Hobbyist/Maker Pricing Options

[cjmcrae22]

I am looking for lower pricing options for non-professionals. The way software is going these days this is becoming very common and I would like to see it implemented in Inventor. I have tried many CAD alternatives and prefer Inventor above all of them, especially the cloud-based platforms. SolidWorks already offers a maker tier for $100/year which I think is a very reasonable price. I would like to see a similar pricing tier with Inventor even if it restricts some of the more advanced tools and environments as upgrades or add-ons.

[swalton]

I suspect that Autodesk would steer you to the Personal Use license of Fusion 360.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

It is cloud-based, so it may not meet your needs.

[tstoutYZ3MS]

Word to the wise: I have tried Fusion 360, cloud based, for at home use. It is slow and clunky, to say the least. It also lacks some things that Inventor has. Fusion 360 is not the solution for this issue.

[RajSchmidt]

I agree with you, @tstoutYZ3MS . But as you said, Fusion lacks some stuff Inventor has. So, if you want to have the functionalities, you pay for them. I’ afraid Autodesk will not introduce any “home” editions.

[mikeh2]

I would think if they're only charging $100 it's probably only so many uses a year or time period.

I would kind of equate that to a car.  When you drive to work every day you put on more miles and pay X dollars for the car.  So when you retire and don't drive it every day should you pay less for the same car just because you don't drive it everyday???

Did you look into flex tokens?  That's basically $8 per 24 hour period.  Essentially pay as you use it.  Just remember the tokens are only good for 1 year, then they expire.

Regards

[Carlos.Dipierro]

estoy totalmente de acuerdo yo soy de argentina y hoy día la diferencia al transformar de dólares a pesos tengo que trabajar casi 4 meses para poder pagar la licencia yo trabajo solo y ya es casi imposible pagarla y en un solo pago me daría mucha pena no poder renovar mi licencia ojalá vean esta situación de muchos países emergente.

no digo 100 dólares pero400 o 500 dólares que en mi país son 4 salarios mínimos

[885308]

Try this: https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/solutions/users/hobbyists-and-makers/

Its free. Better to put money into your hobby than into the pockets of a few millionaires

[ccad2509]

im going down this road at the moment

options are

freecad - free

solidedge- free- limitations on ootput

solidworks - $48 per anum  with watermarked projects

im electrical but was looking for an inventor option as all the mechies at work use inventor so i could lean on thier skillset

looking like either soldworks or solidedge at the moment

[freesbee]

Where are I live there are 5 solidworks licenses per 1 inventor license, and being a CAD admin since 10 years active and comparing the two systems, I still keep wondering how this could happen. Probably in the previous decade solidworks was "so much better" that it has managed to gain so many customers, and now reversing this direction is a hard task for the Autodesk PMs, even if there is little to no discussion in "which is really the most powerful system today".

Solidworks for makers sells for $48 per year (special price $24 per year the next two weeks) and has a number of limitations. When I started my experience on Inventor, back on release 5 in the first year of this millennium, there was a "Student version" available with similar restrictions. When I switched to real work, I had to swallow the frog of redesigning my watermarked files, but I also carried in much more knowledge and fine techniques that I had learned in the meantime. Afterwards, that edition has been discontinued, for reasons that I currently cannot remember.

I wonder, if in this commercial fight between the two software houses, Autodesk should maybe consider an "Inventor for makers" edition, similarly to what 3DS does. Possibly, with such a strategy, they may gain a number of young enthusiasts who will not want to change once they grow up into real business, in particular if the opponent is so much less capable...

Let us try to push this idea towards 100 votes... then we will maybe be able to talk to some PMs...