allowed my Maintenance Subscription I would have to go on to the full subscription licence, but as I have maintained the Maintenance Subscription, I get to keep it as a perpetual licence.

Anyone able to shed any more light on this?

My reason for wanting to keep the perpetual licence is I will be retiring in the not too distant future, and have been asked if I can keep doing the drawing and other CAD work I have been doing for one client over the past 30 or so years. There is not a lot if work coming from them, and a full subscription licence would not make it a proposition for them or me. It is mainly for access to historical AutoCAD files and some of the new work they get. The work I do forms between 1% and 5% of a projects value, so a subscription licence would not make a lot of sense.

Thanks. Any information would be appreciated.

wai1954 (Ian A. White)

mdavis22569 · ‎03-27-2019

hi @wai1954

For:

however I am having trouble finding out if I would lose my perpetual licence by upgrading to AutoCAD 2020.

Yes, if you use it in an upgrade, or you can keep that license for 2016 as long as you'd like since it's perpetual.

But Autodesk has switched over to a subscription based licensing scheme:

More about it here:

https://www.google.com/search?ei=AkubXP6nJ4a7ggec24aABA&q=autocad++subscription+license&oq=autocad++...

For:

ere is not a lot if work coming from them, and a full subscription licence would not make it a proposition for them or me. It is mainly for access to historical AutoCAD files and some of the new work they get. The work I do forms between 1% and 5% of a projects value, so a subscription licence would not make a lot of sense.

If it's just about viewing them, there are free viewers out there.

They do have monthly subscriptions available. The question comes how long will you have a PC that supports 2016 as well.

Right now this is what they are saying:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Window...

All 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 Autodesk software runs on Windows 10. You can also run many 2016 products on Windows 10 with the application of the Autodesk service pack specified in the system requirements

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Mike Davis

Anonymous · ‎03-27-2019

First off make sure you are definitely on a perpetual license with maintenance and not a subscription (rental) license. A subscription license, once you stop paying for it, simply vanishes and you are left with no entitlement to use the software.

With a perpetual license on maintenance, when you stop renewing your maintenance, you are left with a perpetual license for the last activated software version (so if you move to 2020 now and stop paying, this will be the only version you can use from now on):

What happens to my Previous Version Rights if my maintenance plan or subscription expires?

Previous Version Rights terminate when the applicable maintenance plan or subscription terminates, or expires for any reason. Upon expiration of a maintenance plan, you can only use the last activated version of the software and uninstall any other previous version. After a subscription expires, all previously licensed, installed and accessed versions are no longer eligible for use, and must be uninstalled.

Source: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/previous-versions/...

If you only need to view drawings, like @mdavis22569 said, you can use one of the many solutions available - some of them free:

https://www.autodesk.com/products/dwg/viewers

jmarenic · ‎12-09-2020

don't even think of changing. I did it and am retiring in a few years too except now I'm retiring more broke because they screw the little guys and give you nothing more. The learning curve from 2016 to 2020 is too much and you gain very little.

wai1954 · ‎12-09-2020

Thanks.

The days of game changer developments are long gone. The issues with upgrading far outweigh the benefits they bring, but with retiring versions, you are sometimes caught between a rock and a hard place.

The issue I have is the computer with the installation on and it needs to be replaced, and without it on media that I can install it from, I am screwed.

A colleague of mine ran a successful engineering machine shop. He has a licence for both 2006 and 2016, but far preferred version 2006. He had media for it, and installed it on a new laptop and when he ran it, it asked for the activation code. He contacted his dealer, only to be told that his version was no longer supported and so they could not help with the activation code. He was also greeted with the news that neither was his 2016 version either!

After some lengthy calls to me and days searching through old computers, he managed to track down his activation code and on entering it, the limited access period was overridden.

This is the problem. With installing it online, you do not get media, and if you fail to get it while any maintenance subscription is active, when you have to reinstall it, you are in trouble.

In my case, I retire in a couple of years. I have done a huge amount of work for a client over the past 30 years. I have seen 3 generations of the family either as owners or family members working there. When I started doing projects for them, PDFs were not widely used, and even e-mail was relatively new. Drawings either had to be plotted for them (I have a HP350C E/A0 behind me that cost me $15,000 back then, but cannot be used because I need a new drive belt, and cartridges are impossible to get).

My client does not want to have to employ someone to do their CAD work, only to have them leave and take IP with them. They want a reliable business that can do this for them and not have their IP disappear.

They are more than happy to have me do work for them on a casual basis and fill in the gaps.

Now of course, Autodesk have shifted the goalposts yet again with the elimination of the maintenance plan altogether and forcing everyone on to a subscription model. At least the maintenance plan allowed you to keep using the software once you decided you did not want or need that either.

It's a bit like a professional institution I am a member of. They have had a long standing policy where after 40 years of fee paying membership, members would be able to get fee free membership for life. Then they decided around 12 months before I became eligible for this, to shut that option down and force all to standard membership fees. Those already on it remained on it, but no one new would be added to the fee free membership group. The result is there has been a wholesale Exodus of highly qualified and experienced members leaving the institution. Almost all of them are retired, and the only reason they continued being members was to advocate for the institution and pass their acquired knowledge on to the new members.

The situation with Autodesk is the subscription model is far too expensive. Even trying to switch to AutoCAD LT is way too much as a way to merely access existing drawings.

Knowing that even I have a finite life being able to do the work for them, my client has asked me to look to potential alternative software so that when I am no longer able to do the work for them and am not able to find another consultant to take on the work that they will be able to access their own IP. One major hurdle is that because of the price and subscription model, many starting out in the CAD sector are not actually picking AutoCAD as the software to base their services on.

Hopefully Autodesk will see that keeping their customers is a lot more important than having shareholders. Without customers, you will not have shareholders anyway. Sadly that is unlikely to happen.

wai1954 (Ian A. White)

jmarenic · ‎12-09-2020

have your computer guy keep the hard drive and put it as a secondary drive in the new computer. That way you can run Autocad from that drive and use the new drive for storage and programs which are friendlier.

wai1954 · ‎12-09-2020

That's OK as long as the hard drive itself has not had a mechanical failure. My previous hard drive had a mechanical failure and I ended up paying $1,500 to get the data recovered. The head mechanism decided enough was enough and broke (a Fujitsu HDD). The platters themselves had to be removed and placed in a chassis in a clean room and the data read and extracted. It picked up something like 95% of the data on the drive. That was around 2010 and 2006 it came with media. These days, unless you have purchased media, you are in a bit of trouble,

wai1954 (Ian A. White)

mike4nier3LTTE · ‎12-16-2020

I purchased multiple suites in 2016 I love Autodesk products, HOWEVER once 2016 no longer functions I will pursue other software I will not subscribe this isn't cable TV. I have already done that with other software houses trying to do the same thing. I will not "subscribe" to something as important as being able to edit MY files.

sroegge · ‎12-12-2021

Draftsight, from Dassault Systems, is a dead on AutoCAD Clone. A trial would let you know if it is usable to you for all your files. That is one way to go if Autodesk continues to play fast and loose with the word "Perpetual."