Subscription Cancel Design Suites

[ERICKNIGHT]

JUST RECIEVED THIS EMAIL

Conflicting - Will I be able to continue with my Design Suite via subsription.

Do I have an old subsription ??? That I update every year ( new updated old subsciption) ???

Sounds like they are cutting us loose with the locked in suite subcription by renaming the package.

[Product news] Autodesk industry collections & suites

To make way for industry collections, we will end the sale of new Design & Creation Suite subscriptions and perpetual licenses after July​ 31​, 2016​.

[lynn_zhang]

Hi @ERICKNIGHT

After July 31, 2016 you can still continue to use your existing perpetual license and continue to renew your existing maintenance plan. Please read: Perpetual License Changes FAQ for more details.

[pendean]

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/perpetual-license-changes/upcoming-changes-to-perpetual-licenses-amp-...

[GTVic]

I don't see an answer to the most obvious question. If you have a subscription to network seats of a suite, all it says is you will be offered an easy path to a comparable collection.

1. If you accept, are you then an owner of a perpetual set of network license seats of this collection with a yearly subscription fee comparable to the current fee?
2. If you decline the "easy path", how would you install the next release (e.g. 2018) of a suite that doesn't exist?

Thanks

[spacefrog_]

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@GTVic wrote:

1. If you decline the "easy path", how would you install the next release (e.g. 2018) of a suite that doesn't exist?

Thanks

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i brought this up too earlier a couple of times but nobody gave me an answer, so i guess this is somehow unclear for Autodesk itself ATM

[felice.s]

Hi @spacefrog_, all,

Switching from a subscription Suite to a collection will be easy in that 1) you can switch from a premium or ultimate Design & Creation Suite (subscription only, not perpetual) to an industry collection for free for the remainder of your current subscription term. If you have a subscription to an individual product (not a Suite), you will only pay the approximate price difference between the two subscriptions, prorated for the time remaining in the subscription term, and 2) we will provide clear, simple steps to help you get up and ready on the industry collection.  This content will be available in Autodesk Account and on the Autodesk Knowledge Network. 

To your other question about what happens if you do not switch... we will continue to provide updates for Design & Creation Suite active maintenance plan and subscription customers. 

I hope that helps.  

Regards,

Felice

[GTVic]

Sorry, I wrote subscription which is not accurate with recent changes. We have perpetual network seats of IDSP on an annual maintenance plan. We often used to refer to that as being on "subscription" so I guess I have to stop using that word. Would you be able to clarify the path for perpetual seats please?

To be clear, for your last statement, "we will continue to provide updates for Design & Creation Suite active maintenance plan and subscription customers", does that mean that there will be a combined installation package for products included with IDSP for 2018?

[spacefrog_]

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@felice.s wrote:

To your other question about what happens if you do not switch... we will continue to provide updates for Design & Creation Suite active maintenance plan and subscription customers.

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Thanks for the answer, but exactly this response is as unspecific as it can be, almost sounds like a statement a politician would make. Like GTVic mentions, the relevant parts here are "maintenance subscription" and "perpetual license" and "subscription benefits"

The official docs still invite people to buy into maintenance subscription releases of the suites , which includes a perpetual license and all updated/new releases inside the maintenance subscription period. But what if - as many people suspect - and i'm 100% sure of - NO 2018 suites will be released ?

Autodesk fails to commit that  the people who buy into maintenance subscription for the suites NOW, will by a chance of 99.99999% NEVER receive their maintenance subscription benefit of a free update to their - perpetual - new ( 2018 ) releases. Of course they whill be invited to switch over to subscription - but that means no perpetual license of the 2018 releases.

As long as this isn't pinned down and made clear by a definite statement or document from Autodesk, i can only assume that Autodesk is'nt aware of this discrepancy. On the other end of the spectrum of possibilities is that Autodesk is well aware of this, but decided to NOT inform they potential buyers in an offensive manner, which i would consider on the border of unfair ...

If everything i wrote above is just based on a confusion on my side, please enlighten me, i'm keen to listen

( BTW: i know of the limiting paragraph in the EULA, which states that maintenance subscription does'nt guarantee that a NEXT release ( aka 2018 suite in this case ) will ever happen, but if you suddenly make use of this clause, i definitely would be even more upset

[felice.s]

HI @spacefrog_,

Before trying to answer your questions, I think it is important for us to use the same terminology to avoid any further confusion as we recently made changes to the naming of our offerings to make it easier to understand what we mean by “subscription”. As an Expert Elite you are likely aware of the changes – but to benefit others who are reading this post, I thought it would be helpful to repeat.

There are three options:

• A subscription
• A perpetual license
• A perpetual license on a maintenance plan (This was previously was referred to as “maintenance subscription”  but to differentiate this support plan from the act of subscribing to a product, we removed the word “subscription” from the offer and renamed it to “maintenance plan”.)

It’s my understanding that you’re concerned about what happens to your networked perpetual Suite license that is on an active maintenance plan – particularly:  will you continue to get the same benefits you’re used to while on an active maintenance plan (including receiving the newest releases).  Please correct me if I’ve misinterpreted the concern (and I must admit, I understand that folks may misinterpret and conflate the fact that we are ending new sales of a product, but we are allowing maintenance renewals for that product.)

I would like to assure you that while we will no longer sell perpetual Suite licenses after July 31^st, you can continue to renew your maintenance plan for as long as you wish. You will continue to receive your maintenance plan benefits as long as your maintenance plan is active, – and yes, that does mean you’ll get the latest releases when available for as long as you renew your maintenance plan.

Our legal team will appreciate that some people actually do read the EULA 🙂  The clause regarding not guaranteeing an annual release is not in any way intended to trick customers.  There are many reasons why software companies include such a clause in their EULA’s. For example – sometimes software releases skip a year and in other instances products have run their natural course and are at the end-of-life (meaning there will be no new releases moving forward.)  If we make any change to our maintenance plans , we will be sure to notify our customers in advance – just was we provided advance notice of our move to a new subscription business model a full year before.

Also, we are NOT automatically migrating a customer’s perpetual licenses to subscriptions – that choice is yours, and you can do it if and when you’re ready.  Having said that, although not always popular on this forum, we believe in the subscription business model and we’re working hard to better serve customers with new subscription offerings that provide more flexibility at a greater value. For those who choose to move over to subscription, we’re working on making it an easy transition.

I hope I addressed your prime concern and I also hope this is helpful to you and others on this thread.

Regards,
Felice

[TravisNave]

@felice.s,

I think is getting closer to the answer that the OP wants, but a big remaining question exists for the customer. 

If the customer owns the 2017 Design Suite, perpetual license, under maintenance and that product line is going away in favor of the Industry Suites under Subscription rental, then what is the customer going to have under maintenance when they pay to renew for the 2018 software?  No software?  If the Product line suites are going away in favor of the Industry Suites, and those new Industry Suites no longer have perpetual licensing, it seems that the promise of perpetual maintenance goes away because there is nothing to upgrade to.  That's my understanding of the customer's concern. 

Here's a scenario breakdown:

1.  Today:  Customer:  I have Product Design Suite 2017.  Yay, I stayed on perpetual licensing before the deadline and pay my yearly maintenance so I can keep my seats forever like promised.  Hahaha!  No monthly rental for me!  Oontz!  Oontz!  Oontz!

2.  Summer:  Autodesk:  Perpetual suites go away.  Hello Industry Suites under Subscription only.

3.  April 2017:  Customer:  I am renewing my Maintenance for my suites.  Where is my Product Design Suite 2018? 

Autodesk:  It doesn't exist.  But you can switch to the Industry Suites under Subscription. 

Customer:  %&#@$!!

Am I understanding that right?

[GTVic]

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@TravisNave wrote:

@felice.s,

I think is getting closer to the answer that the OP wants, but a big remaining question exists for the customer. 

3.  April 2017:  Customer:  I am renewing my Maintenance for my suites.  Where is my Product Design Suite 2018? 

Autodesk:  It doesn't exist.  But you can switch to the Industry Suites under Subscription. 

Customer:  %&#@$!!

Am I understanding that right?

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Reading between the lines I don't think Felice is permitted to specifically state that Install_InfrastructureDesignSuitePremium2018_SETUP.exe will be a downloadable item. But I think she is trying to convey that it should be available.

Regardless it should be possible to separately install AutoCAD 2018, AutoCAD MAP 2018, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018, Revit 2018, etc. using individual product or collection installers and use the IDSP serial number and 2018 product code to activate those products.

The one caveat is that if they discontinue a product in the future then the maintenance plan becomes less valuable.

[dgorsman]

There may be some getting hung up on naming; there really isn't a Suite program per se is there?  Just because they aren't selling Suite licenses doesn't mean there won't be any 2018 applications.  Yeah, fine - maybe there won't be a generic "2018 Suite installer".  Maybe it will be the same Collection installer the Collection subscribers get.  Maybe you have to download individual program installers.  But your licensing should still be able to run the individual programs.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Collection license files still use the "Suite" product naming.

[spacefrog_]

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@dgorsman wrote:

 Maybe you have to download individual program installers.  But your licensing should still be able to run the individual programs.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Collection license files still use the "Suite" product naming.

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 If it's indeed the case that the 2017 perpetual license /maintenance subscribers will be able to license the 2018 versions of the applications in their suite  INDIVIDUALLY in a permanent manner , than the big part of my concerns would be addressed .

BUT:  there are still two issues with that : well - it's an assumption coming from the user, and nobody wants to buy something based on assumptions - no ? And second, the application selection in todays  2017 suites  and the one inside the upcoming 2018 Collection will differ. How will that be handled ?

regarding the first issue: Suites usually have ONE serial and license ( not talking about network licensing, i'm talking about individual users here ). I don't know how and if this works when applications are installed individually , and not using one big suite installer.

BTW: i'm  not affected personally, i'm on perpetual/maintenance sub for 3ds Max individual license till 2018.

[spacefrog_]

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@felice.s wrote:

HI @spacefrog_,

I would like to assure you that while we will no longer sell perpetual Suite licenses after July 31^st, you can continue to renew your maintenance plan for as long as you wish. You will continue to receive your maintenance plan benefits as long as your maintenance plan is active, – and yes, that does mean you’ll get the latest releases when available for as long as you renew your maintenance plan.

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Well - thanks for answering this - that already addresses my main concern. But this should also be explicitly mentioned the published docs, as the abstract term "subscription benefit" can include all or nothing and is'nt fit to reassure concerns in that regard. I'm  a bit curious about the "latest releases" term, as  technically speaking there will be no 2018 suite release so the "latest suite release" always and ever will be the 2017 release. But i get that it means the 2018 application releases.

Still, as far i see there are differences in the application set between todays suites and tomorrows industry collections, so for potential buyers/renewers it would be interesting to know how those licenses map between suites and collections, or are the licenses really mapped individually, independent from those that are in the new collection package, like dgorsman assumes ?